op-ed: Emergence and status of the feminist movement ... challenges and opportunities

There is no doubt that the decline in the role of the Palestinian national movement has cast a shadow over the entire components and structures of Palestinian society and its various social groups. The division, and what it generated from the absence of accountability and domination over the limited resources of our people, and their misuse and mismanagement, led to the exacerbation of social crises and the spread of corruption, poverty, unemployment and nepotism. This exacerbated the burdens and forms of discrimination suffered by women, and the youth, as they were among the groups most affected by this deterioration at the various economic, social and political levels, especially in terms of their exclusion from political participation and the decision-making process.

In my previous article, I briefly looked at the reality of the youth and the role that this vital sector can play in the process of democratic change, the defense of the national destiny, and the requirements of building a national movement with new features and a young leadership that opens up horizons for completing national liberation and democratic construction in accordance with the characteristics of the current stage that is witnessing tremendous changes, on the the regional and international levels, the dangers that threaten the Palestinian cause, and the national rights of our people.

It goes without saying and re-emphasizing the importance of the vital and historical role played by Palestinian women throughout the years of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, from before the Nakba until now. The feminist movement has had a prominent role since 1920, when waves of national struggle swept through Palestine, as it spread to major cities with Jerusalem, and the rest of the towns and villages, major demonstrations took place on February 27, 1920, in which tens of thousands of Palestinian women and men participated, expressing their rejection of the British Mandate and Zionist ambitions in the land of Palestine.

During the Mandate era, women took the initiative to form many feminist associations, and a feminist conference was organized in Jerusalem in 1929 to unify the feminist effort, in which 200 women participated, and many decisions were issued that established the requirements for advancing the status of women, and the Women’s Union was established in 1930, which is considered a step Mission in unifying and mobilizing the women's movement in Palestine.

Following the Nakba and the Zionist movement's seizure of 78% of the land of Palestine, the women's movement in the Gaza Strip, and the three women's associations present in it, were able to unify their efforts under the name of the Women's Union Society in 1964, and then the General Union of Palestinian Women was established under the supervision of the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1965 At the Jerusalem Conference, which contributed to organizing the struggles of Palestinian women and unifying their struggles on the national and social levels.

However, the Palestinian feminist movement witnessed an unprecedented qualitative shift during the Great Intifada in December 1987, as previously that women in the Palestine Liberation Organization factions were able to build an organized mass feminist movement. Then, in 1989, the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees “The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine” was established, followed by the establishment in 1981 of the Union of Women’s Committees for Social Work “Fatah Movement”, and the Union of Palestinian Working Women’s Committees “The Palestinian Communist Party”, where these mass frameworks and organizations played Feminism and its network of social institutions played a fundamental and prominent role not only in the social struggle with its various dimensions in facing the policies of repression and collective punishment practiced by the Israeli occupation forces, but also played a role in leading the uprising itself, as this great role is highlighted by the movie “Naela and the Intifada” by the Brazilian director of Lebanese origins Julia Pasha.

The Palestinian feminist movement, as well as the mass movements of other sectors, “students, workers and professionals”, most of them arose from the womb of the national struggle in the face of Zionist colonial ambitions since the Nakba of 1948, and after the completion of the occupation of Palestine during the 1967 aggression. The occupation expanded within its framework the forms of popular participation, and vice versa.

The important matter that must be presented to public opinion, and now deserves a serious discussion, is why, despite the expansion of the formation of women's civil institutions since the establishment of the National Authority, the feminist movement and women's rights that they wrested in their national struggle against the occupation are witnessing a noticeable decline?! This requires all social and national forces seeking change, rebuilding and renewing the national movement, and correcting the compass of the national struggle against the occupation with the requirements of social democratic construction and its essence is strengthening people’s steadfastness and their ability to survive and confront liquidation schemes, to stop carefully before the reasons for this decline and prospects, ways and tools. Re-energize it within the framework of a national and social vision that is an alternative to the reality of the current national and popular movement. This is what we will try to discuss in a later article to examine the challenges and opportunities for achieving this.