Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories

Citation:

Schnabel, Albrecht and Amara Tabyshalieva, eds. 2012. Defying Victimhood: Women and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding. Tokyo and New York: United Nations University Press.

Authors: Amara Tabyshalieva, Albrecht Schnabel

Abstract:

Women are among the most competent, yet marginalized, unnoticed and underutilized actors in efforts to rebuild war-torn societies. Opportunities for sustainable peacebuilding are lost - and sustainable peace is at risk - when significant stakeholders in a society's future peace and conflict architecture are excluded from efforts to heal the wounds of war and build a new society and a new state. The contributors to this book draw on comparative case and country studies from post-conflict contexts in different parts of world to offer their insights into frameworks for understanding women as both victims and peacebuilders, to trace the road that women take from victimhood to empowerment and to highlight the essential partnerships between women and children and how they contribute to peace. The authors examine the roles of women in political and security institutions.

Annotation:

Content:

1 Forgone opportunities: The marginalization of women’s contributions to post-conflict peacebuilding; Albrecht Schnabel and Anara Tabyshalieva

2 Frameworks for understanding women as victims and peacebuilders; Lisa Schirch

Part I: From victimhood to empowerment: Patterns and changes

3 Mass crimes and resilience of women: A cross-national perspective;  Krishna Kumar

4 Victimization, empowerment and the impact of UN peacekeeping missions on women and children: Lessons from Cambodia and Timor-Leste; Sumie Nakaya

5 Frontline peacebuilding: Women’s reconstruction initiatives in Burundi;  Rose M. Kadende-Kaiser

Part II: Women and children: Essential partnership of survival and peace.

6 Women and children in the post-Cold War Balkans: Concerns and responses; Constantine P. Danopoulos, Konstantinos S. Skandalis and Zlatko Isakovic

7 Emerging from poverty as champions of change: Women and children in post-war Tajikistan; Svetlana Sharipova and Hermine De Soto

8 Young mothers as agents of peacebuilding: Lessons from an early childcare and development project in Macedonia; Deborah Davis

Part III: Putting good intentions into practice: National and global efforts to right past wrongs.

9 Gender and transitional justice: Experiences from South Africa, Rwanda and Sierra Leone; Lyn S. Graybill

10 Empowering women to promote peace and security: From the global to the local – Securing and implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1325; Ancil Adrian-Paul

Part IV: Deconstructing victimhood: Women in political and security institutions.

11 State-building or survival in conflict and post-conflict situations? A peacebuilding perspective on Palestinian women’s contributions to ending the Israeli occupation;  Vanessa Farr

12 Women’s participation in political decision-making and recovery processes in post-conflict Lebanon; Kari H. Karamé

13 Combating stereotypes: Female security personnel in post-conflict contexts; Kristin Valasek

Conclusion

14 Defying victimhood: Women as activists and peacebuilders; Anara Tabyshalieva and Albrecht Schnabel

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Private Military & Security, Peacebuilding, Peacekeeping, Peace Processes, Political Economies, Political Participation, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Rights, Women's Rights, Security, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325 Regions: Africa, MENA, Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa, Asia, Central Asia, Middle East, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe, Oceania Countries: Burundi, Lebanon, Macedonia, Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste

Year: 2012

Citation:

Holt, Maria. 2014. Women & Conflict in the Middle East: Palestinian Refugees and the Response to Violence. Library of Modern Middle East Studies 123. London: Tauris.

