We, Palestinian women, have the right to live in safety and dignity in a free and independent homeland, free from occupation and violence.
Since 1910, the 8th of March has symbolized women’s resistance against injustice and exploitation. This struggle continues to this day, as women strive to build a different world grounded in justice and equality—one that rejects discrimination and oppression, embraces diversity in all its forms, and upholds the fundamental rights of all people without discrimination based on color, gender, language, religion, national identity, etc.
In Palestine, for more than 78 years, women have continued to struggle to realize this legitimate aspiration: to live in a homeland where they can exercise their lives freely—without barriers, prisons, daily killings, torture, or deprivation of clean water, adequate food, and essential healthcare. They strive for a life where they can experience motherhood without the constant fear of suddenly losing loved ones, losing their homes, being displaced into overcrowded shelters where even the most basic level of privacy is absent and where they are exposed to various forms of violence, harassment, and exploitation.
Despite the significant achievements that women in Palestine have made, the continued existence of this colonialism and the escalation of its crimes against the Palestinian people in all its segments—foremost among them women and girls—remain a major obstacle. The Israeli colonialism is accompanied by expanding settlements aimed at controlling the majority of the lands of the West Bank, thereby depriving Palestinians of one of the essential foundations of their lives: cultivating and farming their land. In addition, settler gangs have been given free rein to carry out the most brutal forms of terror against citizens. All of this aims to displace the indigenous population and implement their false myth of building a Jewish state.
Meanwhile, Gaza has been bleeding for nearly three years, with genocide, famine, siege, and life in tents that lack even the minimum necessities of human life, alongside the absence of healthcare, water, and food. All of this is happening under the patronage of international powers, foremost among them the United States—powers driven by a thirst for violence that care only about exploiting other peoples and plundering their resources through instigating wars, killing hundreds of thousands, and imposing their agendas and policies on others. This is also evident in the current wars on Iran and Lebanon, where it is the peoples who pay the price, and women in particular who are pushed further back, becoming more marginalized and suffering even greater hardship.
We affirm that we continue with determination and steadfastness in our struggle to live with dignity. We will remain in our homeland and will not leave; we are here to stay, and the occupation will end.
On the 8th of March, our voices join the voices of women around the world, with whom we share the common dream and struggle to end injustice and establish justice. These are the women across the globe who have taken to the streets, calling for an end to the genocide against Palestinians, against famine, and against unjust wars whose victims are women and children.
We call on all international institutions and United Nations bodies to fulfill their responsibilities in holding the occupation accountable for its crimes against our people, particularly by:
- Preventing the crimes committed against Palestinian prisoners, including rape and sexual assault, who continue to face slow death and systematic torture aimed at crushing their humanity and dignity.
- Implementing Resolution 1325 on the Women, Peace, and Security agenda, and ensuring women’s participation in any negotiation processes, reconstruction efforts, and national dialogue to end the division within the Palestinian political sphere.
- Preventing the occupying authorities from continuing settlement expansion and land annexation, and from providing cover for settler groups to seize Palestinian lands and forcibly displace their residents.
- Ensuring the opening of boarders and the delivery of essential humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, in full compliance with relevant international resolutions.
- Implementing effect to the international recognition of Palestine by ensuring the end of the occupation and the establishment of a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state.
بيت لحم :
شارع القدس الخليل بجانب شركة الحلا
