"Sexual violence is a tactic of war that is cultivated not only in war situations"
Members of the Karama network from Iraq, Palestine, Sudan and Syria joined politicians, academics and others from Europe and Latin America to discuss how to end sexual violence in conflict.
The activists spoke at the conference One More Step Towards Sexual Disarmament in Conflict, organized by Mujeres por África and SWISS - Spanish Women in International Security at the Instituto Universitario Gutiérrez Mellado in Madrid.
Introduced by President of Mujeres por África María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, speakers included Spain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation Arancha González Laya, alongside representatives from NATO and Spain’s Ministry of Defense, as well as activists and politicians from Guatemala and Costa Rica.
Watch recordings of the sessions: CanalUNED- Jornada: Un paso más hacia el desarme sexual de los conflictos armados
Read coverage of the conference in Spain’s El Pais newspaper: La violencia sexual: un arma más barata que las balas
Amal Kreishe, of the Palestinian Working Women Society for Development, gave the following intervention:
Dear sisters, brothers, and non-binary colleagues; it is my honor to be here with you today on behalf of the Karama network to raise our collective voices and energies to challenge sexual and gender-based violence in the context of conflict and colonization. As we know, as long as there has been violence and conflict, there has been sexual violence against women. On a global scale, for far too long and far too often, women’s bodies have been treated as battlefields for dominance, and as a symbol for community or national pride, not belonging to themselves, and therefore a way to exact punishment, revenge, terror, and as part of genocidal strategies. Consistently, times of conflict fuels sexual gender-based violence, and strengthens patriarchal social norms and practices, with many men traumatized and feeling an identity crisis of manhood, and dealing with this crisis in violent and abusive ways. This was worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic, which around the world caused gender-based violence to increase as sadly, the world did not heed UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s urgent call for a global ceasefire and for peace at home and in homes.
Palestine is no exception, with the Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development’s counsellors noting these rising cases, which among other factors stemmed from increased economic insecurity, forced extensive time spent with abusers in quarantine, and the general pressures of living under occupation.
Over the years, the United Nations finally began to formally recognize sexual violence against women during armed conflict as a crime that must be addressed, such as in 1993, when the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, which explicitly recognized that women in conflict situations are especially vulnerable to violence. More recently, in 2000 the Security Council adopted resolution 1325 which calls on all parties to conflict to take special measures to protect women and girls from gender-based violence, particularly rape and other forms of sexual abuse, in situations of armed conflict. Again in 2010 the CEDAW committee issued general recommendation 30 on Women in Conflict Prevention, Conflict and Post-conflict situations, which highlights the primary importance of adopting a gendered approach in all kinds of processes of conflict prevention and post-conflict reconstruction, and involves non-State actors such as armed groups, urging them to respect women’s rights in conflict and post-conflict situations, and commit themselves to avoid any form of gender-based and sexual violence.
While this formal recognition is significant in bringing women closer to justice and a life free from violence, it has not been backed by sufficient action and accountability measures. This is particularly clear in the case of Palestinian women. And so, today, I hope in this short time to address three main points.
The first point, is that Palestinian women are subjected to patriarchal militant abuse at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces, including the rampant use of sexual violence and harassment during interrogations and at the military checkpoints, and to detail further the impact of this violence.
The second point, is that 73 years of failure by the international community to hold Israel accountable for its crimes against Palestinian women only bolsters Israeli impunity and continues to leave Palestinian women at risk of further abuse and traumatization.
The third point, is on what human and women’s rights bodies and organizations can do to stand in solidarity with Palestinian women and the Palestinian feminist movement.
On the patriarchal colonial violence Israel subjects Palestinian women to, it is important to make clear that sexual violence against Palestinian women at the hands of Israeli occupation force members and armed settlers are not individual occurrences, but rather a systemic tactic. As Khitam Saafin, the leader of the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, who was repeatedly placed in administrative detention, and who had Israeli soldiers take photos of her on their phones and strip-search her, has said: “It’s not something that’s done by an individual soldier who decided to humiliate the prisoners, it’s part of the process in order to affect the entire society and put it under pressure.”
It should be noted here that the acts of sexual harassment and torture during interrogations as a means of intimidation to confess, including beatings, shouting sexual words, insults, threats of rape against themselves and family members, and strip searches at the hands of Israeli jailers are well documented by several organizations and human rights activists as widespread practices and even a fundamental aspect of Palestinian women’s prison experience. Strip searches generally occur to and from court hearings, but there is also proof of it being used as a punitive measure, all of which violate obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law, including the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, as well as the International كوفينانت Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Even outside of prison, Palestinian women are not free from sexual violence and harassment. According to a report by the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, the military checkpoints impose obstacles and humiliations which include not being allowed passage or being late for work or classes. Women and girls may be also be asked to remove their veil for a male soldier’s inspection, or a male soldier may sexually harass them. The idea of being subjected to humiliating comments or acts, or of being forced to act in a humiliating way is a source of fear for women who must daily cross these checkpoints and in many cases has either discouraged them from working or attending university, or had their families prevent these options, which is seen as a means of protecting them. Even young girls have had their life options restricted in this way, with the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women in 2016 finding that Israeli settlers, with backing by Israeli soldiers, have attacked Palestinian girls on the way to school, also causing many to either be too afraid to go to school or their families preventing them from attending.
Palestinian women are targeted for these kinds of racist and misogynistic attacks because Israel is an apartheid state which aims to establish the domination of a certain ethnic group in all spheres of society, a crucial aspect of which is demography. Within this framework, Palestinians are viewed as “demographic threats”. This obsession with demographics necessarily manifests itself, as Palestinian feminist scholar Nadera Shalhoub has written, in racist and gendered policies to “contain and reduce the Palestinian population” through assaults on Palestinian daily and domestic life. The aim is to “target the literal biological reproduction of Palestinian life”. These policies have shaped, she argues, a “death zone” for Palestinians and Palestinian women especially, as part of a larger, ongoing process of settler-colonialism. According to her, this “sexual violence is central to the larger structure of colonial power, its racist machinery of domination, and its logic of elimination. Colonialism is itself structured by the logic of sexual violence.”
This brings us to my second point, which is that Israel’s crimes against Palestinian women does not lack documentation and proof; what is lacking is accountability. The Palestinian feminist movement and Human Rights Organizations have constantly called for the use of International Tools of Justice to stop the Israeli aggressions and end the occupation in Palestine. Like every other people, Palestinians are born free and it is our right to live freely on our land in a just peace and human security. This can only happen through addressing the root causes of Israel’s institutionalized regime of racial and misogynistic domination and oppression over the Palestinian people through holding Israel accountable in judicial bodies and transferring evidence to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.
My third and final point, is regarding how other human rights organizations, such as those in attendance today, can stand in solidarity with Palestinian women. On behalf of the Palestinian feminist movement, we call for the consistent and principled exposing of Israel’s crimes, to raise awareness on an international scale, and then to push beyond awareness to action, in the form of directly supporting Palestinian feminist organizations and pushing your respective governments and state ambassadors to sanction Israel, until it fully complies with international law regarding conflict.
I thank you all again for attending, and urge us all to be a part of this historic moment in a meaningful way, for Palestinian women and for women everywhere, especially refugee women and women living under armed conflict and occupation.