The shocking human cost that occupation has taken on Palestinian women is laid bare in research published today. Combining research, extensive surveys, and first-hand testimonies from over 40 Palestinian women, Palestinian Women: The Disproportionate Impact of The Israeli Occupation provides new insight into the gendered experience of occupation, looking into four issues in particular:

• women refugees
• the impact of residency revocation on Palestinian women in Jerusalem
• the experience of women prisoners
• Gazans’ access to health

Co-authored by four Palestinian NGOs – the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH), Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development (PWWSD), the Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC), and Women Media and Development (TAM), the report includes detailed findings that demonstrate how the oppression occupation has permeated women’s daily lives, and the particular impact is has had on women in Palestinian refugee camps, Palestinian women living in Jerusalem, women prisoners, and residents of Gaza who require health services.

The impact on refugee women

Researchers spoke to 500 Palestinian refugee women from 12 Palestinian camps (7 in the West Bank, 5 in Gaza). Their findings included the following:

• A third of women surveyed had been directly exposed to physical assault by Israeli Occupation Forces. 9% had been exposed to threats of being attacked by police dogs during Israeli night raids on their homes.
• Over a third (37%) of respondents had been exposed to detention or interrogation, while 38% said that they or members of their households had been exposed to verbal abuse during Israeli army raids, at checkpoints or while visiting religious places.
• Nearly a quarter (24%) were forced to live in shelters or with extended family. 22% were forced to live under unhealthy conditions. 13% stated that the female and male members of their families were separated as a result of having to live in shelters.
• More than one in five (21%) had been exposed to beatings or tear gas at Israeli checkpoints while they were pregnant. 4% reported that they aborted or gave birth at Israeli checkpoints.
• The majority (64%- 321 cases) had been unable to visit religious or recreational places because of Occupation restrictions.

Jerusalem: Residency Revocation and Family Reunification

According to official figures, 14,595 Palestinians from East Jerusalem had their residency status revoked between 1967 and the end of 2016.

Through residency revocations, Israel has separated husbands from wives, parents from children, and extended families from one another, causing traumatic complications for women attempting to remain with their families in both Jerusalem and the West Bank.

This leads to traumatic fears of separation from children for mothers and an entrenching of patriarchal practices across society. Palestinian women living in Jerusalem lose residency rights if they get divorced or their husbands remarry. Limiting their access to justice, female victims of domestic violence fear reporting abuse to authorities in case they are forcibly transferred away from their children.

Women prisoners

Since the beginning of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine in 1967, approximately 10,000 Palestinian women have been arrested and detained by Israeli military forces. According to the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs’ 2017 annual report, 1,467 children were arrested last year.

Our researchers spoke to prisoners who experienced physical and psychological torture at arrest and imprisonment, and traumatic, gendered treatment, including:

• Women denied access to menstrual products while detained
• A woman arrested while pregnant who gave birth while chained to a prison hospital bed
• Ex-prisoners who report being subjected to rape and death threats during interrogation, including a girl in of 15-years old threatened with rape
• Women who were subjected to frequent forced and violent strip searches
• A prisoner who reported toothache, only to have the wrong tooth removed

Access to Health in Gaza

Israel exercises strict control Gaza’s borders, a policy of ‘actual authority’, constituting continued occupation, despite the withdrawal of its permanent presence. This control in particular affects those who need medical treatment outside of Gaza’s struggling health system, who require permission to leave. The report shows that the rate of approval applications is falling year-by-year:

• 92.5% of applications were successful in 2012
• 88.7% in 2013
• 82.4% in 2014
• 77.5% in 2015
• 62.1% in 2016

Of the 26,282 permit applications submitted by patients aiming to exit through Erez in 2016, 8,242 (31.4%) were delayed. Many applicants received no response from border authorities, even after lawyers filed formal applications on their behalf. These delays regularly extend months and years beyond medical appointments, worsening already life-threatening diseases and in some cases resulting in death.

