"Understanding the role Women CSO’s in context of the Palestine-Israel Conflict"
Abstract- This review paper aims to highlight the participation of women CSOs towards peace building in the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict. Further the paper is an attempt to address nuances within the overall gendered approach, coming to the conclusion that, inasmuch as it fails to address the underlying economic disparities brought about by the global neoliberal macroeconomic structure—which also fuel violence and conflict—even a true gendered approach, as understood by the UN and other actors in the peacebuilding community, may not be able to create a lasting peace.For durable peace to exist, women must actively participate in peace negotiations, peacebuilding, and post-conflict reconstruction. In addition to bringing fresh perspectives, diverse military experiences, and the opinions of a larger range of people to the table, women also possess important abilities that can help to keep or revive conversations. However, obstacles such as the predominance of patriarchal viewpoints stand in their way. The global governance framework must develop legislative and regulatory measures to address this kind of exclusion.
Introduction
The United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325, a historic resolution that reaffirmed the significance of women's participation and involvement at all levels of the peace and security agenda, was passed more than ten years ago. The Resolution emphasized the growing recognition among international organizations like the UN that women and men experience conflict differently both during and after it has ended, and that women have particular difficulties in peacebuilding and security (Beever, p. 21). Furthermore, women's unofficial contributions to conflict resolution and the establishment of lasting peace have been acknowledged and deemed vital (Pratt and Richter-Devroe, 2011, p. 490). However, formal programs for resolving conflicts and promoting peace continue to downplay or overlook gender concerns and the participation of women in official missions (Diaz,2010). Furthermore, the majority of studies that consider gender-related topics fall short in addressing the power dynamics and institutional injustices that form the basis of gender discrimination (Strickland & Duvvury, 2003). Many of these arguments, particularly the ones that have entered the mainstream discourse, take an instrumentalist stance, viewing women as key players in establishing enduring peace and narrowly focusing on "what women can do for peace," ignoring the question of what peace can do for women. Essentialist definitions of women are used by some peacebuilding initiatives and movements, restricting them to their duties as mothers and caretakers and preventing them from participating in the larger peacebuilding and conflict resolution agenda (Puechguirbal, 2010, p.177).
Numerous arguments, especially those that have made their way into the mainstream, adopt an instrumentalist perspective, seeing women as essential to bringing about lasting peace and narrowly concentrating on "what women can do for peace," therefore disregarding the issue of what peace can accomplish for women. Certain peacebuilding initiatives and groups employ essentialist notions of women, limiting their role to that of mothers and caregivers and prohibiting them from engaging in the broader peacebuilding and conflict resolution agenda (Puechguirbal, 2010, p.177). The proliferation of light weapons and pervasive violence against women persist, and nations that have made the transition to democracy and relative peace run the risk of returning to conflict (Moran, 2010, p. 265). For many, therefore, the idea of "positive peace" is still a faraway reality. In light of this, it seems that an alternative strategy is required, one that approaches peacebuilding and conflict resolution from a more comprehensive perspective. The necessity of a gendered approach is currently widely acknowledged on a global scale. This is the outcome of decades of global feminist and women's networks and organizations' engagement and lobbying (Pratt and Richter-Devroe, 2011, p. 491). In fact, women from several countries have gathered in a Congress of Women since 1915 to express their opposition to the 1st World War and founded the Women's International League for peace and freedom (WILPF).
The Peacebuilding Initiative contends that there are two essential components to adopting a gendered approach to peacebuilding and conflict resolution. The initiative was created in collaboration with the UN Peacebuilding Support Office to facilitate knowledge sharing throughout the peacebuilding community. In order to ensure that women's interests and demands are satisfied, the strategy must first recognize the distinctions between the experiences of men and women. Second, it entails acknowledging the crucial roles that women play in resolving conflicts and promoting those roles wherever it is practical (Peacebuilding Initiative, 2009). Nonetheless, it is impossible to separate the various threads pertaining to these two dimensions with clarity. The UN and a variety of NGOs, scholars, and activists are the primary players in the field of peacebuilding; they understand their positions and carry out their objectives in a variety of overlapping and occasionally incompatible approaches. The terms ``instrumentalist,""protection,""practical needs,""participation," and "transformative" might be used to characterize these strategies. As a result, opinions regarding the definition, goals, and ramifications of a "gendered approach" are as different as the actors who apply the theory. Moreover, there is a noticeable gap between rhetoric and implementation.
