1_March 2019, Ramallah – On the occasion of the International Women’s Day (8 March), a week-long joint campaign “My Rights, Our Power” was launched today in Palestine to raise awareness on women’s fundamental human rights. The joint effort, with participation from over 30 national and international partners from civil society organizations, media outlets, and international development agencies, targets youth, women, and men in various geographic areas in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza to promote women’s human rights in Palestine.

The campaign comes at a crucial moment when the anticipated adoption of the Family Protection Bill is at a standstill, raising concerns among national and international stakeholders about the consequences of such delay on safeguarding women’s fundamental human rights in Palestine. According to the Palestine report of the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES), nearly one in five Palestinian men (17 percent) surveyed said they had perpetrated act of physical intimate partner violence against female partners, while 21 per cent of women surveyed reported having experienced such violence.

“Family violence, usually committed by a family member who has social or economic power over others in the family, causes enormous pain and suffering to all members of the family, especially the women and children,” said a spokesperson from civil society, which has vigorously initiated the development of the Family Protection Bill (FPB), and has strongly pushed its adoption since 2004.

“The violation of women’s human rights manifests in various levels and should be also understood from economic, cultural, and social aspects,” the spokesperson added, highlighting the lack of opportunities and freedom of choice, as well as limited access to justice and services that women in Palestine still experience.

The joint campaign aims to raise awareness of the general public, especially youth, women, and men on women’s fundamental rights in line with international standards and embedded in the Family Protection Bill draft endorsed by the previous Cabinet at the end of December 2018. Five key messages, addressing women’s right to a life free of violence, right to achieve justice and seek help in case of violation of such life, as well as the right to equal opportunities and right to make one’s own choices, will be distributed through various channels such as radio, social media, helpline (121), outreach activities, and on-site events. The closing event of the joint campaign will take place on 8 March in Jerusalem and will celebrate women’s achievements using TED-style talks, followed by art performances.

“My Rights, Our Power” joint campaign is part of the global International Women’s Day 2019 campaign under the theme of “Think equal, build smart, innovate for change”. The theme focuses on innovative ways in which we can advance gender equality and the empowerment of women, particularly in the areas of social protection systems, access to public services and sustainable infrastructure, echoing the theme of the 63rd session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW 63) taking place in New York on 11-22 March 2019.

The participating organizations of the “My Rights, Our Power” are (in alphabetical order): 17 Palestinian women’s organizations represented by Al-Muntada (coalition), British Consulate-General, Business Women Forum, CARE International, Consulate General of Sweden, Consulate General of Belgium, EUPOL COPPS, EU Representative Office, FAO, General Union of Palestinian Women, Government of Japan, CowaterSogema/GROW Project, International Labour Organization, Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, Ma’an TV, MIFTAH, Netherlands Representative Office, Nisaa FM, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development, Palestinian Family Planning and Protection Association, Representative Office of Canada, Representative Office of Denmark, SAWA, Sawasya II, Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation, Sports for Life, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Representative Office of Norway, UNDP, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNOPS, UN Women, Women's Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling, Women’s Studies Center.

For more information, please contact Eunjin Jeong at UN Women via eunjin.jeong@unwomen.org or 059 2321 308, Majd Beltaji at UNESCO via m.beltaji@unesco.org or 059 4501 506.

Mr. President,

We thank France for organizing this important meeting and extend our appreciation to the Chef de Cabinet of the Secretary General, the Executive Director of UN Women, the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security and the Secretary-General of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie for their efforts and important briefings.

The issue before us is of relevance not only for half the planet, but to all, given the role and contribution of women in the fields of peace and security and the untapped potential that could be unleashed by mainstreaming their participation. Since the adoption by consensus of resolution 1325 by this Council, a lot has happened, and yet we are still far from the goal of full and equal participation, including in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and in peace-building, and from ensuring the protection and empowerment of women. Gender equality and non-discrimination remain prerequisites for the fulfilment of the purposes and principles of this organization and all of our lofty, collective commitments, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The State of Palestine welcomes the Secretary General’s report and his commitment to implementing the women and peace and security agenda, including by placing gender at the centre of his prevention platform and surge in diplomacy. We appreciate all efforts by the UN in this regard, including by UN Women, OHCHR and UNDP, notably in the field of human rights, capacity building, employment and rule of law. We urge UN bodies, notably those operating in Palestine, including the Special Representative, to intensify their engagement and collaboration with women organizations.

