On behalf of the Health Work Committees we bestow to you all a bouquet a Palestinian flowers symbolizing our dignified humanitarian struggle.

Allow me to send on your behalf the feelings of passion, love, and solidarity to the steadfast freedom fighters, the women prisoners of liberty in the occupiers’ prisons, and also to the Palestinian women of Gaza who are deeply rooted like the olive trees.

The eighth of March, International Women’s Day, comes to us at a time of sadness with more grievance than the previous years due to the barbaric Zionist aggression on our people and land in Gaza.

Our wounds of grief are even deepened by the Zionist acts of ethnic cleansing, house demolitions and land confiscations in our beloved Jerusalem and the situation in the rest of the West bank is no better. In spite of the above, we are also suffering from the bitterness of the internal Palestinian division which threatens our national project of liberation that only serves the Zionist occupation. In the circumstance of national liberation only criminals tamper with national unity or consider fighting in any battle other than the battle of resistance against the occupier.   

The suffering of our women in the Gaza Strip has doubled since the Israeli aggression on the Strip.

Out of the 1450 Palestinians killed by the Israeli aggression on the Strip, 120 of them, or 8.3% were women, not to mention the 735 women wounded (leaving dozens permanently paralyzed)  which equal up to 17% of the overall percentage of wounded Palestinians by the murderous Zionist attack on the Gaza Strip.

As if the massacres of these women and their families were not enough, the Zionist policies did not stop there to worsen the already complex lives. Violations such as the demolition of thousands of residential homes leaving hundreds of thousands displaced and homeless as well as the razing of thousands of dunums of agricultural lands and the demolition of factories, institutions and shops also added to the burdens carried by these steadfast women as their livelihood and the livelihoods of their families worsened to the degree of no income at all, adding to the burdens suffered.   

In addition to the continuous suffering of people of Gaza, let us not forget the siege bestowed upon the Gaza Strip by the occupation state, the European Union and the Bush administration since June 2007. This economic and social collective punishment siege which in no way excluded the thousands of Palestinian women of their right to freedom of movement, as hundreds of them  are still deprived of their right to receive appropriate treatment due to their prevention of travel to receive treatment due to the closure of the crossings.  

In Jerusalem, the programmed and systematic Zionist ethnic cleansing policy of house demolitions and displacement is a new burden and reality on the ground for Palestinian Jerusalemites. But the arena of struggle in the capital of Palestine is a witness to the role of defiant Palestinian women in their challenge against the prejudice occupations attempt to judaize Jerusalem. From marches, demonstrations and sit-ins to press conferences to confronting the occupations so called border police and bulldozers, the acts of Palestinian women in Jerusalem register daily acts of courage and defiance on the pages of glory.  

Other than the mentioned struggles with the Zionist occupation the Palestinian women also suffer from the male norms and values imposed by the dominant culture, which lead to the outdated and regressive adaptation of reason and thought to the standards and values of the Palestinian society. 

The suffering of Palestinian women continues through violence committed against them inside of their society which psychologically harms them and prohibits them from the simplest of rights within their families. There are also prejudices against Palestinian women in the Palestinian work force which is obvious in the ratio between the men and women unemployment rate.  

On this occasion if we want justice to be served for Palestinian women whom history has witnessed as heroic, the best tribute to them is the realization of a genuine Palestinian national reconciliation, the rejection of quotas between Fateh and Hamas, the construction of national unity, and an end to the division by the formation of a government endorsed by national and popular support. A government to re-examine the option of the futile negotiations and fuse the option of resistance and supervise the holding of presidential and legislative elections, on the basis of full proportional representation.  

Also, to rebuild the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people on democratic foundations through comprehensive elections for the Palestinian National Council both on the homeland and abroad. Today we salute and congratulate the women’s movement which achieved national, social and mass struggle throughout the years which was culminated in the ratification of President Abu Mazen’s signing of a convention to eliminate of all forms of discrimination. This is a step forward but it is not enough because this step needs to be a practical interpretation of various laws, legislation, administrative and executive policies for full equality between men and women. As well as the elimination of discrimination against women in all walks of life so that women can be given their full political, economic, social and cultural rights.

On the eighth of March we celebrate Women’s Day as a day of continuous national and social struggle. We at the Health Work Committees pledge to continue your struggle with you as part of our progressive vision and message towards women in various aspects of life.

Long Live the Eighth of March

Long Live Palestine, Free and Proud

Glory and Perpetuity to Our Martyrs

Freedom for Our Women and Men Prisoners

Shatha Odeh

General Manager