تدين الشخصيات الوطنية ومؤسسات المجتمع المدني الموقعة أدناه بأشد العبارات جريمة قوات الاحتلال الإسرائيلي اقتحام جامعة بيرزيت يوم الاثنين 10 كانون ثاني 2022، واطلاق النار واصابة واختطاف عدد من الطلاب من داخل الحرم الجامعي، وتحمل سلطات الاحتلال المسؤولية الكاملة عن سلامة الطلاب المختطفين وتطالب بالإفراج الفوري عنهم.

إن هذه الجريمة النكراء تتطلب تدخلا دوليا عاجلا لتوفير الحماية للمواطنين الفلسطينيين وللمؤسسات التعليمية والثقافية الفلسطينية، كما تتطلب حراكا وطنيا لمواجهة العدوان الإسرائيلي على مختلف مكونات الشعب الفلسطيني.

ومن منطلق حرصنا على جامعة بيرزيت باعتبارها صرحا وطنيا وأكاديميا شامخا ذا تاريخ عريق في حماية التعددية الفكرية والسياسية والممارسة الديموقراطية وإحدى ركائز الصمود ومواجهة الاحتلال، فإننا ندعو إلى توجيه جميع الجهود والطاقات باتجاه مواجهة العدوان الإسرائيلي وتفويت اية فرصة على الاحتلال لتأزيم واضعاف مؤسساتنا وجبهتنا الداخلية. وعليه فإننا ندعو الى استمرار الحوار ضمن أطر جامعة بيرزيت بما يضمن تجاوز اية أزمات او إشكاليات داخلية وعودة انتظام الحياة الجامعية بأسرع وقت.

• حنان عشراوي
• عزمي الشعيبي
• ممدوح العكر
• هاني المصري
• عبد القادر الحسيني
• شعوان جبارين
• عمار دويك
• عصام العاروري
• ماجدة المصري
• محمد العبوشي
• محرم البرغوثي
• سامي خضر
• محمود الافرنجي
• عبد الله جرّار
• أبي عابودي
• تحرير الأعرج
• عبد الفتاح ابو سرور
• امجد الشوا
• حلمي الاعرج
• سناء شبيطة
• محمد سلامة
• خالد قزمار
• فدوى الحسيني
• منجد ابو جيش
• فؤاد أبو سيف
• محمد الحساسنة
• سحر فرنسيس
• عصام يونس
• علاء سكافي
• ليلي فيضي
• هنيدة غانم
• عصام حج حسين
• ساما عويضة
• جهاد حرب
• عارف جفال
• شبكة المنظمات الأهلية الفلسطينية
• مجلس منظمات حقوق الإنسان الفلسطينية

This is an urgent and repeated appeal to the world to immediately intervene, in light of the recent stories of rape and sexual violence against Palestinian women by Israeli occupation forces during Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Palestinian women are being displaced, tortured, killed and forcibly disappeared, while the world sits idle. Silence and inaction in the wake of these horrifying crimes amount to complicity.

Over the past few days, more horrifying testimonies and stories have emerged from Gaza of sadistic acts by Israeli soldiers, including torture, rape, and mass field executions at hospitals where civilians are seeking shelter, medical treatment and refuge.

Palestinian civil society and UN experts have sounded the alarm multiple times and reported cases of rape and sexual violence before and during this genocide. These reports continue to be deliberately and inexcusably ignored, including by prominent and otherwise vocal feminist organizations and figures.

The deafening silence of “Western” feminists and mainstream media in particular is deliberate and inexcusable, as opposed to their earlier outrage over Israeli allegations and misinformation, used to justify this genocide.

Many Palestinian women and girls who are survivors of rape and sexual violence are hesitant to come forward, due to the social stigma in a conservative society and the belief that Israel will not be held accountable for such crimes.

Israel is committing the most horrific war crimes, and weaponizing rape and sexual violence against Palestinians as part of its genocide in Gaza and assault on the Palestinian people as a whole, throughout all of Palestine. This is the result of decades of impunity, preferential treatment and lack of international accountability by the international community. Words are not enough to describe or stop this horror; action is needed.

We conclude this SOS appeal by reminding our sisters and allies around the world that our rights, our dignity, and our humanity are indivisible. Forsaking Palestinian victims now for political convenience would be an unforgivable betrayal to decades of sacrifice and feminist struggle.

We call for:

• The international community must employ all available tools of international accountability, including political and economic sanctions, to bring an immediate and lasting ceasefire and provision of unconditional humanitarian aid.