Mr. President,

I wish to highlight some of Palestine’s own important efforts in this regard. The Palestinian women’s movement is one of the oldest and strongest in the region and beyond, with institutional and representative structures established as early as the 19th century. Within the PLO, the General Union of Palestinian Women was among the first unions to be established. A coordination of women frameworks within PLO political parties and other organizations has also been established as the “Women’s Affairs Technical Committee” in the aftermath of the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference.

There have been many achievements thereafter. Among them: In 2012, Palestine inaugurated a High-Level National Committee for the implementation of resolution 1325, led by the Ministry of Women Affairs in partnership with relevant Ministries and NGOs. In 2016, the State of Palestine was among the 68 countries and areas that adopted a National Action Plan on women, peace and security.

This Action Plan (2017-2019), adopted by both the Government and civil society organizations, identifies three primary objectives: 1. ensuring protection for women and girls both domestically and in the face of the Israeli occupation; 2. ensuring accountability through national and international mechanisms, with a particular focus on crimes and violations committed by the occupation; and 3. furthering women’s political participation in decision making at the national and international level. The State of Palestine also joined core IHL and human rights instruments, including CEDAW, without reservations. Women’s participation and empowerment are also important and cross-cutting objectives in the context of the National Policy Agenda (2017-2022).

We are, however, conscious that, despite all these efforts, much more work remains to be done. Only in 2009 was a women elected to the highest executive body of the PLO. Quotas are still decisive in allowing women’s election to Parliament and local councils. And while women organizations were among the strongest advocates of national reconciliation, they have been unfairly absent from reconciliation talks. The relevant legislative framework applicable in Palestine is also outdated and must be revised to ensure consistency with Palestine’s international commitments and obligations and avail women the protection and rights they are entitled to and the opportunities they deserve.

Mr. President,

The Palestinian women’s movement since its establishment over a century ago pursued the struggle on two fronts – the struggle for the independence of Palestine and the struggle for women’s rights and empowerment – a dual struggle the movement continues to pursue to this day. The Israeli occupation remains the main source of the violations of our women’s rights and their vulnerability and violence against their person. We have repeatedly called for protection of the Palestinian people, especially women and children. We have also called for accountability, a key element of resolution 1325, the first resolution to address the disproportionate and unique impact of armed conflict on women, as the only way to put an end to violations and crimes.

While Palestine stands ready to do its part to advance women rights and the role of women in the fields of peace and security, it is clear that the enjoyment of these rights in our country necessitates ending the Israeli occupation. We will thus continue to work for an end of the occupation and true progress on the path to independence, justice and peace, with the equal and full involvement of women, leading to an independent State of Palestine ensuring human rights for all its citizens without discrimination.

On the occasion of the ICC Prosecutor’s Office to Palestine, the Palestinian Women Coalition of UNSCR 1325, which consists of twelve different Palestinian women’s organisations, is urging the Prosecutor’s Office to take concrete actions towards investigating war crimes committed against Palestinians. The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom remains deeply concerned with the complete impunity of Israeli war crimes and firmly supports the Coalition’s call for a just accountability mechanism for Palestinian victims. WILPF also calls on the international community to recognise and fully support Palestinian women’s organisations substantial role in paving the paths to justice, accountability and peace. Read the statement of the Palestinian Women Coalition of UNSCR 1325 below.

We, the Palestinian Women Coalition of UNSCR 1325,welcome the visit of the delegation of the ICC Prosecutor’s Office as a step in the right direction. But we are deeply disappointed that the purpose of this visit was restricted to preliminary examination, while Palestinian victims of Israeli war crimes, including women, continue to suffer and urgently await justice and an end to Israel impunity.

We do not understand the decision to exclude the Gaza Strip from this visit, when Gaza has been the site of the most war crimes and where women have been most systematically impacted by Israeli collective punishment policies; a prolonged imposed siege and a severe humanitarian deterioration resulting from Israeli military aggressions .

We are further disappointed that women who have been systematically impacted, and their women’s organisations, have been excluded from the delegation’s agenda.

We call upon all future delegations of the ICC Prosecutor’s Office to include on their agenda meetings with women’s organisations and women who have experienced direct and indirect impacts of Israeli crimes.

We, the Palestinian Women Coalition of UNSCR 1325, have seen in UNSCR 1325, 2242, and other UN Resolutions a commitment to hold the Israeli perpetrators accountable for their war crimes.

We look to the ICC as the most important mechanism to end impunity for all war crimes committed, finally bringing justice for the Palestinian people. Yet, we are very concerned that the preliminary examinations will be an endless process.

Therefore, we urge, Ms. Fatou Bensouda, the Prosecutor of the ICC, to conclude the preliminary examination and move to investigations into Israeli war crimes, bringing justice to Palestinians.