Read the full report here, or download it here:

Palestinian Women – The Disproportionate Impact of the Israeli Occupation

Women represent half of the Palestinian population

The qualitative base of the structure of the population in Palestine the sex ratio stood at 103.3, which means that there are 103 males for every 100 females

The percentage of female-headed households

The percentage of female-headed households in Palestine was 10.6% in 2017, 11.2% in the West Bank and 9.5% in Gaza Strip.

fifth of the persons in Palestine got married at an early age (less than 18 years) in 2016

Early marriage reached to 20.5% among females and 1.0% among males of the total married population in Palestine; the rate was 19.9% out of the total married population in West Bank and 21.6% out of the total married population in Gaza Strip end 2016.

The highest rate of female early marriage in the West Bank was in Hebron 36.8%, and the lowest was in Jericho and the Jordan Valley 1.2% out of the total number of women marriage below 18 years in the West Bank. In Gaza Strip, the highest rate of early female marriage was 42.1% in Gaza Governorate, while the lowest rate was in Dier Al-Balah 7.1% out of the total number of women marriage below 18 years in Gaza Strip.

A continued rise in literacy among women

Despite the rise in literacy rates among females over the last decade, the gap is still in favor of males by 3.0%, female literacy rates was 95.6% compared to 98.6% for male literacy in the year 2017.

Rise in enrollment rate of females in high schools compared to males

Data showed that male enrollment in high schools was 60.5%, compared to female enrollment which was 80.4% for the year 2016-2017.

A gap in the participation rate and average daily wages between men and women

The female participation rate in the labor force was 19.0% of the total female population at work age in 2017, compared to 10.3% in 2001, while the male participation rate was 71.2% in 2017. There was also a pay gap in the average daily wages between males and females; the average daily wage for females was NIS 84.6 compared to NIS 119.6 for males.

Around half of the women are unemployed

The unemployment rate among women participated in the labor force was 47.4% compared to 22.3% for participated males. 65.8% of youth females aged of (15-29 years) were unemployed. While the unemployment rate among women with 13 school years and above represents 53.8% of women in this group.

Palestinian Women in Public Life

In 2017; 21.2% of the members of the local councils are females in the West Bank while 78.8% were males.

In 2016, 82.7% of judges were male, compared to 17.3% female, while 66.6% of registered lawyers were male, compared to 33.4% female and 82.0% of members of the public prosecution staff were male, compared to 18.0% female. Furthermore, Palestinian female ambassadors represented 5.8% compared to 94.2% male. Females represented 32.3% of registered engineers with the Union of Engineers while male represented 67.7%. On the other hand, in 2016, 12.4% of members of student councils in West Bank universities were females, compared to 87.6% males.

In the public sector, females represented 42.7% of civil servants, compared to 57.3% male civil servant. In the public civil sector, female Director Generals represented 11.3% of the total director generals, compared to 88.7% males in the same post.

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1. SUMMARY POINTS

• Crossing points into Gaza remain largely closed. Agreed mechanisms for commercial and humanitarian food imports have not yet been re-established. The re-opening of Karni crossing is vital to prevent general food shortages in 2-4 weeks.

• WFP reports a 40% increase in the price of wheat flour over the past week. Available food stocks are at risk of hoarding by individual consumers and bulk traders.

• Seven truckloads of food (WFP) and 3 trucks of medical supplies (ICRC/WHO) entered Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing on 19 June. WFP hopes to move 10 truckloads per day through the crossing. Meanwhile, 104 UNWRA containers await transit through Karni.

• UNRWA wheat flour reserves will be exhausted in 10 days, and WFP food reserves in 7 days, unless normal imports are resumed.

• Fuel, electricity and water supplies remain normal.

• The ICRC is working to coordinate the transfer of 12 critical medical cases awaiting referral abroad

• Some 250 Gaza residents seeking exit at Erez are being aided by, ICRC, UNRWA and the IDF.