• States must immediately impose an arms embargo on Israel and honor their moral and legal obligations, including those pronounced in the Genocide Convention.

• States need to investigate and prosecute Israeli soldiers with dual citizenship implicated in these atrocities.

• The Special Representative of the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict must honor her mandate and launch an immediate investigation into the ongoing atrocities.

• Feminists around the world must sound the alarm globally on the unspeakable human rights violations taking place in Gaza, namely the sexual abuse and rape of Palestinian women and girls.

• Journalists and media outlets must do their due diligence in reporting on these stories through fair and unbiased coverage.

Signatories:

1. American Federation of Ramallah Palestine
2. Association of women’s Action
3. AWMR Italia - Donne della Regione Mediterranea
4. Bisan Center for Research and Development
5. Community Development and Media Center
6. Cultura è libertà una campagna per la Palestina
7. Enjaz Foundation for development
8. Filastiniyat
9. Human Rights and Democracy Media Center SHAMS
10. Institute of Women's Studies
11. Not to forget women society
12. Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA)
13. Palestinian Women's Action committee
14. Rete Femminista Marche Molto+di194
15. Rural Women Development Society
16. Sinal do Vale
17. Singola
18. Teaching Palestine: Pedagogical Praxis and the Indivisibility of Justice
19. The center for defense of liberties and civil rights “Hurryyat”
20. The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy - MIFTAH
21. The Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development-PWWSD
22. The Regional Coalition for Women Human Rights Defenders in Southwest Asia and North Africa (WHRDMENA)
23. Union of Palestinian Women Committees
24. Wattan media network
25. Women Media and Development
26. Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
27. رابطة المرأة العراقية
28. شبكة المستقبل الديمقراطية العراقية

We, at the Palestinian NGO Forum to Combat Violence against Women and all Arab women’s and rights organizations raise our voices loud and clear on the eve of March 8, to say: “Stop the onslaught and crimes against women and children in Gaza. Stop the crime of genocide, the crime of starvation and forced displacement”. So far, this aggression has resulted in the killing of 31,000 Palestinians, over 70% of whom are women and children. Two women are killed every hour , in addition to many others still under the rubble. There are women whose fate is unknown, after being taken away by occupation forces.

Who will restore normalcy for us Palestinian women after these atrocities?

We have always held activities on March 8. We had a long list of rights we demanded and others we were able to achieve. However today, as the women of Gaza are being annihilated, we stand the length and breadth of our homeland and our Arab nations, angry, in a state of revolution and in deep mourning. Our demand today is to halt the genocide in the Gaza Strip and to halt the reproductive genocide against our women. We declare this day the day of Palestinian women, as they stand hungry in long queues, waiting for insufficient aid, terrified of the skies above them, filled with missiles of death. This is for the women whose bodies are exhausted, in camps for the displaced and in shelter centers, for those raped in prison and for their naked bodies stripped at checkpoints. It is for the menstruating women who cannot find sanitary products and for those with high-risk pregnancies who are starving, displaced and bombed. It is for the women whose wombs may be removed for the simplest of medical complications and those whose privacy has been violated because of overcrowded tents and displacement. It is for the mothers who could die at any moment and for all women whose Palestinianism has crucified humanity at the altar, amid deafening Arab silence, boundless American support and the complicity of several European countries.

Nevertheless, we continue to appreciate all forms of Arab and international support and solidarity with the Palestinian cause, which shows respect for our people’s dignity. Widening this solidarity will further reaffirm the justness of our cause. Hence, we await more action and movements in solidarity of our right to demand an immediate end to the genocide in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Jerusalem, to forge our way forward towards freedom, self-determination and the establishment of an independent and fully-sovereign Palestinian state.

Today, we Palestinian and Arab women, reaffirm the following on March 8 and every day forward:

- To put pressure on Israel to immediately halt its aggression and to hold its leaders accountable for their crimes in violation of international law, the Fourth Geneva Convention and all international laws and treaties, towards delegitimizing this occupying entity.

- To open the Rafah Crossing and all crossings to allow aid in and the wounded out for treatment

- To dismantle the land corridor linking Israel with some Arab countries supplying it with goods

Long Live Palestinian Women, who stand steadfast and resistant in the face of the Zionist aggression We speak in the voices of Gaza’s women and say:

Halt the genocide…halt the onslaught immediately!