This review paper further highlights women’s engagement in resolving community conflicts regardless of cultural obstacles and social conservatism. It provides case studies of a few women who have personally experienced community peacebuilding education and intervention efforts at the grassroots level in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). How much have women's involvement in community-based peacebuilding enhanced their involvement in the process of making decisions? This clarifies how they help local and grassroots peacebuilding initiatives to improve their situation. Women and other marginalized and vulnerable groups are still ignored and kept out of formal institutional mechanisms for peacebuilding, democratic engagement, and community development. Even with UNSCR 1325, their significant, multifaceted involvement and active contribution to the peace process have remained mostly hidden, since they "usually are informal, and hoc and rarely part of formal peace process, so their stories often drift and unacknowledged" (Porter, 2007, p. 1).
Historical Background of the conflict and resulting violence against women in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)
Due to the numerous cycles of violence that have occurred since the Israeli State that was established and the 1948 expulsion of Palestinians from their country of origin, the dire condition facing women in the OPT has been becoming worse (Farah 2006, p. 231). More than 750,000 Palestinians were forced into refugee status when Israel was established and their homes and land were ethnically cleansed (Bastaki 2017, p. 5). These Palestinians fled to various places and are now predominantly found in the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank and East Jerusalem (Hulal 1992, pp. 33–74).
One of the biggest obstacles to women's advancement, integration, and participation in the shaping of their society is political violence in the Palestinian Territories under Occupation (OPT).In addition, violence denies women their human rights and restricts their access to resources. It prevents them from contributing to empowerment and growth. Worldwide, violence against women is a common occurrence due to a variety of social, cultural, educational, and environmental variables and reasons.Women living in the OPT, for example, have been subject to various cycles of violence under Israeli occupation as the first Intifada (uprising) (1987– 1993), the second Intifada (2000–2004), and three different wars on the Gaza Strip in 2008–2009, 2012, and 2014 (Natil 2015).In the OPT, women continue to be the most marginalized group facing violence, which has hindered their participation in the community and in civic life (Jad 2018, pp. 31–39). The violence still poses a serious obstacle to women's empowerment and social and political participation.
The state has made security and the safety of the civilian population its top concern ever since Israel's founding. However, protection provided by Israeli authorities is highly selective, with Jewish Israelis receiving the highest level of protection and minorities—most notably Palestinians residing in Israel or under its military occupation—receiving ineffective or harmful protection. Israel has implemented harsh security measures as a result of cycles and escalations of violence, which have an effect on people's security, particularly that of Palestinians residing in Occupied Territories or those who already belong to vulnerable groups. The impact of this protection gap has been particularly felt by women, teens, and vulnerable minorities. In addition to having the highest rates of unemployment, Palestinian women make up 25% of the workforce in Jerusalem.
Historians and academics have observed that Palestinian women have always had prominent positions in Palestinian society. It is recognized that they have protested the Balfour Declaration alongside men since 1917, and the Palestinian Women's Union, the first all-female group, was established in 1921. Women were crucial in helping their families and communities survive and recover from the 1948 Palestinian Catastrophe, or Nakba. Since the beginning of the occupation, they have been on the front lines as organizers and responders, always coming up with innovative ideas to help their communities get back on their feet. In the women's movement, the First Intifada, which began in 1987, is regarded as a turning point when women from Palestinian society at large organized and joined in the protests against the occupation. Women had their first opportunity to join formal political groups and responsibilities with the 1993 signing of the Oslo Accords and the start of official state building, but these events also altered and, in some ways, dispersed women's organizational power.
