Representatives of civil society organizations, human rights activists and experts called for a hard work and intensive efforts to achieve national reconciliation and end the internal division. They stressed that the national reconciliation government must assume its full national responsibilities and duties in the management of the Gaza Strip and prioritize the public interest and neutralize citizens from the political disputes.
They also called on the international community to exert pressure on the Israeli occupation to fully lift the blockade on the Gaza Strip, stop aggression against the Palestinian people, and respect the principles of International Humanitarian Law.
This came up during a conference organized by the Women Sector of the Palestinian NGOs Network on the occasion of International Women's Day celebrated on March 8th every year. The conference held in Gaza under the title of "Women in Face of Occupation and Blockade" within the project of “Enhance CS Capacity to work for democratic Independence in Palestine” in partnership with Norwegian People's Aid (NPA).
The participants of the conference emphasized the need to work hard to provide adequate and long-term support to the Women's Sector with a view to enabling women to cope with the deterioration of women's situation in all fields and to expand women's participation in the planning and implementation in different fields.
They called upon the governmental entities to take gender indicators into account in national policy plans and to work on building gender-sensitive sectoral strategies. They also called for ending discrimination against women and implementing gender-responsive national policies that take into account women's empowerment as a priority.
Director of the Palestinian NGOs Network (PNGO), Amjad Shawa, said in the opening speech, the conference comes under a very important heading, especially in light of the tragic circumstances facing the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people; particularly in the Gaza Strip, where they pay the price for the Israeli occupation's blockade and Palestinian internal division and their serious implications on the various aspects of life as well as for the consequent political instability.
Shawa said "women in the Gaza Strip pay heavy price", pointing to the highest rates of poverty, food and job insecurity, and unemployment among women caused by long years of internal division and Israeli occupation's blockade. Even the varying legal systems in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip do not even take into account women's rights and empowerment, but they marginalize women and their role.
He praised the will and determination of women in the Gaza Strip in the face of challenges, saying "Women in the Gaza Strip are symbol of steadfastness and challenge," adding "they are the integral part that we appreciate and cherish in the society, and they have always been, still and will remain the highest voice of the society that faces the deterioration at all levels of the society".
Shawa stressed that "The Palestinian issue is not humanitarian, but rather a political and human rights issue", adding, "We will never surrender or accept failure, but rather we will continue on the path of struggle against the Israeli occupation and push for national unity to strengthen the Palestinian people. So that, we should develop a plan to advance women's rights and better empower them".
For her part, Hala Jabr, Member of PNGO's General Assembly, said "the feminist movement is an essential component of the society. It emerged amid social and cultural change resulted from excessive social imbalances and bad traditions and customs that affected the environment, concepts and values of the society," adding "Therefore, the Palestinian woman had to face the traditions alongside with their male partners as a part of national liberation project".
She noted that despite the successes made by the Palestinian women in various fields, their political participation and decision-making have remained marginalized and their reality is still very difficult under the Israeli occupation, blockade, division, isolation and poverty, all which have always had a great impact on the role of women and their social, political and economic development.
NPA Representative, Silvia Ostberg Morales, for her part, said "NPA works through its partners to empower women through many activities. Partners also work to raise awareness of women about the status quo and provide women with various means of empowerment to enable them defend their rights and encourages them to be more influential in different aspects of life.
She added, "Having a society where women and men enjoy full equality and enjoy all their human rights requires long-term work, so we must work more on our goals in order to achieve the desired results".
"Women have learned a lot about their rights as many activities have been held to educate women," she said, adding, "This seems clear and obvious when we look at the status of women from 2008 until now".
The first session of the conference was managed by Tagreed Jummah, Director of Gaza City's Union of Palestinian Women Committees (UPWC), and it dealt with the implications of the economic and social reality on women.
Maryam Shaqoura, Director of the Women's Health Center of the Red Crescent of the Gaza Strip, presented her paper entitled "Women in Face of Health Reality in the Gaza Strip".
She started her paper presentation saying, "This year, the International Women's Day is being celebrated amid the serious deterioration of the human rights situation in the Gaza Strip," adding "the implications of the blockade and internal division continue to involve all aspects of life, especially the health situation in light of the very high need for health services and the extremely low response in the absence of plans and dependence on external funding".
"Gaza Strip has been suffering a chronic humanitarian crisis that is difficult to diagnose and resolve. It has been torn by the internal division and political conflicts and suffering from constant violence and human rights violations; a tiny territory where 80% of the population depend on foreign aid, 65% live below the poverty line, and 47% almost youth suffer from unemployment, " Shaqoura said.
