Hundreds of women, NGOs' representatives, and several sectors of civil society institutions stood in solidarity sit in an event organized by the women's sector in the Palestinian NGOs Network (PNGO Network), within the 16-day campaign activities to stop violence against women in front of the UNSCO office in Gaza City.
16 days campaign sit-in was part of the activities of promoting democracy and building the capacity of civil society organization project implemented in partnership with Norwegian People's Aid (NPA).
"Ending the Israeli occupation equals ending violence", is 2019 national slogan, which is aiming at highlighting the issues of women and their suffering as Israeli occupation repercussions on various levels, specifically on women.
The participants held banners saying, "We are all against violence", "Ending the Israeli occupation equals ending the violence", "Together for national reconciliation and women's political participation", and "Men and women are partners in building Palestine". They also demanded the international community to work on ending all forms of violence against women, particularly Israeli occupation attacks and violations as well as ending the ongoing political division and achieving national unity.
In her turn, Sahar Yaghi from The Palestinian Developmental Women Studies Association read the PNGO women’s sector speech, where she confirmed that the 16-day campaign to end violence bears a national slogan for saying, “ending violence equals ending the Israeli occupation”, noting that the world celebrates the International Day against Violence against Women on the twenty-fifth of November of every year. The women and the free people of the world meet to exert all possible efforts to condemn all forms of violence against women and unite the international powers to end violence against women.
Yaghi indicated that November 25 is considered a day for fighting violence in according to the UN resolution, which was formally adopted in 1999, and the days from November 25 to December 10 are the days of the campaign and its activities, as this campaign ends on the International Day for Human Rights.
Yaghi said that the 16-day campaign is related to the international movement against violence by launching campaigns under the slogan, "Let's make the world orange". Orange was chosen as 25 orange days, the color that symbolizes a brighter future and a world free from violence against women and girls and solidarizes with their cause.
The Palestinian people are fighting their greatest fights of resistance against the Israeli unjust occupation and offering the most precious sacrifices, Yaghi said. The Palestinian woman did not hesitate for a moment to fight the struggle and provide everything she could for the sake of freedom and defending the rights of the Palestinian people. Therefore, today we stand to assert our rights as women and reject all kinds of violence that we are subjected to. This stand here expresses women's rights and the social role they play as well as shows the strength, steadfastness, and struggle of the Palestinian people in facing the Israeli occupation, she continued.
Yaghi noted that Palestinian women celebrate this day with the rest of the world’s to end the pain inflicted on Palestinian women who have suffered for over 7 decades of occupation, which practices the most brutal violations and the most severe forms of violence against them, including killing, arrest, displacement, prosecution, and blockade.
Yaghi called on the Palestinian people to go to the international community and international bodies to assume their historical responsibilities towards the Palestinian people and based on international legitimacy decisions related to the supreme national interests of the Palestinian people.
Yaghi stressed that, one of our most important demands is for Palestinian women's issues is to become national, and not just reactions or moral speeches. Everyone has noticed how society acts and many have interacted with sympathy in the tragedy of Israa Gharib. It seemed as an irregular case in our reality, while society tells us daily that we are encountering hundreds or thousands of tragedies that are faced with silence and discreet.
Official researches indicate that more than 60% of women prefer to remain silent about the various forms of violence they experience, both inside and outside their house, under the justification of "maintaining family and reputation". This social silence is like the dirt on which the victims are put under to bury their pain, calamities and daily tragedies.
At the end of the event, the participants called on the international community to protect the Palestinian people, end their unbearable political division, unite efforts to achieve national reconciliation and work on an urgent intervention to end violence against women and girls and protect them from all its forms.