We have paid the price of non-accountability and impunity of Israeli war crimes for too long. “Delaying justice is justice denied.”

Palestinian Women Coalition of UNSCR 1325: The General Union of Palestinian Women (GUPW), the Women’s Affairs Technical Committee (WATC), Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development (PWWSD), MIFTAH, Filastinyat, Women Media and Development (TAM), Women Stu Dies Center, Women’s Center for Legal Aid and Counseling (WACLAC), the National, YWCA of Palestine, Center for Women’s Legal Research and Consulting (CWLRC), the Culture and Free thought Association(CWLRC) and Women’s Affairs Center (GWAC).

Occupied Palestine

October 11, 2016

The Israeli occupying forces (IOF) completed on Tuesday demolition of ancient historical sites in the West Bank City of Hebron and went on rampage in other parts of the occupied Palestinian territories.

Local sources and witnesses told IPC correspondent that the Israeli bulldozers, protected by large forces, demolished the Alqantara building in Hebron, under the pretext of constructing a bypass road for the armed Israeli settlers.

Member of the Hebron municipal committee for reconstruction, engineer Jalal Abu Halawa, was quoted as saying that the Israeli troops completed pavement of a bypass road for the settlers, closing down several entrances of Palestinian-owned homes in the area designated for the road.

For such a construction, the Israeli troops set into fire an ancient building owned by local Rasmi Jaber, Abu Halawa added.

In August,2004, the Israeli bulldozers knocked down 13 historical Palestinian-owned homes , east of the Alharam Alibrahimi mosque, for the construction of a bypass road for the use of Israeli armed settlers of the Kiryat Arba illegal settlement.

In the meantime, the Israeli occupation troops arrested on Tuesday six Palestinian residents in the Dura town of Hebron, Palestinian Prisoners Society sources confirmed.

Palestinian security sources reported that four other residents were detained by the Israeli forces earlier on Tuesday morning from the Manara area in Hebron.

Meanwhile, an Israeli troops undercover unit broke into a Palestinian-owned store in the Manara area and arrested the store's owner, taking him to unknown destination.

In the Bethlehem City, the Israeli troops detained early on Tuesday a Palestinian resident and his son of the Dehaisha refugee camp of Bethlehem, after blockading his house and forcing those inside out in the open.

Concurrently, the Israeli bulldozers razed on Tuesday vast areas of arable Palestinian-owned lands in the Esawiya town, north of the occupied east Jerusalem, witnesses said.

In the Ramallah city, Israeli soldiers held tens of Palestinian passersby at a military checkpoint between Ramalla and Jerusalem, humiliating them severely, witnesses accounted on.

Gaza Strip

Israeli bulldozers razed Tuesday afternoon vast area of Palestinian-owned lands to the east of the northern city of Beit Hanoon after closing the road opposite to the lands.

Also, the Israeli troops continued closure of several crossing points and checkpoints in different parts of the Strip, such as the Gaza International Airport, Beit Hanoon crossing and the Sofa crossing, Palestinian security sources said.

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) dismissed on Thursday US Secretary of State Colin Powel’s remarks regarding President Yasser Arafat, in which Powel demanded Arafat to give up control over Palestinian security services, alleging that this is a perquisite for success of international peace efforts.

“All should respect the democratic choice of the Palestinian people regarding their leadership”, Palestinian Minister for negotiations, Dr. Saeb Eriqat, was quoted as saying.

Eriqat added that the Palestinians have their own bylaw , that has been endorsed by their legislative council, and that such a law determines authorities and responsibilities.

The Palestinian minister stressed that the Palestinians rely of that law not on any other things.

Secretary Colin Powel, in a press briefing he held on Thursday, demanded President Yasser Arafat to give up control over Palestinian security bodies, claiming that since 2002’s President Bush’s speech on peace in the Middle East, was the individual who serve as a responsible interlocutor .

“ The question is for the Palestinian people and for Chairman Arafat: Mr. Chairman, how long can you wait? How long can you stay in this position, where the Palestinian people are suffering, where it’s difficult to go forward toward the objectives of the roadmap, where it’s difficult to achieve what you say is your dream of a state for the Palestinian people” And the whole international community is waiting to engage with you”. Powel was quoted as addressing President Yasser Arafat.

Noteworthy, the Palestinian National Authority will hold general elections on October, 2004; presidential, legislative and municipal, as a part of a series of reforms deemed by the internationally-backed roadmap peace plan.

Since over than two years, Israel continues to besiege President Yasser Arafat at the latter’s battered headquarters in the West Bank City of Ramallah, barring him access even to the Gaza Strip, a matter that has hampered Arafat’s movement drastically.

