On the Intl Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, Palestinian women call for protection

Palestine (QNN)- 25 November is universally recognized as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. The United Nations marks the day by launching a 16-day campaign with the title “Orange the World: #GenerationEquality.”

On this campaign, Palestinian and pro-Palestinian activists call on the international community to protect Palestinian women.

Under Israel’s occupation, Palestinian women are exposed to serious human rights violations.

They are exposed to injury and death amid Israeli forces’ use of excessive and lethal force.

From the start of the Great Return March demonstrations, on 30 March 2018, over 1,800 women have been injured by Israeli occupation forces. In Israel’s 2008 aggression on Gaza, 110 women were also killed.

Palestinian women are also arrested and detained. According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, Israeli occupation detained more than 16,000 Palestinian women since its occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip in June 1967.

Over the last 43 years, an estimated 10,000 Palestinian women have been arrested and/or detained under Israeli military orders.

Between 2007 and November 2008, 125 Palestinian women were arrested, detained or imprisoned in Israeli prisons and detention centers (56% of them between the ages of 20 and 30 and 13% of them under the age of 18).

As of November 2010, there are 36 Palestinian women prisoners: 5 have been sentenced to 1 or more life sentences, 15 have been sentenced to a minimum of 10 years, and 4 of them are being administratively detained for an indefinite period of time.

Inside Israeli jails, Palestinian women suufer from harsh imprisonment conditions including medical negligence, denial of education, denial of family visits, solitary confinement, overcrowded cells that are often filled with insects and dirt and lack natural light. Personal health and hygiene needs are rarely addressed by prisons authorities, even in cases involving the detention of pregnant women.

Moreover, the majority of Palestinian women prisoners are subjected to some form of torture or ill-treatment throughout the process of their arrest and detention, including beatings, insults, threats, body searches and sexually explicit harassment and psychological abuse.

Moreover, house demolitions affect Palestinian women, who often suffer from forcible displacement, homelessness, and loss of privacy during displacement. The result of losing their livelihood has profound economic, social, and psychological consequences on women and their families, who are often left homeless, or resulted to live in over-crowded, or less than adequate, conditions.

Violence against Palestinian women on the hands of Israeli occupation is horrible and violates international law; the world must take bold actions against Israel, this is what the Palestinian and pro-Palestinian activits are trying to say in this campagin.

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