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Editor's note: Reported from Qatar.
Development and human rights organizations continue to face difficulties in their social and humanitarian work in Palestine due to Israeli occupation.
“In the last 3 years, sixty Palestinian women gave births on checkpoints. Thirteen babies lost their lives because Israeli officers would not allow medical care,” said Zahera Kamal, Palestinian National Authority Minister of Women’s Affairs.
According to Kamal, women in Palestine are the most prominent victims in Palestine. Kamal said because of the Israeli occupation many girls are not receiving an education because families are choosing to keep them at home due to the harassment and abuse the women receive from the Israeli military. As a result, many in the present generation of Palestinian women are being forced into marriage.
"We do not need to convince families to educate their daughters. What we need to figure out is how to convince them to do so in spite of all these restrictions as part of our national cause," Kamal said.
“As an independent commissioner on human rights, our mandate is not primarily to monitor the violations committed by the Israelis, but rather by the Palestinian Authority,” said Lamis Alami, Director General for The Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens’ Rights in Ramallah.
The commission analyzes the impact of Israeli interferences in Palestinian affairs on a regular basis.
“It is important to monitor how Israeli violations affect the provisions of services by the PNA. We can not simply ignore the violations and the burden of [Israeli] occupation because occupation is the biggest violator of human rights and the root of the problem that exists in Palestine.”
Average Palestinians believe that Hamas will not interfere in the work of aid and human rights organizations, since both sides have the same intentions and believe in the same approaches and goals.
“Compared to other major factions mainly its rival Fateh, Hamas is known for its clean hands from corruption. Hamas coordinate with us as mediators in disputes, which we always resolve successfully. They live and feel with the people.” Alami said.
“I would like to say this for the record. Following the Israeli invasion in 2002, in a town near the city of Jenin, Hamas people killed a man thought of collaborating with the Israelis. Mistakes rarely occur when it comes to identifying collaborators, but this time it was a mistake. Hamas made an apology in public and compensated the family, which was the first time a Palestinian faction had done something like that,” Alami said. “All such incidents happen because of the occupation; especially since people know that there are collaborators with the Israelis.”
Kamal said Palestinians expect the Israelis will continue to increase their pressure on them following Hamas’s democratic victory in the recent elections. The United States and the European Union have threatened to stop aid, which will increase the burden on non-profit development organizations that work in Palestine and will put Palestinian women under more psychological pressure. Insiders believe these circumstances are fertile ground for escalating violence.
“Human beings are different and their reactions are different too. Do you remember Wafa’a? That young, educated and beautiful girl from the city of Tulkarem who bombed herself killing Israelis in retaliation to the Israeli soldiers who killed her fiancé, brother and cousin,” Kamal said. “This is the first time a government wins democratically through the polls in the Arab world. The democratic regime [process] we have in Palestine that brought Hamas to power should continue because we believe that elections are the way to transform power peacefully. It is an [majority] Islamic government, but if Hamas is doing the job well, then people will continue to elect them. Though, from what we are hearing from Israeli interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, it [does] not [look] a rosy future.”
© Copyright World Internet News 2006-07
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