The shocking human cost that occupation has taken on Palestinian women is laid bare in research published today. Combining research, extensive surveys, and first-hand testimonies from over 40 Palestinian women, Palestinian Women: The Disproportionate Impact of The Israeli Occupation provides new insight into the gendered experience of occupation, looking into four issues in particular:

• women refugees
• the impact of residency revocation on Palestinian women in Jerusalem
• the experience of women prisoners
• Gazans’ access to health

Co-authored by four Palestinian NGOs – the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH), Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development (PWWSD), the Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC), and Women Media and Development (TAM), the report includes detailed findings that demonstrate how the oppression occupation has permeated women’s daily lives, and the particular impact is has had on women in Palestinian refugee camps, Palestinian women living in Jerusalem, women prisoners, and residents of Gaza who require health services.

The impact on refugee women

Researchers spoke to 500 Palestinian refugee women from 12 Palestinian camps (7 in the West Bank, 5 in Gaza). Their findings included the following:

• A third of women surveyed had been directly exposed to physical assault by Israeli Occupation Forces. 9% had been exposed to threats of being attacked by police dogs during Israeli night raids on their homes.
• Over a third (37%) of respondents had been exposed to detention or interrogation, while 38% said that they or members of their households had been exposed to verbal abuse during Israeli army raids, at checkpoints or while visiting religious places.
• Nearly a quarter (24%) were forced to live in shelters or with extended family. 22% were forced to live under unhealthy conditions. 13% stated that the female and male members of their families were separated as a result of having to live in shelters.
• More than one in five (21%) had been exposed to beatings or tear gas at Israeli checkpoints while they were pregnant. 4% reported that they aborted or gave birth at Israeli checkpoints.
• The majority (64%- 321 cases) had been unable to visit religious or recreational places because of Occupation restrictions.

Jerusalem: Residency Revocation and Family Reunification

According to official figures, 14,595 Palestinians from East Jerusalem had their residency status revoked between 1967 and the end of 2016.

Through residency revocations, Israel has separated husbands from wives, parents from children, and extended families from one another, causing traumatic complications for women attempting to remain with their families in both Jerusalem and the West Bank.

This leads to traumatic fears of separation from children for mothers and an entrenching of patriarchal practices across society. Palestinian women living in Jerusalem lose residency rights if they get divorced or their husbands remarry. Limiting their access to justice, female victims of domestic violence fear reporting abuse to authorities in case they are forcibly transferred away from their children.

Women prisoners

Since the beginning of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine in 1967, approximately 10,000 Palestinian women have been arrested and detained by Israeli military forces. According to the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs’ 2017 annual report, 1,467 children were arrested last year.

Our researchers spoke to prisoners who experienced physical and psychological torture at arrest and imprisonment, and traumatic, gendered treatment, including:

• Women denied access to menstrual products while detained
• A woman arrested while pregnant who gave birth while chained to a prison hospital bed
• Ex-prisoners who report being subjected to rape and death threats during interrogation, including a girl in of 15-years old threatened with rape
• Women who were subjected to frequent forced and violent strip searches
• A prisoner who reported toothache, only to have the wrong tooth removed

Access to Health in Gaza

Israel exercises strict control Gaza’s borders, a policy of ‘actual authority’, constituting continued occupation, despite the withdrawal of its permanent presence. This control in particular affects those who need medical treatment outside of Gaza’s struggling health system, who require permission to leave. The report shows that the rate of approval applications is falling year-by-year:

• 92.5% of applications were successful in 2012
• 88.7% in 2013
• 82.4% in 2014
• 77.5% in 2015
• 62.1% in 2016

Of the 26,282 permit applications submitted by patients aiming to exit through Erez in 2016, 8,242 (31.4%) were delayed. Many applicants received no response from border authorities, even after lawyers filed formal applications on their behalf. These delays regularly extend months and years beyond medical appointments, worsening already life-threatening diseases and in some cases resulting in death.

