MIFTAH recently held its conference entitled: “Participation and Complementarity as a Strategy of Governance amid crises”, attended by a wide spectrum of government representatives, local councils, civil society institutions, popular committees, researchers and academics, in addition to representatives from international institutions.

The conference addressed how the Palestinian people’s existence is being targeted along with their ability to survive and remain steadfast amid the genocide in the Gaza Strip, escalating settlement policies and forced displacement from the West Bank, including Jerusalem. It showed how these complex crises exposed the diminishing effectiveness of the Palestinian institutional structure, the limitations of a centralized model of governance and its inability to singularly respond to the needs of society and protect the social fabric.

The participants reiterated that participation and complementarity between the government, civil society, local councils and popular committees is no longer an administrative option or a procedural improvement, but a national and structural necessity to ensure steadfastness and the ability to manage crises, and preserve social unity and Palestinian geographic integrity in the face of the escalating colonialist onslaught.

They indicated that the absence of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) prompted CSO’s to reconsider public policies and contribute to the development of perspectives on governance, provide practical alternatives that promote national unity and reorganize the relationship between the state and society on the basis of participation and complementarity.

The participants reiterated that experience in the field in the West Bank and Gaza Strip proved that local councils, popular committees and grassroots organizations, played a pivotal role in protecting citizens and providing basic services during times of government capacity collapse. They stressed that ignoring these roles or administratively confining them exacerbated fragility rather than hinder it.

The conference concluded with general agreements over the following points:

One: Adopting participation and complementarity as a National Government Policy

1. Adopting the principle of “complementary participatory governance” as a public policy for this stage: a unifying national framework, not a closed executive plan.
2. Reaffirming the institutional and legislative structural unity between the West Bank and Gaza Strip as a fundamental and legal reference, and the rejection of any permanent formula of fragmentation.
3. Complementarity calls for the adoption of official- civil partnership in planning emergency priorities and ensuring services and societal oversight, while respecting roles and not replacing them.
4. Considering social protection and preventing expulsion as a central government function, managed at the official/civil level and according to a clear rights-based logic.
5. Establishing permanent national red lines, the right to self-determination and statehood, the right to protection of society, refusal to depoliticize the cause and rejection of any arrangements that cancel out or fragment national representation, while strengthening international solidarity on this basis.

Two: Accountability and societal trust

1. Promoting the mechanisms of societal accountability as a complementary element of participation, ensures justice in the distribution of resources, protects civil action from politicization and polarization and contributes to rebuilding trust between society and institutions of governance.
2. Adopting a declared and binding policy that determines the framework and shape of partnership between CSOs and public institutions, reaffirming the role of civil society in contributing to the formulation of public policies and decisions pertaining to public affairs.
3. Empowering and building the capacities of CSOs in public policies and rules of good governance, and promoting and developing tools for societal accountability.

Three: Promoting the role of local players in crisis management

1. Recognizing the pivotal role of local councils and popular committees in refugee camps, especially in emergency contexts, and developing the experiences of the Gaza Municipality and popular committees in the Jenin camp as two national models that can be evaluated, developed and circulated.
2. Moving from impromptu responses to sustainable and participatory crisis management, based on planning, resource integration and linking social interventions with fair and transparent spending plans.

Four: From the concept of governor to the strategy of governorate

1. Calling to redefine the role of governor and move from a model of “governor” as an individual central authority to a modal of ‘governorate” as an institutional, participatory and complementary body that constitutes a platform for coordination between government and community.
2. Adopting the model of governorate councils as a unifying institutional framework that includes elected representatives of local councils, CSOs, popular committees and the private sector, to promote popular participation and protect Palestinian geographic unity from fragmentation.
3. Organizing the relationship between central and local levels on the basis of functional complementarity and the distribution of authorities, to prevent placing the burdens of the state on society. At the same time, this prevents decentralization to be used as an instrument of fragmentation, in the service of the colonialist project.

