As women around the world prepare to celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD) on March 8 and continue the struggle against entrenched sexism, misogyny and gender-based violence, Palestinian women are doing all that with the added burden of living under Israeli occupation.
The simple act of attempting to travel for work, school, health care or to shop for household essentials is often made near impossible for those in the Occupied Territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinian women continue to be severely hampered by a network of military checkpoints across the West Bank and by the near total closure of Gaza due to Israel’s ongoing siege.
Travel across the Occupied Territories for whatever reason is severely restricted by the Israeli occupation. It is especially difficult for Palestinians seeking medical treatment — and doubly so for Palestinian women.
In separate cases in recent weeks, two women from Gaza seeking cancer treatment unavailable in the Strip due to Israel’s siege have been refused entry into Israel on the pretext of “security issues”.
It doesn’t matter how grim the health condition — Israel can, and frequently does, deny permission to leave Gaza for essential care.
It is difficult to gauge the numbers of preventable deaths, but it is clear that denying permission to travel for medical reasons is routine. The latest “security” related excuses are a sinister added burden on a community, and particularly its women, who can least afford it.
Visiting Palestine some years ago, I witnessed a clear example of how Palestinian women are impacted by the occupation. On a visit to the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron, the women of the group I was travelling with stopped at the women’s bathroom to adjust hastily draped hijabs. The bathroom attendant was a single parent and breadwinner for four children. Her only income was what she received from maintaining the women’s bathroom at the mosque.
In a halting, brief conversation, we learned that the delays to her husband’s cancer treatment — caused by the difficulties in getting permission to travel and getting through Hebron’s heavily check-pointed roads — led to his early death.
The impact of the Israeli occupation on housing for Palestinian women is also severe. The Palestinian community of Humsah a-Tahta in the Jordan valley has been hit hard by Israeli demolition orders.
Across the West Bank, women’s access to land so that they can farm and earn an income is frequently, and in some cases permanently, undermined by the presence of the Israeli army. It can simply declare a live fire zone and prevent Palestinian families from rebuilding demolished homes, farms and communities.
The threat of violence by the Israeli army has an added dimension of sexual violence against Palestinian women. A visit to almost any checkpoint across the occupied Palestinian territories can also mean routine harassment and violence against women.
Read the full article by Lisa Gleeson in the Green Left Weekly.