According to the United Nations, unemployment jumped to 38 percent from 12 percent following last fall's siege, and the World Bank reports that one out of every three Palestinians is living in poverty. By February, the number in need of food had soared to 250,000. Most of them, according to the United Nations, are families of workers kept from their jobs in Israel, and widows and their children. It is Palestinian women who figure out how to cope with closures of cities and towns, the blocking of roads and the economic siege. It's the women who must hold their families together.
Palestinian women remain vocal in demanding an end to Israeli occupation.
They see a viable Palestinian state as necessary to ensure their rights as women. Some Israeli women recognize the same reality. And, maybe because we are women, no one can convince us that violence is the only road that leads to peace and security. An article in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz last November clarified the point. Ending Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands would be a good start.