The Israel-Palestine Conflict and Its Gendered Identity
By: Prashasti Shukla
Tags: War, Peacebuilding, Conflict, Gender Identity, Palestine And Israel

Eric Gaillard/Reuters

How do “gender identity” and “gender roles” change as a result of armed conflict in a society?

Gender identity can be defined a person’s strong held feelings of being a man or woman, or some other non-binary understanding of their gender. Gender identity one relates to may or may not differ from the genetic sex one is born into. Gender expression, gender nonconformity, gender-dysphoria etc are all ways in which gender identity of a person exists. Gender is not the same as sex. Sex refers to the biological characteristics whereas, gender refers to socially constructed roles and behaviours. Gender roles or stereotypes refer to clichés which a person is supposed to perform or adhere, hence making them social norms. Different cultures can have different ways or gender norms for a given gender and one is expected to live and abide by them. This is better explained in Simone de Beauvoir’s statement that “one is not born a woman, but rather becomes one”. Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity flawlessly puts it into words that our gender identities are performed or played out for observation by society in the form of gender roles.

The conventional (patriarchal) definition of war involves associations with activity, heroism and masculinity. Peace, by contrast, is often understood as the absence of war, but in more developed formulations it is also linked to the quiet, mundane, feminine’ (Kelly, 2000:48, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290840278_Wars_against_women_Sexual_violence_sexual_politics_and_the_militarised_state).

Women seem to become the protected and men the protectors, thereby living upto the societal expectations of their genders. Women become easy prey, being the representatives of the motherland which the soldiers of the opposite force are trying to gain power over and hence need to show domination over. For this, women are raped, unnaturally raped, abducted, sexually harassed to gain control over the opposition by showing them that their “property” has been entered/captured by the enemy. Not only this, women are pushed deeper into caregiving roles during conflict, as men have little to zero part in side the house during war, and women not only have to take care of the household, but also take care of the sick and injured, and offer help to community, and also look after the economic responsibilities in the

name of caring for the home and family.

The occupation of Palestine makes a solid case in point. Due to the crisis, the women, otherwise very domestic and living in a highly patriarchal society, have to go out for basic necessities like water and local markets, and hence are at a higher risk of physical attacks and all sorts of sexual abuse. The humiliation faced by Palestinian men at the hands of Israeli agents, comes out as misplaced anger of being emasculated, at the easier and weaker targets- the women back home. This along with the violence committed against women by the Israeli troops, shows how gender-based violence is rampant in the region.

Occupied Palestine has also seen a considerable shift in gender roles as women step out to earn for the survival of their families- this has led to a sharp increase in domestic violence on them. Palestine’s crisis also reflects a very obvious pattern of patriarchal abuse on the women as secondary citizens. Girls are encouraged towards early marriage to “”protect” them from the ever-looming evil of the occupation. They are also expected to bear lots of children to make up for the lost lives, thus objectifying them as mere womb-owning machines. Pregnant women also are often denied medical access, and have to go through insurmountable psychological stress of war. Israeli agents chastise and harass them by addressing them as “”demographic time bombs”, indicating towards them being responsible for a probable future apartheid situation in the region akin to one in South Africa.

The responsibility of the economy of the household is forced on the shoulders of the women when the men of the house go out to war, or prison or are dead. As much as economic responsibilities come on their heads unannounced as a burden, they make them independent, decision makers of the households and also the economy of the conflict ridden area due war-occupancy of men.

Women have also been mobilised into the struggle for their country and their men. During the first intifada, women came out in large numbers as stone pelters and demonstrators supporting the cause of the community. It also made sense to them as doing something constructive towards the state’s cause other than their unacknowledged roles at home, all the while being around their homes and not abandoning their caregiving roles. This has changed this time around as the confrontations are largely weaponised and outline the borders. While women are engaging in fewer numbers, there are still a lot of women stepping up. This has also led to a large number of females being detained as political prisoners by Israel, not only to threaten more women against joining the fight but also to coerce the men related to the imprisoned women to give up the struggle. It is done by ways of isolation, physical torture and humiliation by defeminisation. But when we talk about the essentialist claim that femininity is inherently peaceful and masculinity is the essence of war, we forget that masculine and feminine are mere social constructs and may not necessarily comply with the gender identity of the individual. The concept of motherhood is yet again used to justify this claim of peace being feminine by motherhood being the antithesis of violence, due to the whole creation versus destruction

paradigm. Due to them being independent and active participants in the struggle, it would become non-negotiable for them to go back to these submissive gender roles, if and when all of this ends, which might seem out of place to the men who find it hard to accept as a new found reality, hence an increase in domestic and sexual abuse can be anticipated based on the example of other at-war countries like Syria and Yemen.

The occupation of Palestine by Israel has led women into more distress than the pre-existing burdens of economy and patriarchy ear-marked for them since birth, be it in any region across the globe. The absence of basic living conditions and fear for life and freedom have possibly brought the gendered issue of the triple torture of women a few rungs further down the priority ladder, yet again in a war-torn state.