The conference closed by emphasizing that confronting the escalating colonialist onslaught cannot be achieved through closed, centralized instruments or top-down approaches. Instead, it requires a model of national governance grounded in participation and complementarity. This model should be based on mutual recognition of roles and the revival of social structures. It must operate within a unifying national framework that protects the unity of society and geography and promotes Palestinian steadfastness.

MIFTAH reiterated its commitment to continuing this discussion, based on its interest in contributing to the promotion of national dialogue. In this regard, MIFTAH does not position itself as an alternative to any legislative or executive body, nor does it seek to replace the role of any political player. Nonetheless, given the significance of the current context and dangers facing our causes, MIFTAH is keen on its commitment to a unifying national approach that promotes dialogue between Palestinians.

MIFTAH looks forward to building on the outcomes of this conference and turning them into sustainable policy and dialogue pathways. The ultimate goal is for the Palestinian government to adopt a policy of participatory and complementary governance. This would lay the groundwork for a model of local governance that reflects the will of society and protects its unity, at one of the most dangerous and complex stages in contemporary Palestinian history.

To view the Full Statement as PDF

MIFTAH welcomes the historic resolution adopted on July 30th by the United Nations Economic and Social Council on the situation of Palestinian women under occupation. We extend our deep gratitude to all member states that have voted in favor of this unprecedented and urgently needed resolution.

For years, MIFTAH has consistently advocated for the rights of Palestinian women through a decolonial and rights-based lens, urging the international community to do the same.

While we continue to address the internal challenges Palestinian women face, through close partnership with civil society organizations and government stakeholders, it remains clear that the single greatest threat to their freedom, safety, and survival is Israel’s ongoing military occupation.

Nowhere is this more evident than in Gaza, where Palestinian women are enduring Israel’s relentless genocidal campaign.

This resolution arrives at a critical moment, as the world begins to engage more seriously with the Palestinian issue, and as the UN concludes its high level international conference on a peaceful and just settlement, including the implementation of the two state solution.

In this context, we must be unequivocal about what justice and peace demand:

• An end to the genocide in Gaza;
• The unconditional and immediate entry of humanitarian aid and supplies into the Gaza Strip;
• The right of return for all Palestinian refugees displaced by Israel;
• A complete end to Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise, which continues to expand across the occupied West Bank; the evacuation of all settlers from occupied Palestinian land; and full accountability for settler terror, including prosecution of those responsible for killings and acts of terror against Palestinians;
• The full withdrawal of Israeli military forces and governing authorities from the occupied West Bank. This includes the dismantling of all infrastructure that upholds the occupation: checkpoints, the apartheid wall, military bases, interrogation and detention centers, police stations, and prisons, in full compliance with the International Court of Justice’s July 2024 ruling.
• An immediate end to all forms of economic, military, and political support that sustain Israel’s occupation and apartheid regime, including the suspension of cooperation agreements and the termination of free trade deals.

While these conditions affect all Palestinians, Palestinian women face distinct and gender-specific harms under Israel’s occupation, realities that MIFTAH has documented extensively. From movement restrictions and political repression, to economic marginalization and targeted violence, the occupation entrenches systemic and multi-layered harm against Palestinian women.

We believe that only once these conditions are addressed, can a viable and dignified future begin to emerge for Palestinian women and their communities, after over 77 years of occupation, violations, and aggression.

As we celebrate this important step by the United Nations, we echo the call made by the Minister of Women's Affairs: words must now be translated into concrete action. We urge member states and UN bodies to implement the provisions of this resolution and to pursue sustained efforts toward ending the occupation, securing accountability, and upholding the full rights of Palestinian women, including their right to live free from violence, discrimination, and oppression.

To view the Statement as PDF

The undersigned Palestinian civil society organizations condemn the resolution passed by the Polish government and signed by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stating that the highest level of the Israeli leadership, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, can enter Poland freely. This comes despite the fact that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Netanyahu (another arrest warrant has been issued for the former Minister of Defence, Yoav Gallant).