2. ACCESS TO THE GAZA STRIP

All parties have expressed their desire to ensure that basic food and medical supplies enter the Gaza Strip. For a crisis to be avoided, commercial and humanitarian food stocks must be replenished regularly and reliably. However, with the noted exception of small quantities of humanitarian supplies entering Gaza on 19 June, the area remains effectively closed. Six days after the end of the recent crisis, no reliable systems for the entry of basic commodities into the Gaza strip have been re-established. The Secretary General, and the Quartet, have called for the cooperation of all parties to ensure that appropriate access conditions for the passage of humanitarian goods are restored. In addition, arrangements are being sought to resume the secure movement of humanitarian personnel in and out of Gaza.

3. INTERNAL FOOD AVAILABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY

Figures from WFP and the Gaza Businessmen’s Association indicate that commercial stocks of basic commodities, such as flour, sugar, rice, pulses and oil, appear sufficient for 2-4 weeks. In addition, most fresh vegetables remain available on local markets. However, access to basic food items is becoming more difficult for the 87% of Gazans now living below the poverty line1: WFP estimates that flour prices have risen by 40% in the past week. A sudden, 350% rise in wheat-flour purchases in some areas of Gaza raises serious concerns about hoarding by bulk traders due to the uncertainty of commercial imports. Steep price increases and hoarding are expected to drive up food insecurity, which affected 56 % of Gaza residents prior to the recent conflict. Dairy and other perishable products are reported to be out of stock in several neighbourhoods.

UNRWA, which provides emergency food assistance to 850,000 Gaza refugees, has 10 days of wheat flour stocks. UNRWA wheat flour is purchased locally. UNRWA operations therefore depend directly on commercial grain imports through the Karni crossing. In addition, UNRWA is currently waiting to receive 104 containers of food commodities which remain at Ashdod port due to the closure of Karni crossing.

WFP, which provides emergency food assistance to 275,000 non-refugees in Gaza, completed a round of regular distributions on Tuesday 29 May. After importing seven truckloads on 19 June through the Kerem Shalom crossing, WFP currently has 7 days’ worth of emergency food stocks available in Gaza. WFP are currently working to establish import levels of 10 trucks per day via the crossing.

4. FUEL, ELECTRICITY AND WATER

Supplies of all fuels, including cooking gas, petrol and industrial fuel continues to enter from Israel normally, despite speculation about interruptions. No interruptions in electricity or water supplies from Israel have been reported.

5. HEALTH

Hospitals, primary clinics and emergency services of the Ministry of Health continue to operate. Immediate shortages in medical supplies were offset by the import of 3 WHO and ICRC truckloads via Kerem Shalom on 19 June, and of refrigerated UNICEF 1 The official poverty line in the oPt is set at $2.4 daily income.

vaccines via Erez on 20 June. However, fuel supplies for hospital generators and ambulances will be exhausted within one week unless payments to Israeli providers are ensured. A total of 400 medical cases are listed for referral outside of Gaza. Of a reported 19 critical cases awaiting immediate evacuation for treatment in Israel, seven were moved with facilitation by the ICRC on 19 June. A further 12 critical cases await transferral.

6. CIVILIAN PROTECTION

The Gaza Strip has been relatively calm since 15 June. However, the number of recorded causalities from the period between 9-14 June continues to rise due to the deaths of critically wounded. The Ministry of Health currently reports 135 deceased and 487 injured. Independent estimates are higher. Since the end of the fighting, there continue to be intermittent reports of extrajudicial killings. These raise serious concerns about violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.

Also of concern is the situation of a reported 3,500 people at Rafah awaiting re-entry into Gaza from Egypt. In addition, some 250 people wishing to leave Gaza due to perceived threats to their personal security have fled to Erez crossing. They are currently receiving assistance from UNRWA, the ICRC and the Israel Defense Forces, but their situation remains unresolved.