Read the full report here, or download it here:

Palestinian Women – The Disproportionate Impact of the Israeli Occupation

Women represent half of the Palestinian population

The qualitative base of the structure of the population in Palestine the sex ratio stood at 103.3, which means that there are 103 males for every 100 females

The percentage of female-headed households

The percentage of female-headed households in Palestine was 10.6% in 2017, 11.2% in the West Bank and 9.5% in Gaza Strip.

fifth of the persons in Palestine got married at an early age (less than 18 years) in 2016

Early marriage reached to 20.5% among females and 1.0% among males of the total married population in Palestine; the rate was 19.9% out of the total married population in West Bank and 21.6% out of the total married population in Gaza Strip end 2016.

The highest rate of female early marriage in the West Bank was in Hebron 36.8%, and the lowest was in Jericho and the Jordan Valley 1.2% out of the total number of women marriage below 18 years in the West Bank. In Gaza Strip, the highest rate of early female marriage was 42.1% in Gaza Governorate, while the lowest rate was in Dier Al-Balah 7.1% out of the total number of women marriage below 18 years in Gaza Strip.

A continued rise in literacy among women

Despite the rise in literacy rates among females over the last decade, the gap is still in favor of males by 3.0%, female literacy rates was 95.6% compared to 98.6% for male literacy in the year 2017.

Rise in enrollment rate of females in high schools compared to males

Data showed that male enrollment in high schools was 60.5%, compared to female enrollment which was 80.4% for the year 2016-2017.

A gap in the participation rate and average daily wages between men and women

The female participation rate in the labor force was 19.0% of the total female population at work age in 2017, compared to 10.3% in 2001, while the male participation rate was 71.2% in 2017. There was also a pay gap in the average daily wages between males and females; the average daily wage for females was NIS 84.6 compared to NIS 119.6 for males.

Around half of the women are unemployed

The unemployment rate among women participated in the labor force was 47.4% compared to 22.3% for participated males. 65.8% of youth females aged of (15-29 years) were unemployed. While the unemployment rate among women with 13 school years and above represents 53.8% of women in this group.

Palestinian Women in Public Life

In 2017; 21.2% of the members of the local councils are females in the West Bank while 78.8% were males.

In 2016, 82.7% of judges were male, compared to 17.3% female, while 66.6% of registered lawyers were male, compared to 33.4% female and 82.0% of members of the public prosecution staff were male, compared to 18.0% female. Furthermore, Palestinian female ambassadors represented 5.8% compared to 94.2% male. Females represented 32.3% of registered engineers with the Union of Engineers while male represented 67.7%. On the other hand, in 2016, 12.4% of members of student councils in West Bank universities were females, compared to 87.6% males.

In the public sector, females represented 42.7% of civil servants, compared to 57.3% male civil servant. In the public civil sector, female Director Generals represented 11.3% of the total director generals, compared to 88.7% males in the same post.

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Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record 2003-2004 is submitted to the Congress by the U.S. Department of State in compliance with Section 665 of P.L. 107-228, the Fiscal Year 2003 Foreign Relations Authorization Act, which was signed into law on September 30, 2002, requiring the Department to report on actions taken by the U.S. Government to encourage respect for human rights.

Unlike the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, issued annually by the State Department and covering 196 countries, Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record 2003-2004 highlights U.S. efforts to promote human rights and democracy in the 101 countries and entities with the worst human rights records, taking care to include those countries of concern for "extrajudicial killings, torture and other serious violations of human rights."

The segment below contains only the Reports coverage of the West Bank and Gaza, and was extracted form the Middle East & North Africa section.

The complete report can be found at

WEST BANK AND GAZA

Israel’s overall human rights record in the West Bank and Gaza remained poor and worsened in the treatment of foreign human rights activists. The Palestinian Authority (PA) also had a poor human rights record. Israel’s security forces killed at least 573 Palestinians and one foreign national and injured 2,992 Palestinians and other persons during the year. Israeli security units often used excessive force in their operations that resulted in numerous deaths. Israel carried out policies of demolitions, strict curfews and closures that directly punished innocent civilians. Israeli forces often impeded the provision of medical assistance to Palestinian civilians by strict enforcement of internal closures, harassed and abused Palestinian pedestrians and drivers at the approximately 430 Israeli-controlled points in the occupied territories and conducted mass, arbitrary arrests in the West Bank. Israel restricted the freedom of the Palestinian media and placed strict limits on freedom of assembly and movement for Palestinians.

