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WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY RESOURCES: ISRAEL-PALESTINE
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UNIFEM WOMEN, WAR AND PEACE WEB PORTAL: OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

Civil Society and NGO Reports, Papers and Statements

Statement issued by the International Women's Commission for a Just & Sustainable Peace between Israel & Palestine
3 May 2006

Israel/Occupied Territories: Women Carry the Burden of Conflict, Occupation and Patriarchy
Amnesty International, 31 March 2005
Palestinian women in the Occupied Territories bear the brunt of the conflict. They are victims of multiple violations resulting from Israel's policies and restrictions, and of a system of norms, traditions and laws which treat women as unequal members of Palestinian society.

Middle East Women Write Urgent Letter to Members of Congress
29 March 2005
This is a letter written to Members of Congress by three women-one Muslim, one Christian and one Jewish. All three are from the Israeli-Palestinian area, all three hunger for peace, and all three believe that peace is possible for both countries.

Women, Armed Conflict and Occupation: An Israeli Perspective
Implementaion of the Beijing Platform of Action (Section E): A Shadow Report
Isha L'Isha-Haifa Feminist Center, March 2005
Over the past 10 years, in formal reports submitted by the State of Israel to the United Nations, references to Section E [of the Beijing Platform for Action] were extremely brief in nature. They included, for the most part, reporting on the status of women who serve in the Israeli army, and a very brief reference to the lack of involvement of women in conflict resolution processes. This report by Isha L'Isha-Haifa feminist Center is a first and unique attempt by a non-governmental organization in Israel to add more details and information. The report examines Israeli policy regarding the six-point Strategic Objectives as set out in the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA), and as such, touches upon women and violent conflict and the occupation. Both the BPfA and UN Security Council Resolution 1325 serve as a framework, an opportunity and a stepping stone, for writing this report. Click here to order a copy of the report

Letter from Israeli and Palestinian Women to the US Secretary of State
Ad Hoc Coalition of Palestinian and Israeli Women, 6 February 2005

Caught between Israeli Tanks and Death Squads
Women’s International League For Peace and Freedom, Palestine Section, September 2004

37 Years of Occupation and Oppression are 37 Years Too Many
Gila Svirsky, Coalition of Women for Peace, Israel-Palestine, June 2004

Israeli and Palestinian Women Non-Violent Demonstration Prevailed!
Bat Shalom, Biddu, West Bank, Palestine, 12 May 2004

Women in Struggle
Buthina Canaan Khoury, Film, 2004
Women in Struggle presents rare testimony from four female Palestinian ex-detainees who disclose their experiences during their years of imprisonment in Israeli jails and the effect it has had on their present lives and future outlooks. Once content in their lives as sisters, wives and mothers, each of the women became active members for the national fight for Palestinian independence, but their “crimes” differed markedly–one woman was detained in a peaceful protest while another was arrested for her participation in a bombing. Their painful recollections provide a fascinating personal perspective on their motives for political involvement, reveal their struggles in prison, and define the difficulties they have faced readjusting to life in Palestinian society. Though the women are now free, they continue to feel imprisoned by the current climate of the Intifada, by the “war on terror” and by the recently built “security” wall. With horrifying stories of torture suffered while in Israeli detention, the film brings to the forefront the hot-button issue of human rights abuses in prisons—and its particular implications for women prisoners.

Soraïda, Woman of Palestine
Tahani Rached, Film, 2004
Soraïda is a Palestinian woman living in Ramallah, in the occupied territories. In this city under siege and a strict curfew, she fights her own battle: despite the military occupation, violence and oppression, she is determined not to lose her humanity. In chronicling daily injustices and routine indignities– will there be enough water for the plants? Will school be open today? – this powerful documentary paints a subtly devastating portrait of life under occupation. Soraida wonders how to reconcile the multiple facets of her identity – as a woman, a mother and a committed Palestinian. As a patriot, she is tempted to join the struggle, while as a mother, she is responsible for her two children and must keep her distance.

Women, Peace and Securiy: A Feminist Analysis of Security Council Resolution 1325
Merav Datan, LLM Research Paper, Law Faculty, Victoria University of Wellington, 2004
Feminist critiques of international law have identified structural and normative characteristics of the law that limit its ability to address women’s issues. These limitations include the inherent dichotomies of international law, particularly the public/private dichotomy, the law’s approach to human rights, the compartmentalisation of United Nations work and marginalisation of women’s issues in the United Nations, practical challenges to implementing women’s rights, and prevailing concepts of peace and security. A feminist approach to international law, when applied to Resolution 1325, reveals that the Resolution furthers international law from a feminist perspective and advances the roles and rights of women in the area of peace and security, but implementation of the Resolution is subject to many of the same limitations that international law generally faces from a feminist perspective. Awareness of these limitations can help overcome the challenges facing implementation of the Resolution.