Being a signatory to the Rome Statute, the founding document of the International Criminal Court, Poland is legally obligated to respect and abide by the Court’s decisions, including to carry out the arrest warrants for Israeli officials on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The double standards with respect to the ongoing genocide in Gaza are clear as Poland recently protested Mongolia’s decision not to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Respect and ensuring respect of international law and treaties is not a matter of political will. Adherence to the Rome Statute concerns fundamental obligations that must be respected by all State parties. Choosing to politicize international courts and cherry-picking which legal obligations to follow renders international law meaningless and poses a serious threat to the international law-based order.

We call on Poland to reverse this decision to fully comply with its obligations under the Rome Statute, implement the arrest warrants issued by the ICC, and abide by the ICJ Advisory Opinion calling on all States to not recognize Israel’s unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory and to not render aid or assistance in maintaining Israel’s illegal occupation, as well as as well as decisions and orders by other international courts and UN resolutions. We further call on the international community as a whole to support the ICC, the ICJ, and uphold the integrity of the international legal system by abiding by their rulings.

Signatories:

• The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy - MIFTAH
• Al-Haq
• Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association
• The Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC)
• Defence for Children International - Palestine
• Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC)
• Bisan Center for Research and Development
• Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)
• Al Mezan Center for Human Rights

When Sana, who comes from the West Bank city of Hebron, married her Jerusalem-born husband Mohammed 13 years ago, she never imagined their union would lead to a life of fear and hiding.

At first, their different residency permits -- hers for the West Bank, his for Jerusalem -- weren't much of an issue. She could live with her husband in East Jerusalem with a temporary permit, and movement between the city and the West Bank was still fairly easy.

But, with the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising in 2000, travel restrictions gradually tightened until in 2003, Israel effectively stopped issuing Jerusalem residency permits to Palestinians in what caught Sana and Mohammed in an impossible bind.

Without an Israeli permit, Sana can't live in Jerusalem with her husband and children. But if Mohammed moves to the West Bank, he risks losing his Jerusalem residency and all access to the city of his birth.

Palestinians say it has never been easy to get a residency permit to move from the West Bank to East Jerusalem.

But in 2003, as the intifada raged on, Israel passed an emergency measure which effectively ended the process of "family reunification", citing security concerns.

Around the same time, Israel was also building a vast barrier through the West Bank which has since cut off most of East Jerusalem from the rest of the occupied territories, making access to the Holy City without a permit even harder.

In 2005, when Sana's permit ran out, she received an order expelling her from Jerusalem.

"Since then, I've been living illegally with my husband and children in Jerusalem," the 31-year-old told AFP.

"I left Jerusalem for a short period, but then I snuck back in and began living in hiding with my husband and children, who have permits," she said.

Her life, she says, has become a nightmare of constant fear. Turning the corner in a certain neighborhood could bring her face-to-face with a security official who could send her back to Hebron, separating her from her children.

"I barely leave the house," she told AFP. "I only go out to go to the doctor or to meet my children's teachers. When I'm near an area with police or soldiers, I feel terrified.

"I'm constantly worried -- afraid that the police will raid our neighborhood and find me in the house and arrest me, expel me and keep me from my children," she said.

Hassan Jabareen, the founder of Arab-Israeli rights group Adalah, says the situation for people in Sana's position has worsened dramatically since 2003.

"A law was passed that prevents Israeli citizens from living as a family if they marry Palestinians from the occupied territories or citizens of Iran, Iraq, Syria or Lebanon," he explained.

'We live isolated'

"The situation now is much worse than in the past. We petitioned the Supreme Court years ago but have yet to receive a ruling."

The emergency legislation has never been repealed and this past week, Israel's cabinet extended it for a further six months at the request of Interior Minister Eli Yishai.

The legislation affects two groups: Arab-Israelis married to Palestinians from the West Bank or Gaza, and Jerusalem residents who marry spouses without permission to live in the city.

