Abdullah, Amal Kharisha Barghouthi, Rita Giacaman, May Mistakmel Nassar, Amal Wahdan / Sahar Khalifeh ; translation by Nagla El-Bassiouni -- Intifada year four: notes on the women's movement / Rita Giacaman and Penny Johnson -- Palestinian women's activism after Oslo / Amal Kawar -- The declaration of principles on Palestinian women's rights: an analysis / Suha Sabbagh.
Based on interviews with 35 women leaders, this is the first study of women's involvement in the Palestinian National Movement from the revolution in the mid-1960s to the Palestinian-Israeli peace process in the 1990s.
"What emerges throughout the book is the intensity of the pressure on Palestinian society. For many people, a way of coping with this has been to advocate a return to tradition - what Najah Manasra calls 'going back to the roots'. The victims of this trend are Palestinian women, and what is in danger now is not just the future position of women, but the very ability, without women's active involvement, to sustain the Intifada itself."--BOOK JACKET.
A collaboration between an Israeli psychologist and a Palestinian school teacher. This highly original book recounts the surprisingly candid stories of three Palestinian mothers and their daughters. Beautifully told and sensitively edited, these linked narratives bear witness to their experiences of Israeli occupation, their memories of the wars of 1948 and 1967, and the profound changes that have occurred in their political and personal lives. "The complexity of the women's lives and stories and the ways in which they portray themselves in the book make this work of value to anthropologists, as well as to scholars in women's studies, oral history, Middle East studies, and sociology." -Journal of Palestine Studies
Simona Sharoni’s innovative approach to the conflict in the Middle East stresses the relationship between gender and politics by illuminating the daily experiences of women in Israel and in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Among the issues explored are the connections between the violence of the conflict and the escalation of violence against women; the link between militarism and sexism; and the role of nationalism in building individual and collective identities. Sharoni also shows the impact of Intifada (the Palestinian uprising in December, 1987) on the Palestinian and Israeli women’s movements. While women’s coalitions such as these are critical subjects in and of themselves, the actions of marginalized women are rarely, if ever, given serious treatment in the study of international relations. With this book, Sharoni creates an aperture for the emergence of new perspectives and alternative methods in the development of a new vision in global politics and gender equality. The interdisciplinary scope of the book will make it valuable to scholars of political science, women’s studies, conflict resolution, and Middle East studies.
In this rich, evocative study, Rhoda Ann Kanaaneh examines the changing notions of sexuality, family, and reproduction among Palestinians living in Israel. Distinguishing itself amid the media maelstrom that has homogenized Palestinians as "terrorists," this important new work offers a complex, nuanced, and humanized depiction of a group rendered invisible despite its substantial size, now accounting for nearly twenty percent of Israel's population. Groundbreaking and thought-provoking, Birthing the Nation contextualizes the politics of reproduction within contemporary issues affecting Palestinians, and places these issues against the backdrop of a dominant Israeli society.
This work provides a case study of the deleterious effects of patriarchy among Palestinians living in rural villages and refugee camps of the West Bank: its negative consequences for men as well as women, for democratization and for progress toward the creation of a more just society.
In 1993, Amira Aass, a young Israeli reporter, drove to Gaza to cover a story - and stayed, the first journalist to live in the grim Palestinian enclave so feared and despised by most Israelis that, in the local idiom, "Go to Gaza" is another way to say "Go to hell." Now, in a work of calm power and painful clarity, Hass reflects on what she has seen in Gaza's gutted streets and destitute refugee camps. Drinking the Sea at Gaza maps the zones of ordinary Palestinian life. From her friends, Hass learns the secrets of slipping across sealed borders and stealing through night streets emptied by curfews. She shares Gaza's early euphoria over the peace process and its subsequent despair as hope gives way to unrelenting hardship. But even as Hass charts the griefs and humiliations of the Palestinians, she offers a remarkable portrait of a people not brutalized but eloquent, spiritually resilient, bleakly funny, and morally courageous. Full of testimonies and stories, facts and impressions, Drinking the Sea at Gaza makes an urgent claim on our humanity. Beautiful, haunting, and profound, it will stand with the great works of wartime reportage, from Michael Herr's Dispatches to Rian Malan's My Traitor's Heart.
"... takes a new look at the situation in one of the hottest spots on the globe and asks what impact the politicization of women will have on the lives of people in the emerging Palestinian state." -- NWSA Journal This volume introduces the reader to the social and political roles and challenges faced by women of Arab/Palestinian society. Even Arabic commentators have failed to accurately assess the contributions of women within the struggles of Gaza and the West Bank. These essays, written from an "insider's" perspective, show how Palestinian women confront issues of gender, feminism, and the national agenda.