In a recent statement, nearly five months into the Israeli genocide in Gaza, several UN experts confirmed the various reports and testimonies that have been coming from Palestinian women and human rights organizations for months now. In Gaza, women have been kidnapped and forcibly disappeared and placed in dire conditions in undisclosed locations. In the occupied West Bank, released prisoners testified on the horrific realities inside Israeli prisons and the widespread torture and ill-treatment where sexual violence is used as a weapon employed against both women and men. The targeting of women and girls with such atrocious crimes is targeting the most vulnerable, in an attempt to break and degrade the society as a whole.

The inaction and failure of the international community to stop Israeli crimes, namely the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and other heinous crimes all across Palestine for decades now has emboldened Israel to act with impunity. This allows Israel to continue committing horrific crimes against Palestinian women and girls, namely rape and other forms of sexual violence and torture.

The silence of “Western” feminists has also been appalling, given their earlier outrage about unsubstantiated Israeli allegations which were used to justify and commit the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

First and foremost, we demand an immediate ceasefire and the unconditional provision of humanitarian aid. In order to put an end to such heinous crimes and impunity, we reiterate the need for an independent international investigation into all crimes, especially sexual violence, followed by international accountability for the perpetrators.

Since the political division in 2007, the Palestinian political system has suffered from the absence of a peaceful transition of power and marginalization of whole generations from their right to political participation, guaranteed in the Palestinian basic law and human rights agreements to which Palestine is a signatory. Hence, elections constitute one of these rights and are a gateway for the values of integrity, transparency and the transition of power as the foundation of good governance. Despite the shortcomings that have wracked the local council electoral system over the years, including tribalism, the sidelining of the role of youth and the diminishing role of women in local councils, still the demand for local elections in all areas in accordance with the Local Authorities Law, is agreed on by all CSOs, including political parties and forces, unions and institutions. They view elections as a democratic tool for change to preserve civic peace and contribute to the institutionalization of the Palestinian political system.

CSOs and civic movements have exerted efforts over the past few months to hold local elections in all local councils in the West Bank, Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip on the same day as stipulated in the Local Authorities Law. Most political factions and forces and CSOs agree on the need not to fragment the elections, which contravenes with the stipulations of the law and national interests. It also goes against the premise that local elections are an entryway for laying the ground to hold PNC, PLC and presidential elections in addition to the premise that they should be held in one phase that includes all districts based on a national debate around them.

The Cabinet decision to hold local elections in two stages, the first on 11/12/2021 in the West Bank’s Category (C) village and town councils and the second on 26/3/2021 in West Bank local councils in Categories (A and B) and in the Gaza Strip districts categorized (A.B and C), is in violation of the Local Authorities law and its amendments, which necessitate a plausible reason for holding elections in stages. CSOs believe the government’s continued insistence to hold elections in two stages, with a date for the second stage already set, is an expression of political bias towards one specific faction and far -removed from national interests and the exercise of true political participation and elections on the basis of good governance and the peaceful transition of power.

CSOs reiterate the importance of providing a sound electoral climate in which citizens can exercise their right to candidacy, voting and expression of opinions and can hold all elections-related activities with absolute freedom as stipulated by the Basic Law. They find the current atmosphere as being rife with incitement and mobilization, with continued political arrests and summons of activists by PA security forces on the back of union work and political activity. This, they maintain, has made for an unhealthy elections atmosphere, which can adversely influence the course of the electoral process and results.

CSOs still consider the CEC as a main guarantor for the integrity of the electoral process in terms of its legal procedures for registration, candidacy and voting. They also maintain that the CEC continues to enjoy the respect and trust of the majority of Palestinian society given its role over the years, which has been neutral, transparent and open to civil society and factions alike. This has rendered it a focal point at all stages in the Palestinian democratic process and is imperative for it to continue with the same approach in all stages of this process.

Civil society institutions thus confirm their position regarding the need to hold local council elections in accordance with the requirements of the law. They believe the government, political factions and forces still have time to stop the first phase and prevent the fragmentation of the elections, thereby holding them on one day in all districts. In this way, the date set for the second phase of elections would become the day for all local council elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Prior to this date, a dialogue would be held between all political and social forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip regarding these one-time elections, with CSOs continuing their efforts to reach this goal.

CSO’s reaffirm that the right to vote and run for elections is a basic right, which must have the respect of all parties involved in the electoral process, including electoral lists, regardless of whether they belong to political parties or are independent. This also includes law enforcers who, by law, must not interfere in any stage of the electoral process. The CSOs also reaffirm the need for political parties to respect the law and not interfere in the electoral process in any shape or form and to provide a climate in which citizens can exercise all rights and freedoms guaranteed to them by law. Furthermore, the CSO’s reaffirm the right of all civil society institutions to choose the appropriate manner in which to follow and monitor local elections in all their stages.