Women's eNews (https://womensenews.org/tag/palestine/)
Runners Without Borders provides a dose of normalcy that’s not always easy for its members to handle. “Some of our friends think that this is disloyal to the Palestinian cause,” says the mother of one girl. “It isn’t always comfortable for us.”
The current focus is on Gaza, where the Israeli military’s “knock on the roof” warning missile leaves too little time for escape. Women and children compose a sizable number of the 200 Palestinians killed as of July 16.
A 14-year-old in Gaza Strip does not like the new rules that segregate her schooling from that of boys. She has plenty of company. But Hamas, which wants to impose Sharia, shows no sign of slowing down its drive to impose socially conservative regulations.
As part of a campaign called Breaking the Silence the women talk on vide about the violent behavior they felt forced to adopt. “I turned into a monster,” says one soldier.
Sisters Sabah and Shrouq Abu Gunaim are trying to carry their childhood passion for surfing into adolescence. The sport is a rarity in the Gaza Strip, and almost forbidden for young women in this conservative society.
A U.N. resolution passed over 10 years ago requires women’s involvement in conflict resolutions. But that has little bearing on the Israel-Palestine conflict, where women are far from the power roles on either side.
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan rally in Norfolk, Va.
Credit: James B. Currie on Flickr, under Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).
NISAA FM has been broadcasting programs of special interest to Palestinian women from Ramallah for about a year. Selling ads to support the station is tough-going, as it can take several hours of persuasion to get male advertisers to buy time.
An Israeli-Palestinian women’s group that helped pioneer the push for a two-state solution fell apart in late 2010 under pressure of heightened hostilities. Its demise highlights the scarcity of women in peace talks in this conflict and around the world.
With the support of an Israeli labor rights organization, Palestinian female workers in a West Bank settlement are heading back to court for better pay and working conditions from Royalife, a company that makes bed linen for export.