Rafah: The Scene of Devastation
The General Union of Palestinian Women, 14 October 2003
Palestinian women are watching with consternation and incredulity the indifference of the international community towards the ongoing onslaught on the Palestinian people which is reaching such magnitude that defies description. We are slowly becoming convinced that our people have become dispensable in the eyes of those who are holding the reigns of power in this world and who have the arrogance to assume that they have the privilege to sanctify the life of a chosen few whose interests are linked to theirs, while turning a blind eye to the deprivation of others of their lives, their dignity and their security.

Another Kind of Road Map: Living on the Edge
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Palestine Section, September 2003

Press Release: Women's March to Protest the Apartheid Wall
Women’s Committee Against the Wall, 6 September 2003
Israeli border police used tear gas to disperse a group of over 200 Palestinian and international women at Irtah checkpoint, in Tulkarem.  The Palestinian and international women had marched nonviolently to the gate to meet a group of over 250 Israeli women, who had gathered on the other side of the Apartheid Wall.  The demonstration, organized by the Tulkarem Women’s Committee Against the Wall, the Israeli Coalition of Women for Peace, and International Women’s Peace Service, was the first joint women’s action against the Wall, which virtually imprisons the city of Tulkarem and many other areas of the West Bank.

An Open Letter to the Palestinian People
Bat Shalom of the Jerusalmem Link, Al-Quds, 15 August 2003
As Israeli women who have for years been working for an end to occupation and for a just peace, Bat Shalom strongly opposes the separation wall - regardless of its path - for walls are never about peace, justice or respect for human rights, but always about power.

The Jerusalem Link Concept Paper: An International Women’s Commission For a Just, Comprehensive, and Sustainable Peace in the Middle East [DRAFT]
Bat Shalom and Jerusalem Center for Women, 1 July 2003
Over the years, women have developed a model of political dialogue and contributed significantly to peace making efforts on both sides of the conflict. Despite our role and accomplishments, we are absent in political decision making processes in both Palestine and Israel. Women have no voice in the negotiations related to our conflict, and are excluded by international bodies and states. These facts urge the prompt establishment of an on-going, tripartite women’s commission of empowered women of Israel, Palestine and the International Community. This International Women’s Commission (IWC), mandated with an oversight/advisory mission, will offer a vital gender perspective in ending the occupation, peace making, peace keeping, and foreign policy. An IWC will be one of the means to include a major sector of civil society on both sides in the formal process of peace making. Therefore, we ask the Quartet to recognize and endorse the International Women’s Commission and to integrate it into all applicable political frameworks according to the following objectives, ways and means, and participatory principles.

Annual Report: Activity Summary of Coalition of Women for Peace
Israel-Palestine, June 2002-May 2003

Where Are All the Women?: UN Security Council Resolution 1325: Gender Perspectives of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Sarai Aharoni and Rula Deeb (Eds.), Isha L'Isha and Kayan, April 2003
Isha L'Isha- Haifa Feminist Center and Kayan- Feminist Organization organized the first national conference addressing Resolution 1325 in Israel, titled UNSC Resolution 1325 and its Relevance to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, held in April 2003. Conference speakers included academic scholars, attorneys, activists for women's rights, human rights, and peace from both Israel and Palestinian Authority. Isha L'Isha and Kayan organized this forum with the the cooperation of the Human Rights program in Academic College of Law, Ramat-Gan, which hosted the conference. This collection of essays is based on the lectures that were given during the conference.

Another Killing Field
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Palestine Section, February 2003
Over the past two years, we entered a spiral of political and civil deterioration which demands that we renew our efforts. Against the background of the Palestinians' legitimate struggle against Israel's military and civil Occupation, there now exists the most horrendous abuse of the Palestinian people, so intricate in detail, so mind-blowing in its ingenuity...The humanitarian situation that prevails throughout the West Bank and Gaza is almost beyond rescue. Daily bulletins of increased anemia among pregnant women, malnutrition among children, and a rapid increase in poverty with unemployment at over 25%, and over 60% of families can no longer meet their basic domestic needs. The very stomach of Palestinian civil society has been turned inside out by Israel's policies of occupation and collective punishment in its determination to secure the subjugation of the Palestinian people to its will.

Palestinian and Israeli Women Demand Immediate End to Occupation, says Bat Shalom and Jerusalem Center for Women
Terry Greenblatt, Director of Bat Shalom, United Nations Security Council, New York, USA, 7 May 2002

The Second Palestinian Intifada: Social and Psychological Implications for Palestinian Women Resulting from the Israeli Escalation of Violence
Maha Abu-Dayyeh Shamas, Women's Center for Legal Aid and Counseling, August 2001
The effect of a deliberate destruction of society’s moral and social foundations by an over-bearing, oppressive ruler/occupier can be crippling.  Respect for laws and norms change, crime and destructive acts increase, and the general level of violence and hostility between people intensifies.  This is a lethal formula for an increase in crimes against women.  In terms of the breakdown of legal systems, traditional structures of authority, such as the tribal system, are revived and further empowered, to the detriment of women.  Palestine has been prevented by Israeli occupation from developing independent, stable legal and political systems and institutions.  Those that emerged over the past eight years have largely failed due to the ongoing denial of Palestinian sovereignty and the complications arising out of a complex patchwork of legal systems and jurisdictions.  In the wake of this confusion and, at times, lawlessness, the tribal system has re-emerged, serving to provide stability and order.  The problem for women, however, is that tribal systems are undemocratic and resistant to change, and as such, re-enforce patriarchal values and norms, while further disempowering Palestinian women.  WCLAC case files indicate that, in most cases, when women’s private and public conflicts are mediated by these traditional systems, more weight is given to the interests of the male party to the conflict.

