Palestinian Women’s Experiences and Feminist Activism: Mobilizing under Neoliberal, Neopatriarchal, and Colonial Realities

Abstract

This study examines current Palestinian women’s personal and collective social and legal experiences as women living under Israel's military occupation and a system of settler colonialism. The Israeli occupation of the Palestinians impacts women disproportionately through its policies and restrictions on Palestinian ways of life, culture, and tradition, as well as through its enhancement of patriarchal tendencies in an already conservative and traditional society. Using qualitative interview data and primary and scholarly sources, this study provides two other important analyses. First, it examines the limits of Palestinian women’s and feminist activism due to their inability to reconcile various feminist perspectives and overcome their structural weaknesses as a result of the international donor-funded NGO model. Second, it sheds light on the specific ways that the occupation enhances patriarchal tendencies in Palestinian society, as evidenced through the behavior of the PA, Hizb ut Tahrir, clerics and tribal leaders, and lawyers in defaming, threatening and preventing women from attaining greater social and legal progress. I argue that while Palestinian feminists and women’s activists in the West Bank and East Jerusalem face extremely difficult socio-political barriers in their fight to advance women’s legal and social rights, part of their struggle can be traced back to weaknesses in the movement itself. I consider Ṭālʿāt’s model of radical, independent and feminist activism as a possible alternative to current methods of mobilization. I also recognize that the almost impossible social and political conditions that Palestinian activists work in are further exacerbated by the colonial oppression that Palestinians face and the neoliberal, capitalist system (Mohanty, 2013). Lastly, within the context of the occupation and settler colonialism (Ihmoud, 2022), the Palestinian Authority is not committed to the social or political emancipation of women and has failed to advance women’s social and legal status in Palestine.