She explained that the most prominent health effects of the internal division is an unprecedented rise in the rate of violence against women, which can lead to permanent disability or deprival of life because of the so-called "honor" in addition to the multiple forms of sexual, physical and psychological violence.
Shaqoura pointed out that the Ministry of Social Development has reduced its services by 50% to women in Al-Aman Shelter for Women Subject to Domestic Violence; whose number increased from 96 cases in 2016 to 181 cases in 2017.
She pointed out that the internal division affected the health care system in the Gaza Strip, whereas the closure of the crossings and the irregular supply of the actual needs of the hospitals in the Gaza Strip caused a deficit in the basic needs in the hospitals. This deficit affected the overall categories of patients; in particular those who are most in need, such as cancer, immunity, and epidemics patients, as well as dialysis patients, patients needing kidney transplantation, surgery patients, intensive care patients, and nursery care.
Shaqoura called for the rehabilitation of the health system to include all services provided for women in order to cope with the unstable situation in Gaza, taking into account medical supplies, medicines and number of beds and alternative plans, especially with regard to reproductive health services and psychological support for women, in addition to the psychological support for battered women, rehabilitation of the health system in general, and develop the mechanisms of health services provided to women.
Amal Siam, Director of the Women's Affairs Center, in her paper, entitled "Women in face of the economic, social and humanitarian reality in the Gaza Strip", explained that the Palestinian women in the Gaza Strip are living in difficult situation resulted from the deterioration of the political, economic and social conditions caused by the Israeli occupation's blockade and the internal division, which limit any potential for sustainable development. These conditions also affected their rights, empowerment, deprived them from their right to participate in decision-making for more than a decade.
Siam focused in her paper on the high rates of poverty and unemployment among women and the low percentage of female to male labor participation. The female participation rate in labor force is 19.4%; 17.7% in the West Bank and 22.3% in the Gaza Strip.
Siam explained that the rate of early marriage among females reached 20.5% of the total married population in Palestine, 21.6% out the total married population in the Gaza Strip by the end of 2016.
She noted that early marriage among women in the Gaza Strip, is linked to a range of social and economic factors.
Siam, however, stressed that a large proportion of Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip suffers from food insecurity. "The percentage of the Gaza Strip families suffering from food insecurity reached to 44%, while the percentage of households headed by women reached 44% of food-insecure households in the Gaza Strip".
Siam stated that women in the Gaza Strip suffered greatly as a result of the blockade and internal division, as hundreds of women have been denied of a travel to complete education, treatment, visit parents and relatives and others. The Israeli blockade has also resulted in the death of many women or members of their families.
Siam stressed the need to strengthen coordination and partnership between local and international NGOs on the basis of strengthening and empowering organizations rather than weakening them.
She said, "Women should be empowered economically, socially and politically through development programs and projects that aim directly at empowering them economically, providing them with employment and improving their access to services, to ensure their right to justice and equality and strengthen their political participation and participation in decision-making positions".
Mona al-Shawa, Head of the Woman Unit (PCHR) , in her paper; "Women in Face of Legal Reality," stressed that the political, economic and social conditions have deteriorated over the past years in an unprecedented manner in the occupied Palestinian territories.
"The Israeli occupation authorities continue to commit human rights violations against Palestinian civilians and their property, in addition to continuing to impose closure policy and collective punishment, and the systematic destruction of all aspects of life, especially in the Gaza Strip," al-Shawa said.
She pointed out that "women have been subjected to 'double violence' under the Israeli occupation, and the large-scale destruction committed by the Israeli occupation increased the burden on the Palestinian women, affected all their lives aspects, and threatened human security, which further increased violations committed against their rights and deprived them of their basic rights".
Al-Shawa explained that the Israeli occupation policies contributed to the increase in violence against women, both directly and indirectly, saying "These policies promoted the concept of patriarchal control over women in Palestinian society, which led to a rise in internal violence resulting from the deterioration of the economic situation and the living conditions resulted from the continued Israeli occupation's policies, such as the illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip; which led to high rates of poverty and unemployment, which amounted to more than 60% of the total workforce, reaching the highest ratio in the world".
She said, "Women face very complicated conditions in access to justice and legal needs, in light of the great deterioration in the human rights situation, the most prominent of which are the economic obstacles such as the high rate of poverty and unemployment in the Palestinian society," adding that "Women also face social barriers, thereby weakening their awareness of their rights and access to justice mechanisms and increases their dependence on male relatives for assistance".
