The Business and Professional Women Network, in cooperation with the Ministry of Women's Affairs, launched, for the first time, the "Palestinian Women's Summit" initiative on the campus of the Arab American University in Ramallah. Around the world, while the Minister of Women's Affairs, Dr. Amal Hamad, revealed that President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree by law regarding the division of individual rights, as well as the Cabinet's endorsement of the Distinguished Woman Award.

The Chair of the Board of Directors of the Business and Professional Women Network, Dr. Dalal Erekat told Al-Quds.com, on the sidelines of the launch of the Women's Summit, "The network was launched last year, and sought to create a Palestinian women's summit, to be held annually, on a national and comprehensive level."

Erekat added, "Despite the struggles of women and their superiority, the data shows that women have not reached the decision-making positions that are appropriate for them in various sectors, so we hope to create a platform and base for empowered women who have proven their worth in their specializations, and in order to find pressure and advocacy to amend policies and legislation to suit them." The status of women, and to prove that Palestinian women are capable, and in order to represent Palestine at the international level.

With regard to the " Palestinian Women's Summit ," Erekat said: "We hope to come up with a policy paper to be presented to the government through the Ministry of Women's Affairs, and we hope to achieve progress in the field of women's rights and legislation that specializes women and the family, and it is necessary to evaluate ourselves with regard to women and their empowerment." ".

During the summit launch conference, Dr. Dalal Erekat: "The summit is not a fleeting activity, and we hope that it will become a national initiative that will be held annually, to bring about a practical change in the reality of women in Palestine," noting that the summit will be held after Ramallah in the Gaza Strip.
According to Erekat, the Business and Professional Women Network was launched last year, after Palestine was registered with the International Federation of Women, noting that it aimed to advocate for women and establish a network that brings together women and represents Palestine locally and internationally with the aim of developing policies and legislation, and for the network to be an incubator for Palestinian women.

For her part, the Minister of Women's Affairs, Dr. Amal Hamad, said in an interview with "Al-Quds", on the sidelines of the launch of the summit, "The summit brought together the Palestinian elites to talk about the reality of women, and the ministry will work to integrate the recommendations of the summit within the framework of the national plan for the State of Palestine," stressing The need to define the priorities of Palestine and for the donor countries and our partners to understand the priorities of Palestine in line with reality.

During the summit launch conference, Hamad confirmed that President Mahmoud Abbas, on the occasion of International Women's Day, issued, on the ninth of this month, a decree-law regarding the division of individual rights to raise the percentage of women who obtain their legitimate individual rights, so that we have a special inheritance law.

And Hamad continued, the Council of Ministers also endorsed the Distinguished Woman Award and approved the criteria for the award and its moral and financial value according to the various fields, and it will be announced this month, and the award winners will be distributed on the “National Women’s Day”, on October 26, in order to promote Distinguished, pioneering and creative women in all fields.

Hamad stressed that the issuance of new Palestinian laws is very important, as a system of legislation related to family protection has been developed with a purely Palestinian character, in order to pass laws that preserve and protect the dignity of Palestinian women.

Hamad noted that the percentage of women in decision-making positions is low and did not rise to the required level, stressing the need to support women towards reaching decision-making positions, unifying all the efforts of partners in state institutions and civil society institutions to empower women, especially economically, and removing obstacles that prevent their empowerment.

During the summit, two sessions were held to discuss the issue of empowered women in the fields of technology, data, business, media and political decision-making, with the participation of entrepreneurs Mona Dmaidi, Ola Awad, Guevara Al-Budiri, Manal Razik, Hunaida Ghanem, Lubna Katbeh, while the second session discussed the role of donors, international bodies, projects and efforts. The International Women's Empowerment Conference, with the participation of the European Union representative Sven Kun von Burgsdorff, the representative of the United Nations Women's Commission, Maris Gimond, the Italian Consul General Giuseppe Fedeli, and the representative of Norway, Torin Vest.