In a 2006 report, Israeli rights group B'Tselem found that Israel had refused to process more than 120,000 requests for family reunification. The group accused Israel of using the policy "to prevent the further increase of the Arab population in Israel in order to preserve the Jewish character of the state."

For Sana, the policy has meant missing both happy and sad family moments, including when her mother became sick with the cancer that would eventually kill her.

"I didn't go to visit her when she was ill with liver cancer because I feared losing my children if I couldn't come back from Hebron. I only went when she died," she said.

"My brothers got married and I couldn't go to their weddings. And when my father was admitted to hospital a month ago, I also didn't go to visit. He died a week ago and I only went on the day of his death. It was devastating."

She snuck back into Jerusalem by taxi, using back roads that are regularly patrolled by Israeli troops.

"On the way back I was feeling two things -- sorrow over my father's death and fear at the thought the soldiers might shoot at us," she admitted.

For Bethlehem-born Huda, 33, the life described by Sana is a familiar one.

She married her husband in Jerusalem 16 years ago, and was initially issued a yearly residency permit that allowed her to stay in the city.

But 10 years later, her husband was convicted by an Israeli court for his activities with Fatah, the party of President Mahmoud Abbas, and sentenced to five years in jail prison.

"They stopped issuing my permit and instead issued an order expelling me," she said.

Since then, Huda has been living illegally in Jerusalem, and speaks of having to "smuggle" herself back home after rare trips to Bethlehem to see her family.

"One time I was with a group of women in the mountains and we ran into an army patrol. They forced us to go back to Bethlehem... and they mocked us as we walked back, making herding noises like we were sheep."

Like Sana, she has been forced to keep her distance from her West Bank hometown.

"I don't visit my family except in cases of serious illness or a death because I know what I will face on the road. It's tragic, my family lives 20 minutes away by car and I can't visit them," she said.

"We live isolated. Neither my brothers nor my sisters visit us, whether the occasion is happy or sad."

Palestinians prefer the Western-backed government of Salam Fayyad to the sacked cabinet of Hamas premier Ismail Haniya, according to a survey published on Thursday.

The poll by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Centre, the first it has conducted since Hamas seized power in Gaza in mid-June, also found that respondents blamed Hamas for the deadly internal fighting that preceded the takeover, and support early elections, as called for by president Mahmud Abbas.

The majority of Gazans, however, feel their security has improved since the Hamas rout.

Fighters from the Islamist Hamas overran security forces loyal to Abbas, leader of the secular Fatah party, on June 15. Afterwards, the president fired the Hamas-led unity cabinet and appointed Fayyad, a respected economist, to head a government of independents, a move not recognised by Hamas.

When asked to evaluate the performance of the Fayyad and Haniya cabinets, 46.5 percent said Fayyad's was better, compared with 24.4 percent who said it was worse and 22.8 percent who said they were similar.

When asked who was to blame for the deadly factional clashes in Gaza that preceded the Hamas takeover, 43.5 percent said Hamas, 28.4 percent chose Fatah and 17.5 said both. The breakdown for respondents in the Gaza Strip was little different from the territories as a whole with 40.7 percent, 30.9 percent and 17.7 percent respectively.

When asked to describe the situation in Gaza after the Hamas takeover, 46.7 percent said it was worse, compared with 27.1 percent who said it was better, and 21.1 percent who said it had not changed. In Gaza, the figures were 45.2 percent, 34.1 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

Some 57.4 percent of Palestinians support the idea of early polls as favoured by Abbas, compared with 37.6 percent who are opposed. In Gaza, 56.6 percent support early elections and 40.9 percent are opposed.

But 43.6 percent of Gazans said that their feeling about security is better following the Hamas takeover, compared with 31.4 percent who say it has become worse and 25 percent who say it has not changed.

The pollsters questioned 1,199 people between August 16 and 20 in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and gave a three-percent margin of error.

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Ehud Olmert's popularity has dropped further according to a poll in which more than three quarters of those questioned said they were dissatisfied with the Israeli premier.

