Empowering Women: Women’s Co-op in Hebron

Powerful Women:

"Women in Hebron and surrounding villages have started a business for empowerment and self-dependence.

Read more at: palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip .php?article884"

Women’s Co-op in Hebron
Source: Palestine Monitor
Date: 25 March 2009

The city of Hebron is one of the most aggressive cities in the West Bank in terms of the relationship between the Palestinians and the Israeli settlers living there. The settlers along with the Israeli military have taken over the Old City—and this has had a very big impact on the lives of the Palestinians because the market is in the Old City.

The soldiers have blocked roads and created checkpoints within the Old City to discourage commerce and tourism. Now, there are even settlers living in the apartments above Arab shops and Israeli soldiers stationed strategically around the area to “protect” the settlers. However, it is the Palestinians who need the protection in Hebron.

The violent, extremist settlers constantly antagonize the Palestinians in an attempt to scare them out of their shops by throwing garbage, stones, and sewage water from their apartments down on to the shops and people below. The shop owners have actually had to put up a chain link fence above the streets in front of their shops to catch the garbage and stones—protecting themselves, visitors, and their products.

Because of this situation, the Old City shops are slowly disappearing. One attempt to combat this distressing trend was initiated by the Palestinian Solidarity Project. They have helped to create a Women’s Co-op that produces traditional embroidered products hand-made by Palestinian women in Hebron.

Their shop in the Old City sells embroidered products made by over 100 women from villages around Hebron and is exclusively managed by women. This is a good opportunity for the women to create an income for their families and to contribute to revitalizing the market in the Old City.

Fatima, one of the women involved in the project says that “the women in this country usually marry and stay in the home…the situation is very difficult here—no money, no jobs.”

In addition to creating an income for these women and trying to revive the economy in Hebron, another goal of the project is to create a market for their products in other parts of the world while at the same time raising awareness about Palestine.

The women say they “hope people abroad will help us by buying our products. We want to support ourselves, we do not want charity.”

See the Article and Related Photos, click here / Palestine Monitor

Also see The Women’s Co-op Website for traditional Palestinian items made by these women and which you can purchase directly from the website.



Palestine Video - A Palestine Vlog

Codepink co-founder rooting for new policy on Israel, travelling to Gaza March 5th

Codepink co-founder rooting for new policy on Israel:

by Christina Lovato, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK co-founder, discusses why there should be a new policy on Israel and how CODEPINK are traveling to Gaza to help end the war among Israel and Gaza.


CODEPINK
Gaza Aid Delegation Details + Itinerary
Source: CODEPINK

Join Humanitarian Delegation to Gaza for International Women's Day: Pay Tribute to the Women of Gaza

March 5, 2009 - March 12, 2009

Itinerary:
Meet up in Cairo, Egypt on March 5
Travel to Gaza on March 6
Meetings/program in Gaza March 7-10

Return to Cairo March 11
International delegates return home March 12

Cost: $600 from Cairo, includes transportation, lodging, translation, program, some meals and contribution to local groups. Scholarships available.

Program: Meetings with UN and government officials, local women (including victims of Israeli violence), humanitarian/development agencies, journalists, health workers and political analysts. Visit areas devastated by Israeli attacks.

Purpose of the trip: Provide humanitarian and emotional support to women and women's organizations in Gaza; Exert pressure on US, Egyptian and Israeli governments to lift the blockade and promote peace/human rights in the region.

Organizers: The trip is organized by CODEPINK: Women for Peace and will be led by CODEPINK cofounders Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans. Sponsoring groups include National Congress of Black Women, Global Exchange, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, American Muslim Voice and Women's Intercultural Network.

For more information: contact gaza.codepink[at]gmail.com

Background: Palestinian women in Gaza have been devastated. We have seen the agonizing pictures of wailing women digging through the rubble of their destroyed homes to look for their buried children. We heard the stories of the dead mothers whose emaciated children were found hanging onto their bodies for days until reached by aid workers.

The Israeli attack that began on December 27 left over 1,000 dead, including 412 children and 110 women, and over 5,000 injured (1855 children and 795 women), according to the United Nations Children's Fund. But that but that attack came after 18 months of a crippling blockade that had left the Palestinian population hungry, sick, weak, and already suffering from what UN officials called a catastrophic situation.

Women now have to care for the physical and emotional wounds in their families and communities, while dealing with their own broken hearts. They have to attend to the physical needs of their families in the face of shortages of water, electricity, food, medicine, heat, fuel, and shelter. Some neighborhoods have been almost totally destroyed, with over 100,000 people displaced from their homes.

According to the United Nations, "Children are hungry, cold, without electricity and running water, and above all, they're terrified. Women are at greater risk of maternal death and or injury as maternity wards are being used as surgical facilities to treat the wounded."

