Brussels/Tel Aviv/Jerusalem 06 March: On the eve of International Women’s Day, EMHRN new report highlights the unique situation of Palestinian women whose rights are violated in both Israel the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).
EMHRN’s latest report, Palestinian Women’s Rights in EU-Israel and EU-PA Relations, examines discrimination against Palestinian women and the challenges facing them in Israel, the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), and the Gaza Strip, in one document, providing women’s rights organisations with an essential and comprehensive advocacy tool.
Although one group, Palestinian women are either seen as part of the Palestinian minority in Israel, or as part of the Palestinian population in the OPT under Israeli occupation, overshadowing their group identity and concerns as Palestinian women.
Thus, this report examines discrimination against Palestinian women as a whole, and shows how distinction between them undermines their rights as a group.
The report addresses challenges facing all Palestinian women, such as access to health, education, employment, housing, family life, political participation, as well as gender-based violence in both Israel and the OPT.
Palestinian women do not only suffer from discrimination as part of the Palestinian minority in Israel, and from living under Israeli occupation in the OPT, but also from gender-based discrimination committed by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the Hamas-led government in Gaza.
Given its own commitments to human rights and gender equality, the EU must address violations of Palestinian women’s rights in the human rights framework of its relations with both Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Gender equality is, first and foremost, a human right and is essential to peace and development.
Read full report here (English, Arabic)