Palestinian Women: Patriarchy and Resistance in the West Bank. By Cheryl A. Rubenberg. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2001. 318p. $59.95.

2002 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 671-671
Author(s):  
Sara Roy

Several years ago, not long before the signing of the Oslo agreement, I was in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. As I was walking through the camp with a male friend, a woman whom I did not know approached me. She gently took my arm as if we were intimate friends, pulled me close, and said, “I have nothing left to feed my children but black milk.” She then turned and walked away, leaving as imperceptibly as she had approached. My male friend immediately dismissed her as crazy. Yet I have never forgotten this woman or our momentary but wrenching encounter. It was not only the poignancy of her words that struck me, but their poetry. Her message to me was one of ultimate despair: I can no longer nourish my children. What good am I?

2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 2416-2420 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Khader ◽  
H Madi ◽  
F Riccardo ◽  
G Sabatinelli

AbstractObjectiveTo assess anaemia prevalence and correlated social and biological determinants among pregnant women in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (oPt).DesignA cross-sectional survey conducted among pregnant women attending/accessing UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) health centres in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in September and October 2006.SettingFifty-five UNRWA health centres in the oPt (eighteen in the Gaza Strip and thirty-seven in the West Bank).SubjectsA random sample of 1740 pregnant women.ResultsOverall anaemia prevalence was 38·6 % (95 % CI 36·3, 40·9 %). A substantial difference in anaemia prevalence was observed between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank (44·9 % v. 31·1 %, respectively), as well as a significant increase in anaemia prevalence in the Gaza Strip compared with an Agency-wide survey conducted in 2004 (44·9 % v. 35·7 %, respectively). Anaemia prevalence was found to increase with age, parity and trimester of gestation.ConclusionsAnaemia still appears to be a public health problem among pregnant women in spite of UNRWA interventions. The West Bank shows prevalence rates similar to those observed in neighbouring countries, while the Gaza Strip has higher rates. Prevalence rates of anaemia among pregnant Palestinian women are more than two times higher than those observed in Europe.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamedraed Elshami ◽  
Mariam Thalji ◽  
Hanan Abukmail ◽  
Ibrahim Al-Slaibi ◽  
Mohammed Alser ◽  
...  

Abstract Background High awareness of cervical cancer (CC) risk factors is important to decrease the morbidity and mortality associated with CC. This study aimed to assess the knowledge level of Palestinian women about CC risk factors and to determine the factors associated with good knowledge. Methods This was a national cross-sectional study. Adult women from hospitals, primary healthcare centers, and public spaces of 11 governorates in Palestine were recruited using a stratified convenience sampling. A translated-into-Arabic version of the validated CC awareness measure (CeCAM) was used to assess the knowledge about the 11 CC risk factors. For each correctly identified risk factor, the participant was given one point. The total score was calculated and was categorized into three categories: poor knowledge (0–3), fair knowledge (4–7), and good knowledge (8–11). Results A total of 7223 participants completed the Arabic CeCAM (response rate = 89.3%) and 7058 questionnaires were included in the final analysis: 2655 from the Gaza Strip and 4403 from the West Bank and Jerusalem. Participants recruited from the Gaza Strip were younger, getting lower monthly incomes, and with less chronic diseases than participants recruited from the West Bank and Jerusalem. The most frequently identified risk factor was ‘having a weakened immune system’ (n = 5458, 77.3%) followed by ‘infection with a sexually transmitted infection’ (n = 5388, 76.3%). The least identified risk factor was ‘having many children’ (n = 1597, 22.6%). Only 1670 women (23.7%) had good knowledge of CC risk factors. Women living in the Gaza Strip were more likely than women living in the West Bank and Jerusalem to have good knowledge (25.2% vs 22.7%). Completing a secondary or diploma degree, being employed, and having a monthly income of ≥ 1450 NIS (around $450) were all associated with lower likelihood of having good knowledge of CC risk factors. Conversely, knowing someone with cancer was associated with higher likelihood of having good knowledge. Conclusion The overall awareness of CC risk factors was low. There is a substantial need to establish educational programs to promote Palestinian women’s awareness of CC.


Author(s):  
Marco LONGOBARDO

Abstract This paper explores the legality of the land closure imposed upon the Gaza Strip by Israel. After having considered the area under occupation, the paper argues that the legality of the closure must be determined under international humanitarian law, international human rights law, the principle of self-determination of peoples, and the Israeli-Palestinian agreements. In the light of these rules, the arbitrary closure of the Gaza Strip should be considered illegal because it breaches the unity between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and because it violates the freedom of movement of the local population. Moreover, the closure breaches the relevant rules pertaining to the transit of goods in occupied territory. The paper concludes that most of the violations caused by the closure affect peremptory rules which produce obligations erga omnes, so that any state in the international community is entitled to react under the law of state responsibility.


Author(s):  
Somdeep Sen

This book rejects the notion that liberation from colonialization exists as a singular moment in history when the colonizer is ousted by the colonized. Instead, it considers the case of the Palestinian struggle for liberation from its settler colonial condition as a complex psychological and empirical mix of the colonial and the postcolonial. Specifically, the book examines the two seemingly contradictory, yet coexistent, anticolonial and postcolonial modes of politics adopted by Hamas following the organization's unexpected victory in the 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council election. Despite the expectations of experts, Hamas has persisted as both an armed resistance to Israeli settler colonial rule and as a governing body. Based on ethnographic material collected in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Israel, and Egypt, the book argues that the puzzle Hamas presents is not rooted in predicting the timing or process of its abandonment of either role. The challenge instead lies in explaining how and why it maintains both, and what this implies for the study of liberation movements and postcolonial studies more generally.


1994 ◽  
Vol 28 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 374-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moshe Hirsh

Environmental resources and hazards do not recognize political boundaries. The basic fact that the people of Israel and of the new Palestinian entity in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip share several important natural resources compels the parties to co-operate in the protection of these resources. Neither party is solely able to manage these essential resources (e.g., water) and any attempt to act unilaterally in this sphere might harm the interests of both parties. A quick reading of the Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area (“the Cairo Agreement”) shows that the parties were indeed aware of this, and the agreement includes numerous environmental provisions in various sections.


2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (7) ◽  
pp. 875-882
Author(s):  
Marie Jonassen ◽  
Amira Shaheen ◽  
Mohammed Duraidi ◽  
Khaled Qalalwa ◽  
Bernard Jeune ◽  
...  

Exchange ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 316-338
Author(s):  
Kenny Schmitt

Abstract This study casts light on the dynamics driving Christian migration from the Gaza Strip and its consequences. By analyzing the historical background and institutionalization of Palestinian movement restrictions—specifically the pilgrimage permit regime—the article explores the temporal and spatial entanglements of pilgrimage, migration, and politics. Since 2007, deteriorating conditions have led Gazan Christians to use temporary pilgrimage permits as a pretext to permanently escape the Strip. The article argues that this migration is driven by the overwhelming precarity of Gazan Christians’ life circumstances, a precarity that includes temporal and spatial, political and economic, religious and personal insecurities. Further, those who escape do not find themselves in a better situation; they experience geographic isolation and communal fragmentation within the West Bank. The process of Gazan Christian migration is best understood as the mere exchange of precarity.


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