Palestinian Women's Model Parliament
Dahlia Scheindlin, Middle East Review of Internationnal Affairs, Volume 2, No. 3, September 1998

Final Document of Women's Dialogue
Palestinian and Israeli women, Geneva, 1991

UN Documents and Reports

Situation of and assistance to Palestinian women
Report of the Secretary-General, E/CN.6/2008/6, 3 December 2007
The present report summarizes the situation of Palestinian women between October 2006 and September 2007, in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 2007/7. It reviews the situation of Palestinian women and provides an overview of the assistance provided by entities of the United Nations system, inter alia, with regard to humanitarian assistance, economic activities, education and training, health and the human rights of women. The report concludes with recommendations for consideration by the Commission on the Status of Women.

International Women's Commission Established by Palestinian, Israeli and International Women for a Just and Sustainable Peace
UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), Istanbul, Turkey, 28 July 2005

Towards a More Secure Future: UN Agencies Operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territory Call for Action in Improving the Situation of Palestinian Women
UN entities working in Palestine, Press Release, Jerusalem, International Women's Day 2005, 8 March 2005
11 UN agencies Office of the UN Special Coordinator (UNSCO), International Labour Organization (ILO), Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), World Food Programme (WFP), World Health Organization (WHO) operating in the occupied Palestinian territory have put their voices together in a call to action for the protection of Palestinian women from the political, economic and social insecurity that threatens their wellbeing.

Situation of and assistance to Palestinian women
Report of the Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, E/CN.6/2005/4, 10 December 2004

Situation of and assistance to Palestinian Women
Report of the Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, E/CN.6/2003/3, 27 December 2002
The present report summarizes the situation of Palestinian women between September 2001 and September 2002. It reviews the effects on the situation of women of Israeli settlements and movement restrictions and closures, as well as the effects of the unfolding humanitarian crisis. The report provides an overview of the assistance provided to Palestinian women by entities of the United Nations system, in particular with regard to economic activities, humanitarian assistance, education and training, health, the human rights of women and the media. The report concludes with recommendations for consideration by the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
12 August 1997, A/52/38/Rev.1, Part II, paras.132-183

Government Statements and Reports

Israel Statement during CSW General Debate
Michal Modai, Commission on the Status of Women, 4 March 2004

State Report to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women   [Arabic]
Israeli Government, CEDAW/C/ISR/3, 16 November 2001
Israel's third periodic report will be considered during the 33rd Session of the Committee in July 2005.

Books, Journals and Articles

Palestine - Women - "Today It’s About Sheer Survival" (Interview)
Elisabeth Kasbauer, Executive Director of Women without Borders talks with Dr. Sara Roy, Harvard University Researcher
June 2008, Women Without Borders News.
Dr. Sara Roy is a professor at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard and has conducted research on the political, social and economic development of Palestine since 1985.

A State of Their Own: Women in Israel
Ruth Halperin Kaddar, University of Pennsylvania Press
Knowledge, as everyone knows, is power. Hence it comes as no surprise that much of the information about the systematic discrimination against women in Israel is hidden from the public as well as organizations that seek to promote the welfare of women.

Live From Palestine : International and Palestinian Direct Action Against the Israeli Occupation
Nancy Stohlman and Laurieann Aladin (Eds.). Cambridge: South End Press, August 2003

Local Coalitions, Global Partners: The Women's Peace Movement in Israel and Beyond
Gila Svirsky, Coalition of Women for Peace, Israel, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, vol. 29, no. 2, Univeristy of Chicago, 2003
Gila Svirsky is a veteran peace and human rights activist in Israel. She has been a member of Women in Black since its founding in 1988 and is cofounder of the Coalition of Women for Peace. She has been executive director of Bat Shalom and chairperson of B'Tselem, two leading peace and human rights organizations. In recent months, Gila Svirsky and Sumaya Farhat-Naser, a Palestinian woman, were jointly awarded two major peace prizes.

Israel/ Palestine: How to End the War of 1948
Tanya Reinhart. New York: Seven Stories Press, July 2002

Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land Under Siege
Amira Hass. Translated by Maxine Nunn. New York: Henry Holt & Co, 2000
In this book, Amira Hass documents family and social life in Gaza.

Gender and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:  The Politics of Women's Resistance
Simona Sharoni. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse UP, 1995
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