Al-Shawa called for the need to ensure legal protection for working women and take governmental and societal measures to stop the increasing violence against women and enable women especially those marginalized and subjected to violence to access justice, as an essential step in advancing the status of women, in addition to the need to unify and harmonize legislation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as legislation enacted during the internal division period reduces the empowerment of women in the Palestinian society.
The second session, was managed by Samir Zaqout, Coordinator of the Field Work Unit at Al Mezan Center. It was entitled "The Implications of the Political and Civil Reality on Women".
Nadia Abu Nahla, Director of the Women's Affairs Technical Committee (WATC) in her paper "National Policy Agenda and Gender Issues," stressed that the occupation constitutes a major obstacle to the national project and the implementation of national plans, annexation and expansion processes undermine every opportunity to promote the Palestinian economic and political situation, and impose control on the natural resources, water, airspace and all crossings.
She called for the adoption of national policies that turn women from victims to actors, considering different gender and policies and adopt women policies in times of conflict in particular.
Abu Nahla also called to shed light and focus on women, because women's experiences are different from men's and they have been discriminated against in different ways.
She said, "When we talk about justice, we mean equality between men and women and equal redistribution of opportunities between genders," adding "This is complementary protection, and this requires clear political intervention and measures in compliance with what the PA has signed".
Abu Nahla pointed out that the most prominent challenge facing the economy is the occupation and its practices that aim at seek to control resources, not to mention revenues and tax revenues, as well as imposing control on Area C and the significant reduction in funding and external assistance to the Palestinian Authority with a high rate of up to 81%.
She stressed that many challenges facing women sector, in the forefront, internal political challenges, the first of which is the internal division and the Palestinian governments failure to take full responsibility for Gaza administration, the disruption of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) the split in the judicial authorities, the absence of oversight by the Legislative Council (PLC) over the executive authority, weak accountability mechanisms, corruption in the public sector.
Abu Nahla called for the need to work within geographically and politically united national efforts, with public partnerships with the private sector and civil society, for the priorities mentioned in the national policy agenda, social justice and citizenship.
Mohsen Abu Ramadan, director of the Arab Center for Agricultural Development (ACAD), in his paper "Impact of Lack of Funding on Women", said "women are among the most vulnerable social groups in the Palestinian society, their participation in the labor market does not exceed 19%". "It is not surprising that women are most affected by lack of funding, declining production rates, high rates of poverty, unemployment and food insecurity".
He said that the reconstruction process is still faltering and donor support has reached only 51%, whereas dozens of families not yet have shelters for years since the offence of 2014, and other social and productive sectors such as agriculture and industry haven't not made a significant progress in the reconstruction process.
Abu Ramadhan pointed out that reducing funding to NGOs working in different fields by at least 60%, affected the economic and social life and affected women too. "According to PNGO survey, the reduced funding to NGOs, forced women to search for other sources to make living, such as begging, borrowing, working as house cleaner, maid services, cleaners, searching for coupons in public institutions, owing, selling pastries, giving private lessons for school students, and do other works for quick income".
Abu Ramadan called to address the crises of the Gaza Strip in a unified national and development perspective framework and by increasing programs, activities and intervention activities, and stopping the decline, which exacerbated the situation.
Mathias Shamali, Director of UNRWA's operations in the Gaza Strip, said in his paper "Women in Face of UNRWA's Funding Crisis", the political and economic situation has led to the scarcity of existing resources, whereas the political environment has helped to reduce women's access to their goals, domination of men contributes to and impedes the advancement of women.
He also pointed out that empowering women and achieving justice is UNRWA's fundamental commitment in particular. "UNRWA is the largest women's organization in the region and women make up 62% of the Agency's total educational posts".
Shamali confirmed that 283 female employees hold advanced leadership positions, adding that the work at UNRWA provides the employees with financial independence and psychological and cultural experience. He pointed out that UNRWA runs 1000 employees in the health sector; 61% of them are women, and 40% of women occupy senior positions in the health sector.
He stressed that the unprecedented financial crisis experienced by UNRWA, especially after the US reduction of nearly $300 million of aid, which raised concern among Agency's employees; including women, as well as women who benefit from the provided aid as well.
Shamali noted that the hope of women and girls in Palestine, especially the Gaza Strip, confirms their insistence on overcoming the ordeal to take away their rights. "We affirm that we will do all we can to ensure that all the efforts we invest in Gaza are not wasted," said Shamali.
At the end of the conference, participants called for the need to work hard to achieve reconciliation, and end the internal division and all the resulting crises. They also called to empower women and involve them in political, economic and social development, through development programs that create decent work opportunities for women and through psychological support programs for battered women, and ensure legal protection for working women.
.