Author: Maria Holt

Abstract:

Women in conflict zones face a wide range of violence: from physical and psychological trauma to political, economic and social disadvantage. And the sources of the violence are varied also: from the 'public' violence of the enemy to the more 'private' violence of the family. Here, Maria Holt, using research gathered in the Palestinian refugee camps of Lebanon and in the West Bank in 2007, looks at the forms of violence suffered by women in the context of the wider conflict around them. Drawing on first-hand accounts of women who have either participated in, been victims of or bystanders to violence, this book highlights the complex situation of these refugees, and explores how many of them become involved in resistance activities. It thus makes essential reading for students of the Israel-Palestine conflict as well as those interested in the gender dimension of conflict. (WorldCat)

Annotation:

Introduction : the Palestine of our imagination --
The intimate history of violence --
'Violated spaces' : Palestinian women and the politics of place --
'She still has the key' : the multiple violences of exile --
War and 'uncivil violence' in Lebanon --
The politics of forgetting --
Conclusion : counter-narratives of resistance

Topics: Armed Conflict, Occupation, Displacement & Migration, Refugee/IDP Camps, Gender, Women, Violence Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Lebanon, Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories

Year: 2014

Citation:

Kuttab, Eileen. 2014. “Empowerment as Resistance: Conceptualizing Palestinian Women’s Empowerment.” In Feminisms, Empowerment and Development: Changing Women’s Lives, edited by Andrea Cornwall and Jenny Edwards. New York: Zed Books Ltd.

Author: Eileen Kuttab

Topics: Armed Conflict, Occupation, Gender, Women Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories

Year: 2014

Citation:

Jad, Islah. 2014. “Local Power and Women’s Empowerment in a Conflict Context: Palestinian Women Contesting Power in Chaos.” In Women in Politics: Gender, Power and Development, edited by Mariz Tadros. London: Zed Books Ltd.

Author: Islah Jad

Topics: Armed Conflict, Occupation, Gender, Women Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories

Year: 2014

Citation:

Lena Meari. 2015. “Re-Signifying ‘Sexual’ Colonial Power Techniques: The Experiences of Palestinian Women Political Prisoners.” In Rethinking Gender in Revolutions and Resistance : Lessons from the Arab World, edited by Maha El Said, Lena Meari and Nicola Pratt. London: Zed Books Ltd.

Author: Lena Meari

Topics: Gender, Women, Sexual Violence, SV against Women Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories

Year: 2015

Citation:

Author: Amal Jamal

Abstract:

After playing a major role in promoting the Palestinian national cause, the Palestinian women's movement seeks to influence policy-making and improve the legal status of women in the emerging state. The counter-campaign of the Islamic movement and the ambivalent position of the Palestinian Authority mirror the emerging "matrix of domination" in Palestine. A broad political coalition of all democratic forces in Palestinian society is needed if any real change in women's status is to take place.

Topics: Development, Feminisms, Gender, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Governance, Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories

Year: 2001

Citation:

Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Nadera, Antonina Griecci Woodsum, Himmat Zu’bi, and Rachel Busbridge. 2014. “Funding Pain: Bedouin Women and Political Economy in the Naqab/Negev.” Feminist Economics 20 (4): 164–86. doi:10.1080/13545701.2014.946941.

Authors: Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Antonia Griecci Woodsum, Himmat Zu'bi, Rachel Busbridge

Abstract:

This contribution focuses on the experiences and voices of Palestinian Bedouin women surviving and challenging Israeli colonial policies while residing in their own land and, in particular, the Bedouin women of the Naqab living in unrecognized villages. Through interviews and focus groups, this study learns from and engages with the voices of Palestinian Bedouin women because colonized women's criticisms of the political economic apparatus are seldom invoked to influence policy. Exploring these women's voices offers an opportunity to examine the political economy of their unrecognized, officially nonexistent villages and homes and to rectify the gap in bottom-up knowledge of political economy by investigating the institutional structures that define and circumscribe women's lives. Privileging Bedouin women's production of knowledge carries the analytical value of studying political economy based on women's own experiences and struggles against hegemony.

