Since October 2023, the world has watched in horror as a genocide has unfolded in Gaza and across Palestine. The situation in Palestine demands urgent attention and action, as the escalation of Israeli hostilities and the mounting attacks on Palestinians continue to grow in gravity and magnitude. A year on, we launch the BeyondOctober7 campaign to further amplify our demands for a ceasefire and unpack the root causes of this conflict.
For over 70 years, Palestinians have been subject to human rights violations and abuses while living under Israeli occupation, as well as forced displacement around the region and world, with the inability to return. This is made worse through increased and unabated settlement construction, a decades long blockade on Gaza, apartheid policies and flagrant Israeli impunity in the face of ongoing violations of international law. These violations have a gendered impact and have disproportionately affected women and girls.
The international community must take action NOW to end its complicity and meet its obligations to prevent genocide and war crimes.
We are working with partners and members in Palestine and globally, mobilising feminist activists to challenge the narrative around the struggle and educate people around us about the root causes of the violence, pressure world leaders to implement an arms embargo on the state of Israel and amplify the voices and demands of Palestinian women.
Mainstream media, Western policy makers and governments have been framing the cause of the Palestinians as a complicated conflict, with two-people not being able to live side by side, and co-exist. It is also a narrative of supremacy and dehumanisation. A narrative that fails to acknowledge the history of the land and its people, the humanity and equality of Palestinians, and the dynamics and drivers of the violence and injustice. This narrative will certainly fail to produce effective strategies to address the situation. This is why it is important that we reframe the narrative of the conflict and name practices and dynamics by their proper names and put them in the right context. We encourage people to challenge the narrative and educate ourselves and those around us. This is a crucial step in transforming mindsets.
Read more on the narrative of the Palestinian cause:
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This conflict is a feminist issue, read more about how feminism has been instrumentalised
Fighter jets, missiles, and thousands of bombs are amounting to a devastating level of explosive violence in the densely populated area of the Gaza Strip. These weapons are instrumental in Israel’s genocidal actions; thus, the governments supplying them are complicit in genocide and other war crimes. Weapon manufacturers are making a profit from the slaughter of Palestinians. It’s up to us, as ordinary people living in these countries, to act. We want the ongoing genocide to end NOW. On this page we share some of the ways in which we can inform ourselves, act to make a difference.
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WILPF stands in Solidarity with the Palestinian People. We adopt an approach of co-resistance that acknowledges that the oppressor and the oppressed are not on equal footing, and amplifies the voices and demands of Palestinian women and partners. In our work, we centre the leadership, voices and experiences of women and others who are directly impacted by violence, conflict and other manifestations of oppressive systems. We recognise that lived experience allows us to identify and advocate for solutions to challenges, with the support and solidarity of the movement.
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Berit Aasen is a sociologist by training and has worked at the OsloMet Metropolitan University on Oslo. She has 40 years of experience in research and consultancy in development studies, including women, peace, and security, and in later years in asylum and refugee studies. Berit Aasen joined WILPF Norway five years ago. She is an alternate member of the National Board of WILPF Norway, and representing WILPF Norway in the UN Association of Norway, the Norwegian 1325 network and the Norwegian Women’s Lobby. Berit Aasen has been active in the WILPF European Liaison group and is committed to strengthening WILPF sections and membership both in Europe and relations across continents.
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Prior to being elected Vice-President, Melissa Torres was the WILPF US International Board Member from 2015 to 2018. Melissa joined WILPF in 2011 when she was selected as a Delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women as part of the WILPF US’ Practicum in Advocacy Programme at the United Nations, which she later led. She holds a PhD in Social Work and is a professor and Global Health Scholar at Baylor College of Medicine and research lead at BCM Anti-Human Trafficking Program. Of Mexican descent and a native of the US/Mexico border, Melissa is mostly concerned with the protection of displaced Latinxs in the Americas. Her work includes training, research, and service provision with the American Red Cross, the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Centre, and refugee resettlement programs in the U.S. Some of her goals as Vice-President are to highlight intersectionality and increase diversity by fostering inclusive spaces for mentorship and leadership. She also contributes to WILPF’s emerging work on the topic of displacement and migration.
Jamila Afghani is the President of WILPF Afghanistan which she started in 2015. She is also an active member and founder of several organisations including the Noor Educational and Capacity Development Organisation (NECDO). Elected in 2018 as South Asia Regional Representative to WILPF’s International Board, WILPF benefits from Jamila’s work experience in education, migration, gender, including gender-based violence and democratic governance in post-conflict and transitional countries.
Sylvie Jacqueline NDONGMO is a human rights and peace leader with over 27 years experience including ten within WILPF. She has a multi-disciplinary background with a track record of multiple socio-economic development projects implemented to improve policies, practices and peace-oriented actions. Sylvie is the founder of WILPF Cameroon and was the Section’s president until 2022. She co-coordinated the African Working Group before her election as Africa Representative to WILPF’s International Board in 2018. A teacher by profession and an African Union Trainer in peace support operations, Sylvie has extensive experience advocating for the political and social rights of women in Africa and worldwide.
In response to the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban and its targeted attacks on civil society members, WILPF Afghanistan issued several statements calling on the international community to stand in solidarity with Afghan people and ensure that their rights be upheld, including access to aid. The Section also published 100 Untold Stories of War and Peace, a compilation of true stories that highlight the effects of war and militarisation on the region.
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WILPF uses feminist analysis to argue that militarisation is a counter-productive and ill-conceived response to establishing security in the world. The more society becomes militarised, the more violence and injustice are likely to grow locally and worldwide.
Sixteen states are believed to have supplied weapons to Afghanistan from 2001 to 2020 with the US supplying 74 % of weapons, followed by Russia. Much of this equipment was left behind by the US military and is being used to inflate Taliban’s arsenal. WILPF is calling for better oversight on arms movement, for compensating affected Afghan people and for an end to all militarised systems.
Mobilising men and boys around feminist peace has been one way of deconstructing and redefining masculinities. WILPF shares a feminist analysis on the links between militarism, masculinities, peace and security. We explore opportunities for strengthening activists’ action to build equal partnerships among women and men for gender equality.
WILPF has been working on challenging the prevailing notion of masculinity based on men’s physical and social superiority to, and dominance of, women in Afghanistan. It recognizes that these notions are not representative of all Afghan men, contrary to the publicly prevailing notion.
In WILPF’s view, any process towards establishing peace that has not been partly designed by women remains deficient. Beyond bringing perspectives that encapsulate the views of half of the society and unlike the men only designed processes, women’s true and meaningful participation allows the situation to improve.
In Afghanistan, WILPF has been demanding that women occupy the front seats at the negotiating tables. The experience of the past 20 has shown that women’s presence produces more sustainable solutions when they are empowered and enabled to play a role.