There are huge medical needs. Twenty-one medical facilities were damaged during the fighting, and there are severe shortages of emergency supplies, including sterilization equipment, needles, anesthetics, catheters, oxygen and essential medications.

The UN says that hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid are needed to help Gaza's 1.4 million people and billions of dollars will be required to rebuild its shattered buildings and infrastructure.

Groups in Gaza that we will be supporting include:
The Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS) is a grassroots, community-based Palestinian health organization. PMRS was founded in 1979 by a group of Palestinian doctors and health professionals seeking to supplement the decayed and inadequate health infrastructure caused by years of Israeli military occupation. It is non-profit, voluntary, and one of the largest health NGOs in Palestine. PMRS is national health programs emphasize prevention, education, community participation, and the empowerment of people. In 2008, an Israeli airstrike destroyed its head office in Gaza, including its main pharmacy, an ambulance and a loan center for handicapped people. http://www.pmrs.ps/last/index.php

The Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP) is a Palestinian non-governmental, non-profit organization established in 1990 to provide comprehensive community mental health services - therapy, training and research - to the population of the Gaza Strip. Since that time, the Gaza Strip - one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with two thirds of the population being refugees and 50% being younger than 16 years - has witnessed extreme forms of violence and suffering, due to Israeli occupation and military operations. This made the extent of mental health problems in the Gaza reach unprecedented levels. http://www.gcmhp.net/

The Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC) was founded in 1983 by a group of Palestinian agronomists responding voluntarily to the deterioration in agricultural extension programs in the Jordan Valley area of the West Bank as a result of the Israeli occupation by offering expert advice to marginalized, poor farmers in the area. This voluntary effort gained momentum and recognition over a short period of time, and, transformed into a non governmental organization dedicated to promoting sustainable development in rural areas in Palestine. Unfortunately, when the Israeli Defense Forces began bombing Gaza on December 27, 2009, PARC's offices were severely damaged, along with the rooftop and backyard gardens at the core of their urban farm program. http://www.parc.ps/about/about.html

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights The Centre is an independent Palestinian human rights organization based in Gaza City. The Centre was established in 1995 by a group of Palestinian lawyers and human rights activists. It documents rights violations by the Palestinian Authority and Israel. Its lawyers defend victims of human rights abuses, from cases of illegal detention to torture. http://www.pchrgaza.org/

Palestine Video - A Palestine Vlog

Gaza women march on Rafah crossing to demand reopening

Gazan women demand Rafah reopening 02 Nov 2008:

"Hundreds of Palestinian women have staged a protest march, calling on Egypt to reopen the Rafah border crossing to relieve Gaza suffering. PressTv Report"




Palestine Video - A Palestine Vlog

Israeli Refusenik Speaks Out

Israeli Refusenik Speaks Out:
"Manchester, England. 20th March 2004. A female Refusnik and PERETZ KIDRON, originally a refugee from Nazi persecution and one of the founders of the Refusnik movement."

Interview with Salam Kanaan in Ni'lin

Interview with Salam Kanaan in Ni'lin:

"Salam Kanaan is the 17 year old who filmed the shooting of Ashraf Abu Rahma, a bound and blindfolded Palestinian prisoner, in Ni'lin in July 2008."

CO Sahar Vardi, 18, a conscientious objector, has been sentenced today (25 Aug 2008)

CO Sahar Vardi, 18, has been sentenced today (25 Aug 2008):

"Sahar is the third conscientious objector, and the first woman, to be imprisoned among a new group of high school seniors, who signed a collective declaration of refusal to serve in the Israeli army of occupation, and in the work of organising which she has been very strongly involved.
While she stresses the importance of resisting the occupation of Palestine as a motive for her refusal, Sahar's conscientious objection is also rooted in a wider pacifist position. In a letter to the Minister of Defence, declaring her refusal to serve in the military, She wrote:
I have been to the occupied Palestinian territory many times, and even though I realize that the soldier at the checkpoint is not responsible for the wretched policy of the oppressor towards civilians, I am unable to relieve that soldier of responsibility for his conduct ... I mean the human responsibility of not causing another human being to suffer.
The bloody times in which I live (consisting of assassinations, aggression, bombings, shootings) results in increasing numbers of victims on both sides. It is a vicious circle that emanates from the fact that both sides elect to engage in violence. This choice I refuse to take part in.

A demonstration was organised to join Sahar before she goes into the Induction Base to refuse enlistment (see image on the right). Ab"

Ni'lin Women's Demonstration - Part 1

Ni'lin Women's Demonstration - Part 1:

"On 23rd July 2008, the women of the village of Ni'lin held their first ever women-only demonstration against the Separation Wall in Ni'lin. Includes interview with demonstration organiser Rema Khawaja."



part 2

Nilin women's demonstartion

Nilin women's demonstartion:

"About one hundred Palestinian, Israeli and international women demonstrated in Nilin against the apartheid wall"