Some have suggested that after 1993, most women stuck to more confined and unofficial channels for their engagement because they were disillusioned with established politics. The majority of women in Palestine now "do politics" through their daily unofficial acts and their mere survival on the land inside the framework of occupation, according to Richter-Devroe's (2018) persuasive argument. Women have been the backbone of what is commonly referred to as “sumud”, despite having few opportunities to express themselves through organized Palestinian politics and taking on the majority of the responsibility for maintaining some semblance of normalcy, such as feeding their families and keeping a functional home even as many men struggle to provide.But these significant contributions are mostly ignored because they since they don't conform to the parameters of what most people would define as political.
Summary and Analysis
Governments are seen as repressive by radical feminist ideology, especially when they use sustained military force. These nation-states produce patriarchal institutions and power structures that are detrimental to women. Though there is a good deal of truth to this style of thinking, it doesn't necessarily match the reality of women who live in such states. Most women finally cling to their national group when circumstances create a conflict between gender and national identities and loyalties. As it occurred during the Holocaust, the fight in Israel by women pioneers for a socialist and egalitarian lifestyle and set of values waned during times of war. The resurgent effort of women's organizations that embraced peace action and feminism in the Western tradition, along with some elements of sympathy with the Palestinians, was unsuccessful as the Gulf War came to an end. Both sides' peace campaigners withdrew back into their national organizations. The two countries' power dynamics were inverted during the duration of the conflict. The only women's groups who led a sizable peace demonstration and ultimately succeeded in changing security priorities were those that supported the national narrative and adhered to the consensus on matters of national security. Whenever radical feminism is perceived as essentially questioning the nation state and its peace initiatives are restricted to selected few.
There have been theories as to why peace accords that have been negotiated with the participation of women have proven to be more durable.The cooperation between civil society organizations and female delegates attending official talks (Kraus et al., 2018; O'Reilly & O'Súilleabháin, 2013).
Higher adoption rates and more gender-sensitive content are the results of this collaboration. This logic is also embraced by UN Women, which notes in its 2015 Global Study that the involvement of civil society representatives reduces the likelihood of peace agreements failing by 64% (UN Women, 2015). While focusing on addressing the underrepresentation and relative invisibility of women’s role in peace work at the Institutional level (Turner,2021), more focus must be given to increasing the visibility of women peace mediators and increase the development skills of women participating in mediation activities. Furthermore, a creation of networks connecting the local organization and the global actors to boost peace initiatives can improve women's participation in high-level international processes in addition to amplifying the representation of all female voices in mediation.
More diverse research should be focused on the local and particular aspects of peacebuilding; this is important for reorienting peacebuilding methods, procedures, and knowledge rather than serving as a crutch or savior of internationally directed processes. Furthermore, the emphasis on regional actors
Such "bottom up" approaches must be accompanied by significant changes in perspective and power dynamics to prevent research and policy from merely replicating neo-colonial frameworks that pathologize, homogenize, and oppress grassroots actors. As part of an active decolonizing process, this study should be critical of current neo-colonial power systems and embrace subjective, indigenous knowledge production rooted in populations affected by conflict.
For Palestinian society to become united again, women now must participate in CS activities to a greater extent. However, the harsh conditions have widened the rifts in society and rendered people's lives nearly difficult. This is especially true for young women who reside in environments with excessive violence, occupations that include violence, and deprivation and absence of autonomy. The difficult conditions imposed by a lack of peace, security, and economic development after the failure of the so-called "peace process" between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel in 2000 present significant obstacles for women and CS. In order to strengthen women's intervention and improve the circumstances of the target groups regarding the idea and practices of empowered citizens, CSOs must collaborate. Women must completely commit to an essential component of the women's agenda for democracy is the participatory process.The goal of full CS engagement is to plan, devise, and implement a national plan for women that will promote "participation." Women's grassroots organizations and CSOs will be the first to speak out for the public's needs during the policy-making process. Several legislation have been adopted since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in 1994 to promote women's political involvement through elections; nonetheless, women's representation remains extremely low and restricted due to a number of cultural,economic and social constraints.
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