The PA continued to commit numerous, serious abuses. Palestinian terrorists and gunmen were responsible for the deaths of 376 Israelis killed in the occupied territories. Many members of Palestinian security services and the Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization participated with civilians and terrorist groups in violent attacks against Israeli civilians inside Israel, Israeli settlers, foreign nationals and soldiers. Palestinian security forces used excessive force against Palestinians during demonstrations. PA security officials abused prisoners and arbitrarily arrested and detained persons. PA courts were inefficient and failed to ensure fair and expeditious trials, and PA executive and security services frequently ignored or failed to enforce court decisions. Internal closure in the occupied territories obstructed courts from holding sessions or issuing rulings. The PA security forces infringed on the right to privacy and restricted freedom of speech and the press.

The U.S. human rights and democracy strategy for the West Bank and Gaza supported implementation of President Bush’s two-state vision, the end of violence and the restart of a political process within Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. The United States utilized bilateral and multilateral diplomacy to emphasize the unacceptability of violence on all sides and demand PA actions against terrorism in the West Bank and Gaza as well as in Israel. The Roadmap explicitly calls on both parties to end incitement, and calls on the Palestinians to undertake comprehensive reforms.

U.S. programs worked to improve the rule of law in the West Bank and Gaza. Approximately $1.9 million in assistance was provided to introduce advanced caseload management techniques and equipment to seven Palestinian courts. This same program improved the capabilities of the Palestinian Attorney General’s office, helping the state prosecutor’s office modernize its administrative functions and raise its technical capacity. Programs offered judicial training, specifically addressing complex areas of modern law such as international property rights, international banking, commercial transactions and ethics. Assistance further helped establish two Alternative Dispute Resolution centers that are available to mediate and arbitrate legal claims outside the court system.

U.S. officials continued to encourage Palestinian legislators to pursue governmental reform. Video-conferencing equipment financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development enabled the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) to deliberate and conduct parliamentary sessions despite frequent closures and travel restrictions in the West Bank and Gaza. Such sessions included the historic Spring 2003 session during which the PLC revised the Palestinian Basic Law to create the position of the Prime Minister. In addition, the United States funded other programs totaling approximately $3 million to strengthen the institution of the PLC. Assistance improved its capacity to conduct oversight of the executive branch, raised the quality of its lawmaking, deepened its management controls and capacity and extended its reach to ensure that the PLC effectively represented the interests of its constituents.

Other funding supported preparations for Palestinian elections, including assistance for women candidates and women’s political organizations, and training in building and promoting political platforms. These activities offered leadership and organizational training to emerging young Palestinian activists, mid-career managers and mid-level government workers.

Support for civil society development in the West Bank and Gaza remained a U.S. priority, and its flagship program, “Tamkeen,” was allocated $33 million for 2000-2005. To date, the project has awarded 193 grants totaling $10 million to Palestinian civil society organizations to promote democracy and provide training in advocacy, finance and strategy. A $1 million “Moderate Voices” project supported Palestinian civil society organizations that have developed creative means, including a popular radio soap opera series, to teach non-violence, conflict resolution and mediation. The U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative helped launch an Arab Civitas project to introduce civic education into Palestinian schools.

The United States provided assistance to strengthen media professionalism, content and independence. Programs provided instruction to print journalists on investigative reporting and trained television media professionals on the production and airing of topical talk shows.

Public diplomacy programs sought to improve human rights awareness in the West Bank and Gaza among all citizens. The Consulate General in Jerusalem hosted numerous speakers on the topics of rule of law and democratization, sponsored Palestinians’ participation in international conferences addressing these topics and provided books and other publications in Arabic and English on human rights and democracy to local schools, libraries, PA officials and other contacts. Palestinians were also regular participants in the Salzburg Seminar, International Visitor and Fulbright Summer Institute programs, which focused on democracy and human rights topics.

The State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration administered $1.4 million in special projects to promote human rights, tolerance and conflict resolution skills among Palestinian refugee children. Under a multi-year grant to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine refugees, projects introduced supplementary educational materials and peer mediation training in all UNRWA schools in the West Bank and Gaza in grades 4 through 9. The materials included illustrated storybooks that introduce basic concepts of human rights, tolerance and responsibility for one’s actions as well as worksheets that introduce human rights and tolerance concepts at pre-selected points in the Palestinian curriculum.