Women want to take part in building a Palestinian state
On September 23 , the Palestinian Authority, headed by President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to hand over an application for UN membership to the UN Security Council. This application seeks ultimately to create the independent state of Palestine. But it is still unclear what the implications of the statehood bid will be since Israel and the United States oppose it. The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation has been in contact with around ten of our partner organizations in the West Bank and Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq to hear their views on the independence process.
The organization Palestinian Working Women Society for Development in Ramallah, in the West Bank, believes that Palestine becoming a state is essential to achieve peace between Israel and Palestine.
– The application for statehood will reinstate the UN as a party in the negotiations on solving the conflict. Today the negotiations that are held are not based on international law, i.e. on the resolutions that the UN has adopted demanding that Israel end the occupation of the Palestinian territories. With Palestine becoming a state, the conflict will become one between an occupied state and an occupying state.
The process of building a Palestinian state has been going on since 1967, when the war between Jordan and Israel led to Israel occupying the West Bank including East Jerusalem and Gaza. The state of Palestine has been built through bilateral negotiations and popular mobilization. Women have participated actively in this process, but mostly at the grassroots level and never had prominent roles in the official state building. After the Oslo Accords (the peace agreement of 1992) women who had actively participated in the national struggle did not enter into the official structures, and instead withdrew from the political parties and shifted their engagement into civil society, often forming their own organizations.
Women since the 1990: s have therefore been less formally involved in politics and political parties. As a consequence, they have not been active in influencing the content of the plan that the current Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, launched in 2008 and which set out to construct a Palestinian state from within - by building functioning institutions and government systems. This plan included ambitions for gender mainstreaming and the establishment of a Ministry of Women’s Affairs. Unfortunately, the Ministry's mandate has not been fully achieved.
The political split between Hamas (which won the 2006 election) and Fatah (which is the president's party) is still significant. It has led to the fragmentation of the Palestinian territories with the Gaza strip being controlled by Hamas and the West Bank controlled by Fatah. The rift between Fatah and Hamas has influenced the Palestinian people and especially the women, who feel divided. Women in Gaza particularly feel isolated, and under Hamas rule it has become increasingly difficult for them to be politically active. Also, being politically active is not highly regarded because of the public perception that politics equals corruption and abuse of power. The split is therefore making it difficult for women from the West Bank and Gaza to coordinate and work together to formulate common messages about the political developments in the country.
Women have also been largely excluded from attempts at reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, in spite the fact that women’s organizations have held events debating their role in seeking unity . It is not clear today how the statehood declaration will affect the ongoing process of reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, the West Bank and Gaza.
Kvinna till Kvinna's partner organizations stand behind the proclamation of a Palestinian state. Statehood will imply that the state of Palestine can be held accountable to international conventions and other legal instruments such as the women's rights convention, CEDAW ,and UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women's right to participate in peace processes and in reconstruction. However, most of Kvinna till Kvinnas partner organizations do not believe that the recognition of Palestine as a state will lead to any direct changes in society in the short term.
Two major question marks were raised by the women’s organisations when Kvinna till Kvinna asked about their views on the UN declaration. First, the national split between Fatah and Hamas, and second the issue of refugees and the right of return. All partner organizations stressed the importance of that the state-building process has to ensure the right of return for all Palestinian refugees now living in Lebanon, Jordan and all over the world.
Kvinna till Kvinna's partner organization, Women's Humanitarian Organization in Lebanon, that works in one of the Palestinian refugee camps also in principle supports the formation of a Palestinian state. However, they also wonder what statehood will imply for the Palestinians living in Lebanon since they are not Lebanese citizens and do not have Lebanese passports.
– What does it mean for us in practice? Will we have Palestinian passports and citizenship? How will it be perceived by other countries, like Lebanon where we live now?
Their concern is shared by women in the West Bank and Gaza.
The Palestinian women's movement has long been working on building the Palestinian society and strengthening women's rights.
– The Palestinian women are leaders and opinion makers. They need to take a more prominent role in the creation of a state and their views must be included in the debate. The knowledge and know-how that Palestinian women have built up through work in the civil society organizations will contribute to the future state, but in order for that to happen their access to the official political arenas needs to increase, says Anna Björkman, Kvinna till Kvinna coordinator for Israel and Palestine.