Democratic Palestine : 34 (ص 29)
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- Democratic Palestine : 34 (ص 29)
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tion, deriding imprisonment, carrying arms, getting involved
in underground activities, etc. Paradoxically, occupation,
which is evil rather than good, has enabled women to emerge
from secluded chambers into the streets of struggle and con-
frontation. It is no wonder that in 1976, there were more than
38 women’s societies in the West Bank alone. Certainly, the
role of these societies was not to struggle only for women’s
rights, but to preserve the unity of the society and restore its
weak links.
The woman’s role was seen in many fields, such as medical
care, fostering orphans, fighting illiteracy, helping poor
families, safeguarding traditions, assisting prisoners’ families,
together with militant action in the direct sense. This multi-
dimensional activity played an essential role in preventing the
Israeli attempts to undermine the Palestinian social and
cultural structure. One particular association, the Society for
the Preservation of the Family in El Bireh, which was
established before the 1967 occupation and continued
thereafter, should be referred to here. This society concen-
trated on providing opportunities for women to work, to
enable them to become self-reliant. While maintaining the
vestiges of the past, such societies acquired new qualities
through the state of occupation. Out of their interaction, a
number of progressive women’s institutions have emerged
since 1978, pointing to the establishment of mass organizations
oriented towards a radical solution for both the national and
women’s questions. The first activity of these institutions was
to study the situation of women factory workers.
The Women’s Work Committee, founded in Ramallah in
1978, was different in both structure and ideology from the
previous welfare societies. It relied on direct effectiveness
rather than on formal frameworks; hence the absence of both a
center and a traditional membership. It was, moreover, op-
posed to the concepts of center and bureaucratic organization,
instead releasing the freedom of initiative in action throughout
the villages, camps and factories. Thanks to the advantages of
self-initiative, the membership of the women’s committees
multiplied and spread to different places. Moreover, the
absence of a formal framework helped to avoid direct Israeli
censorship. Yet the essential factor in these bodies’ success lay
in their realistic policies which were based on the daily needs
of the people. They were not bound by central directives, but
respected the attitudes and wishes of the masses. Because of
a high sense of responsibility and a democratic spirit, the in-
fluence of these committees went beyond class boundaries,
reaching different types and groups of people.
While the previous women’s organizations proceeded from
voluntarism and abstract notions, the Palestinian Women’s
Committees, formed in 1980, worked to involve people via
their daily interests which are inseparable from their national
aspirations; this lent a high degree of credibility to their
slogans. It should be stressed here that the use of such methods
was only possible thanks to the positive qualities of the leader-
ship of these committees, who possessed an advanced con-
sciousness and a high scientific and cultural level, and were in
touch with the ordinary people.
These committees formulated their national and ideological
aims based on real knowledge of reality. The situation of
Palestinian women has clearly been affected by the differing
Democratic Palestine, August 1989
conditions in the occupied homeland on the one hand, and in
the various places of exile on the other. While the resistance
movement, with its policies and ideology, defined the status of
women in pre-determined parameters, the conditions under
occupation provided women with a broad scope and a greater
perspective in terms of united national action. This was also
due to the absence of irresponsible organizational rivalry.
Conditions under occupation accentuated the fact that there
was a clear battle between a militant people and an aggressive
occupation.
Another essential consideration is that occupation has led to
the destruction of a great portion of the original social and
economic structure of the Palestinian people. Previously,
agriculture was the main economic field, while industry was
limited. The occupation came to destroy the Palestinian
agriculture, confiscating land and crops. Rural Palestinian
women were obliged to go to the cities where the Israeli fac-
tories were ready to absorb them. Women thus entered the
factory as «black labor» to suffer from multi-dimensional
Oppression: national oppression, capitalist exploitation and
racial discrimination. Today, it is possible to speak of ‘the
Palestinian woman worker. In this connection, the category of
labor acquires great significance; its meaning is not reduced to
the relationship between product, surplus value and employer.
It is manifest in the restructuring of consciousness and of per-
sonality. This takes women away from the traditional sphere,
language and standards, to throw them into an arena of
significance.
Here women were obliged to unite the economic and na-
tional aspects of their struggle. Gradually they freed
themselves from their narrow consciousness which focused on
a few abstract notions, such as honor, chastity, etc. They ad-
vanced towards a comprehensive struggle, entitled to refor-
mulate their personalities as militant women and experienced
workers. A new stage began where political organization
merges with trade union activity. Male workers no longer left
their wives behind at home; they began to see them at both
work and strikes, as well as in confronting oppression and ex-
ploitation. Ancient consciousness was collapsing, giving way
to a new consciousness without which the intifada would not
have been possible.
RESISTANCE, EXILE AND WOMEN
Throwing water in the faces of Palestinian women, the
resistance woke them from their slumber; they moved from a
Negative state to a situation which retained the negative fac-
tors, but with some positive modifications. When noting this
awakening, we see the bright side, but it did not lead to real
emancipation. It by no means enabled women to act rather
than merely react. In the gap between the two levels, we see the
negative side of this issue. At the beginning things looked easy.
The very emergence of the resistance movement with all the
battles it fought, its victories as well as its tragic failures,
brought the revival of the Palestinian national identity, a very
great achievement in which women share.
As we move on, the picture is less clear. Doing research on
the status of women in the Palestinian national struggle means
looking into the totality of the political and ideological prac-
tices through which it has been waged. Consequently, we move
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- Democratic Palestine : 34
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