Palestinian in NGOs Send Delegation to U.N. Women's Conference in China

By Leila Diab

Among the tens of thousands of delegates pouring into Huairou, a small Chinese town 35 miles from Beijing, for the conference on women will be a 15-person delegation representing Palestinian NGOs. The NGOs are scheduled to meet from Aug. 30 to Sept. 8 and the formal Fourth United Nations Conference on the Status of Women will meet from Sept. 4 to 15 in Beijing.

Heading the Palestinian delegation will be Khajidah Abu Ali from Amman, a representative of the General Union of Palestinian Women (GUPW) and a filmmaker. Other members include Palestinian women lawyers, human and civil rights advocates and women's organization leaders. The Palestinian women's agenda for the China conference reflects the changing social and political challenges confronting the Palestinian people. Since the U.N. Women's Conference held in Nairobi in 1985, GUPW has had to reassess the current status of Palestinian women. What is being presented in China emphasizes the present state of protection of women's rights, coupled with their relationship to democracy and development.

Specifically, Palestinian history is being reconsidered to take into account the pioneering role of Palestinian women in the intifada, which included upholding the decision by the Palestine Liberation Organization to support the national economy by enforcing an economic boycott on the occupying power.

Problems facing Palestinian women are highlighted by a 1990 report and subsequent studies by the United Nations secretary-general's office. They provide compelling evidence of the long-term impact of occupation on Palestinian women and children. Facts from the reports:

Illiteracy among women is between 35 and 55 percent.
Palestinian students in the West Bank and Gaza lost 40 to 60 percent of the 1990 academic school year as a result of the closure of schools and universities.
Such closures resulted in a high drop-out rate for girl students and raised the percentage of early marriages.
There also has been a decline in the number of women graduates from all Palestinian universities, from 42 percent in the 1983-84 school year, to 38 percent in the 1991-92 school year.
In 1990 the unemployment rate rose to approximately 25 percent and increased following the Gulf war to 42.7 percent in the West Bank and Gaza.
In the Palestinian refugee camps outside the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the unemployment rate reached 38 percent in Lebanon, and the drop-out rate of girl students reached 45 percent in Palestinian refugee camps in Syria as a result of the deterioration of economic and social conditions.
The secretary-general's report stated that dozens of Palestinian women have been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers, and dozens more have been arrested, imprisoned and tortured while under interrogation.

While trying to survive under repressive occupation, it has been difficult for Palestinian women to speak up with regard to social and familial violence against them. The extent of continued violence in Israeli-occupied areas is documented by the Palestine Human Rights Information Center in Jerusalem, which reported the following statistics solely from the 12 months that elapsed from the signing of the Declaration of Principles on Sept. 13, 1993 to Sept. 13, 1994:

251 Palestinians killed
1,866 Palestinians arrested
11,710 dunums of land confiscated by Israeli authorities
37 houses demolished
1,154 fruit trees uprooted
A 10 percent increase in Jewish settlement activities
A 15 percent increase in the number of Jewish settlers in Israeli-occupied territories.

All of this activity has taken place in clear violation of international law, in particular, the Fourth Geneva Convention. Such statistics illustrate why the empowerment of Palestinian women is being hindered both by the prevailing occupation of their land, and by the reaction to such persecution, which has included the growth of extremism in Palestine and elsewhere in the region.

The specific issues of Arab/Muslim women being addressed at the Beijing conference highlight the fundamental need for new cultural attitudes and egalitarian laws, and the necessity of achieving these goals through the exercise of power and by cooperation among women across ethnic, national and religious lines.

The Palestinian women's delegation at the NGO conference seeks to send a clear message to the international community and its leadership that the efforts of men alone are not enough for making and keeping peace. The vision of women for life and for peace must also be taken into consideration in the decision-making process and in the formulation of public policy everywhere.

Leila Diab is a free-lance writer and adjunct faculty member of Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills, IL.