Seventy seven percent expressed their discontent with Olmert in the poll published on Ynet, the website of the Yediot Aharonot newspaper, on Wednesday.

A November poll showed 70 percent dissatisfied, compared with 68 percent in September and 40 percent in August.

In the latest poll, 47 percent gave Olmert "a very bad mark" for how he handles affairs, while 22 percent gave him "a good mark" and one percent "a very good mark".

Meanwhile, 62 percent said the prime minister was unable to face up to pressure, against 37 percent who said he could.

Finally, 80 percent said Israel had not carefully considered the consequences before declaring war on Hezbollah in Lebanon last summer.

Olmert and his government came under intense criticism over the war, which saw more than 160 Israelis and more than 1,200 Lebanese killed but which fell short of its goals of stopping Hezbollah from firing rockets into Israel and securing the release of the two soldiers.

Corruption probes are also haunting Israel's leadership, with Olmert's personal secretary, Shula Zaken, placed under house arrest Tuesday in the latest development.

GENEVA - Huge discrimination against women in the Arab world is holding back overall economic prosperity and social development in the region, a United Nations report said on Thursday.

“An Arab renaissance cannot be accomplished without the rise of women in Arab countries,” the “Arab Human Development Report 2006” said.

“Directly and indirectly, it concerns the well-being of the entire Arab world.”

The UN Development Programme’s report, which was compiled by Arab experts and academics, said countries in the region must give women more access to the “tools” of development, such as education and health care, and consider positive discrimination.

In many nations, women’s exclusion is enshrined in laws that specifically restrict their activities, even though the constitutions of most Arab states would provide a basis to eliminate bias, according to the report.

“The business of writing the law, applying the law and interpreting the law is governed above all by a male-oriented culture,” the report entitled “Towards the rise of women in the Arab world” said.

However, an opinion poll carried out for the report in four countries -- Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Morocco -- indicated that a huge majority aspire to much greater degree of equality between men and women.

“A complex web of cultural, social, economic and political factors, some ambiguous in nature, keeps Arab women in thrall,” the report said, pointing to “cultural hangovers” and the way societies are structured to deal with education and the family.

Women’s rates of participation in economic activity in the Arab world are lower than in any other part of the world, the report said. Female unemployment rates are between two and five times higher than those of men in most Arab nations.

Less than 80 percent of girls attend secondary schools in all but four of the Arab nations, with the highest rates of deprivation in the less economically developed countries. One half of women are illiterate, compared to one third of men.

However, the report also highlighted some of the stark differences that exist within the Arab world.

In Tunisia, Jordan, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, more girls are enrolled at school than boys. Mediterranean Arab nations were frequently cited as providing more rights for women.

Most Arab countries -- except Gulf states -- granted women the right to vote in the 1950s and 1960s, and more governments have been appointing women ministers in recent years.

However, the proportion of women parliamentarians in Arab nations remains the lowest in the world, just ten percent, and female ministerial posts are often “symbolic”, the report said.

Some of its authors argued that mainstream currents of Islam were not the key factor hampering women’s empowerment, despite Western perceptions.

But the report called for a reopening of some Islamic jurisprudence to reflect the different dynamics of modern Arab societies and “fundamental Koranic verses that recognise equality and honour human beings”.

Conflicts, foreign occupations, terrorism and the dominance of ”conservative and inflexible political forces” protecting “masculine culture and values” were the biggest obstacles, it added.

Maternal mortality rates are “unacceptably high” in Arab nations, averaging 270 deaths per 100,000 and ranging from just seven per 100,000 in oil-rich Qatar to over 1,000 in impoverished Somalia and Mauritania, the report said.

In addition, women lose a larger number of years to disease compared to men in manner that is unconnected to wealth, risk factors, pregnancy or childbirth, indicating “general lifestyles that discriminate against women”.

Nonethless, World Bank data cited in the report showed that women were taking on growing economic importance in Arab nations. The female workforce has expanded by 5.0 percent over the past five years, compared to just 3.5 percent overall.