Progress Amid Resistance

PALESTINE 387for Women with the United Nations in Beirut from November 2005 toJune 2008. She holds a master’s degree in gender, law, and developmentfrom Birzeit University.NOTES1Suheir Azzouni Mahshi, “A Free Palestinian, a Free Woman,” Palestine-Israel Journal ofPolitics, Economics and Culture 2, no. 3 (1995).2Israel claims sovereignty over East Jerusalem, though it is not internationally recognized.3Several marches for women took place in a number of Palestinian cities in 1994, callingfor a quota of 30 percent in all decision-making bodies and the abolition of regulationsrequiring women to obtain the written consent of their guardians in order to obtainpassports.4Ostensibly designed to prevent infiltration by Palestinian militants, the barrier extendsroughly along the Palestinian side of the 1949 armistice line separating the West Bankfrom Israel. It sometimes veers deep into the West Bank to incorporate Jewish settlements.5B’Tselem, “Separation Barrier: Statistics,” http://www.btselem.org/english/Separation_Barrier/Statistics.asp.6World Bank, “West Bank & Gaza: Country Brief,” September 2008, http://go.worldbank.org/Q8OGMLXI40.7Khaled Abu Toameh, “Gaza Women Warned of Immodesty,” Jerusalem Post, December2, 2006, http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1164881802888&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull.8Hannah Wright, “Listen to the Women of Palestine,” Guardian.co.uk, August 13, 2009,http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/13/palestinian-women-fatah.9Diaa Hadid, “Hamas ‘Virtue Campaign’ Aims to Make Gaza More Islamic,” HuffingtonPost, July 28, 2009, http://www.huffingtopost.com/2009/07/28/hamas-virtue-campaign-aim_n_246046.html.10Brenda Gazzar, “Palestinians Debate Women’s Future Under Hamas,” WeNews, April23, 2006, http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2714/.11Amnesty International, Operation ‘Cast Lead’: 22 Days of Death and Destruction(London: Amnesty International, July 2009), http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE15/015/2009/en; “Half of Gaza Dead, Women, Children and Elderly,” RIANovosti, January 11, 2009, http://en.rian.ru/world/20090111/119414133.html.12According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), a total of 5,901Palestinians were killed between the years 2000 and 2008, and 332 of those were women.For more information see PCBS, “Killed Palestinians (Martyrs) in Al-Aqsa Uprising(Intifada), by District of Residence, Age Group and Sex, September 29, 2000–Decem ber31, 2008,” http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Portals/_pcbs/intifada/9a4af320-4ea9-4fb9-9dc6-a0e9eafe5bc8.htm.13The amended Basic Law of 2003 is available in English at http://www.palestinianbasiclaw.org/2003-amended-basic-law. For the 2005 amendments, see http://www.palestinianbasiclaw.org/2005-amendments.