Palestinian Women: Caught in the Cross Fire Between Occupation and Patriarchy

Abstract

Palestinian women face violence and humiliation from the Israeli occupation, as well as violence and discrimination in their own society. Both the male perpetrators of violence and sexual violence against women in Palestinian society and the Israeli perpetrators of violence and human rights violations are able to act with impunity, escaping investigation and punishment. The women's movement in Palestine faces the difficult challenge of working to improve the status of women in the context of a decades-long military occupation. Existing laws in the occupied Palestinian territory are often discriminatory and do not offer sufficient protection for women. Progress toward reform is held back by classic patriarchy, and also by the fractured and limited autonomy of the Palestinian Authority caused in large part by the occupation. Palestinian women are also subjected to violence and humiliations from Israeli soldiers and settlers and to other human rights violations caused by military incursions, the route of the separation wall, the steady expansion of the illegal settlements, house demolitions, and the closure regime and associated controls. Only an end to the occupation will bring an end to these violations, and on the domestic front, meaningful progress will be an uphill struggle for the women's movement without self-determination and a viable Palestinian state. International law has, as yet, provided no forum for accountability and redress.