Keywords: bedouin women, political economy, palestine, Israel

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Households, Political Economies Regions: Asia, Middle East Countries: Israel, Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories

Year: 2014

Citation:

Authors: Shir Daphna Tekoah, Ayelet Harel-Shalev

Abstract:

This study utilizes two different qualitative analysis techniques to explore the experiences of women who served as combatants or in combat support roles in conflict zones. By using data analysis techniques such as the “listening guide” and content theme analysis, the study uncovers the experiences that this specific group undergoes, while exposing their dilemmas and thoughts. This research investigates how military service in conflict zones impacts the psychological, physical, and emotional wellbeing of female combatants. Twenty female Israeli veterans between the ages of 21 and 30 who served in the Israeli Defense Forces in the Occupied Territories (the West Bank and Gaza) were interviewed for this study. The findings suggest that although the combatants actively served by choice in high-status positions, they applied a dissociation mechanism in order to survive the traumatic and complex reality of their service. This study offers a unique, multilayered analysis of these women combatants' voices.

Topics: Combatants, Female Combatants, Gender, Women, Health, Mental Health, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Israel, Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories

Year: 2014

Citation:

Jamal, Manal A. 2015. “Western Donor Assistance and Gender Empowerment in the Palestinian Territories and Beyond.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 17 (2): 232–52. doi:10.1080/14616742.2013.849966.

Author: Manal A. Jamal

Abstract:

Since the end of the Cold War, the quest to spread democracy has become the rallying call of many Western donor agencies. Reflecting this new agenda, new program priorities prevailed that placed greater emphasis on civil society development, civic engagement and gender empowerment. Contrary to expectations, however, many of these programs have often adversely affected existing social movements. Most scholars attempting to explain these unintended outcomes have focused on the impact of NGO professionalization. Examining the Palestinian women's movement, this article addresses the inadequacy of this explanation and focuses on the political dimension of this discussion by illustrating how Western donors' lack of understanding of the Palestinian women's movement and its “embeddedness” in the broader political context served to weaken and undermine this movement. The influx of Western donor assistance in the post-Madrid, post-Oslo era, along with the greater emphasis on Western promoted gender empowerment, undermined the cohesiveness of the women's movement by exacerbating existing political polarization (that went beyond Islamist and secular divisions) and disempowering many grassroots activists. Effectively, many of these activists were transformed from active political participants involved in their organizations to the recipients of skills and services in need of awareness raising. Findings in this article also speak to current regional developments, especially in light of the current Arab uprisings and the promise of greater Western involvement to empower women in the region.

Keywords: gender empowerment, democracy promotion, Western donor assistance, Palestinian women's movement, Arab women

Topics: Civil Society, Democracy / Democratization, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Humanitarian Assistance, NGOs, Political Participation Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories

Year: 2015

Citation:

Nusair, Isis, and Rhoda Ann Kanaaneh. 2010. Displaced at Home: Ethnicity and Gender Among Palestinians in Israel. State University of New York Press.

Authors: Rhoda Ann Kanaaneh, Isis Nusair

Annotation:

"Groundbreaking essays by Palestinian women scholars on the lives of Palestinians within the state of Israel. Most media coverage and research on the experience of Palestinians focuses on those living in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, while the sizable minority of Palestinians living within Israel rarely garners significant academic or media attention. Offering a rich and multidimensional portrait of the lived realities of Palestinians within the state of Israel, Palestinians in Israel Revisited gathers a group of Palestinian women scholars who present unflinching critiques of the complexities and challenges inherent in the lives of this understudied but important minority within Israel. The essays here engage topics ranging from internal refugees and historical memory to women’s sexuality and the resistant possibilities of hip hop culture among young Palestinians. Unique in the collection is sustained attention to gender concerns, which have tended to be subordinated to questions of nationalism, statehood, and citizenship. The first collection of its kind in English, Palestinians in Israel Revisited presents on-the-ground examples of the changing political, social and economic conditions of Palestinians in Israel, and examines how global, national, and local concerns intersect and shape their daily lives." (Summary from Project Muse)

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Gender, Women Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Israel, Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories

Year: 2010