In Recognition of International Rural Women's Day- Towards International Protection of Palestinian Women
Occupied Palestine: In recognition of the International Day of Rural Women, declared by the United Nations through a Resolution from the General Assembly since 2007, Palestinian women in general, and rural women in particular, are still living under a colonial context, which violates their fundamental human rights. Right to life, as a sacred right affirmed by the various international conventions and treaties, as well as the right to protection as assured by the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda, are the major rights that the occupation violates systematically. The Israeli occupation, through its diversified arms and tools, above which are the Israeli army and armed settlers' militia, is still going on in targeting Palestinian women and dealing with their bodies as military targets. The occupation denies Palestinian women the right to protection and safety, being civilians entitled to these rights. In this regard, and during the last couple of years, the Israeli military machine conducted one of the fiercest genocidal wars that targeted Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli aggression was supported militarily, politically, and informatively by the international colonialism powers that stand against the nations’ right to freedom and self-determination. Taking into consideration that women and children represent two-thirds of the victims in the Gaza Strip (killed/injured/missed), it is clear that the Israeli aggression is an aggression on women at first hand. The Israeli government extended its aggression to the West Bank through killing, closure, imposing military checkpoints/barriers, and forcible displacement. Women were at the center of the Israeli occupation attacks, aiming at uprooting Palestinians from their historical land and ending the Palestinian national question.
The Israeli attacks targeted the Palestinian rural areas mainly, through a series of procedures and practices, including imposing military checkpoints and iron gates, which isolated the Palestinian localities from each other and transferred many of them into open-air prisons. Furthermore, the Israeli government armed the settlers’ militia and provided them with protection to proceed in terrorizing and attacking Palestinians, mainly in the rural areas. The settlers prevented Palestinians from accessing their agricultural lands, which represent the sole income source of thousands of Palestinian families. In addition to the direct targeting of Palestinians, the settlers’ groups uprooted and demolished thousands of Palestinian trees, as well as burning the crops, leading to the deprivation of Palestinians from benefiting from their land. Moreover, and under the protection of the Israeli army, the settlers imposed control over 14% of the West Bank land to establish Pastoral Settlements. Thus, it is clear that the occupation systematically targets rural Palestinian women to uproot Palestinians from their land. On a related level, the Israeli occupation is going on in demolishing the Palestinian environment through confiscating the fertile Palestinian land to establish settlements and road networks for settlers. Additionally, the Israeli occupation deals with the Palestinian land as if it were a Chemical Waste Landfill produced by the factories established in the Israeli settlements and the Industrial Zones annexed to these settlements. Furthermore, the Israeli occupation controls water resources in the West Bank as part of the attack against Palestinian land. The Israeli authorities tend to deprive Palestinians of benefiting from the underground water resources in their land.
At the time the world celebrates the International Rural Women Day, and as the occupation is going on in its crimes against Palestinian women in general and rural women in particular, PWWSD raises its voice urging for:
Ø The United Nations should intervene immediately to provide protection for Palestinian women, mainly rural women, in accordance with the international related conventions and treaties, above which is the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda.
Ø Establishing an international network, consisting of the international solidarity movements (mainly women's movements), to publicize the occupation’s practices and crimes against Palestinian women, and declare the occupation state as a state anti-women’s rights and a systematic violator of the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda.
Ø The Palestinian Government should develop programs to enhance the resilience of rural Palestinian women and the necessity to lodge a file against the occupation for violating women’s rights, to be submitted to all the relevant international bodies, especially with the recognition of the Palestinian State by several countries in the world. The government should focus on lodging a comprehensive case to the International Criminal Court with a focus on the violations against Palestinian women.
Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development.
October 15, 2025.