In 1996, a landslide majority of the Palestinian people in Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem elected President Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization for decades, as the President of the Palestinian National Authority, which was established in 1994 in accordance with the 1993 Oslo accord between Israel and Palestine.

GAZA -- The former French Prime Minister and current member of the European Parliament, Michel Rocard, blasted Israel as an "abnormal case in the world", describing its creation by the 1917-Balfour Declaration as a "historic mistake".

Rocard, who is also a well-known member of the French Socialist Party, was delivering a lecture at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina on June 16, in which he said that the Balfour promise England gave to the Jews to create a national homeland for them in Palestine was a "mistake".

He also described the Israeli state as a "unique and abnormal condition because it was created with a promise, and that millions of Jews gathered from all around the world, creating an entity that continues to pose a threat to its neighbors until today."

Rocard also drew attention to the fact that Israel was also historically created on a racist basis, depending on armed conflict to set its borders. Rocard referred to the colonization of the Arab world, of which his country was involved in, as the main reason behind the current state of violence and conflict in the Middle East.

However, Rocard warned that delaying a peace agreement between the Arab states and Israel would "greatly increase violence in the region," pointing out that the long-demanded reforms in the Arab states stemmed from the inside, not imposed by outside forces.

"Peace must spring from a religious base … all reforms can be made possible through the teachings of our divine religions. To pray to God is accepted, but violence is not,” concluded Rocard.

GAZA - Well–informed senior sources told the Emirates-based Al Bayan newspaper that the US Congress passed the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, an American pro-Israeli’s lobby (AIPAC)’s plan (2004-2005).

According to the AIPAC’s transcript, which Al-Bayan daily received a copy of, it revealed that the American embassy would be relocated permanently to Jerusalem by 2005 and recognized the so-called "undivided Jerusalem" including the Dome of the Rock as the capital of Israel.

Consistently ranked as the most influential foreign policy lobbying organization in Capitol Hill, AIPAC is a nonpartisan American membership organization that seeks to strengthen the relationship between Israel and the United States. For more than 40 years, AIPAC has been working with Congress to build a strong relationship between the United States and Israel. Its more than 85,000 activists throughout the United States work to improve and strengthen that relationship by supporting U.S.-Israel military, economic, scientific and cultural cooperation.

Nearly two months ago, AIPAC passed on its new plan that was submitted later to the American Congress to approve it.

The new plan “Strong Israel–Strong America” outlined furthering stress on the significance of assuring the US economic and military aid to Israel, the approval of the American Congress to the backing measures, making the Israeli military supremacy at the peak, including the measures of relative American regulations.

As for the security of the Hebrew state (Israel), the plan spoke out the necessity to offer aid and support to Israel to deploy its military forces in terms of the Israeli security needs. The plan also heeded further emphasis on the Congress’ role to boost the American support efforts to the Israel’s security including the building of the Apartheid Wall.

The plan set forth by AIPAC relied on the US President Bush’s keynote speech outlined on July 24, 2002, which mandated the American conditions to establish a Palestinian state as the “full halt of violence and incitement by the Palestinians, assuming to power an elected Palestinian leadership and not involved in terror and dissolution of the Palestinian “terror” infrastructure”.

Significantly, the AIPAC’s plan reaffirmed keeping Jerusalem including the Dome of the Rock as an undivided capital to Israel and more emphasis was made to heed more significance on the swift moving of the American embassy to Jerusalem and identify Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in the in official US documents such as passports, birth certificates and nationality certifications.

Needless to say that the American President Bush assigned on Monday, September 30, 2002 a law that requires the United States to identify the holy city as the capital of Israel.

Bush, who supports the Israeli claim to Jerusalem, tried to lull the Arab and Muslim world's fury, by pointing out that despite the law, the US policy on Jerusalem "has not changed". That means the US still officially sees Jerusalem's "permanent-status issue" to be negotiated between the Israelis and the Palestinians in a final peace accord.

The law Bush signed is the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for 2003, which provides $4 billion for American diplomacy to operate worldwide during the fiscal year that began yesterday. The authorization included a number of provisions problematic for the administration, which was taking them merely as congressional advisory measures. Otherwise, they would constitute an encroachment on the President's constitutional mandate to conduct foreign policy, Bush said in a letter to Congress.

The Jerusalem provisions are the prickliest. The Congress has pressed several administrations to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but this law goes further in several ways. It requires all official US documents to identify Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and calls on the US Consulate in East Jerusalem that deals with Palestinian issues to report to the embassy in Tel Aviv rather than directly to Washington, as it currently does.