Palestinian on women's suffering under Israeli occupationrule

Counsellor Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations, Nadya Rasheed, gave yesterday to the UN an in-depth look into what Palestinian women face living under Israeli occupation.

Her statement was from a debate in which the Social, Cultural and Humanitarian Committee of the United nations General Assembly considered the agenda item on the Advancement of Women.

Rasheed said that over six years, all sectors of Palestinian society throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, have suffered from the brutal measures employed by the Israeli occupying forces.

She mentioned that any investigation or analysis of violence against the Palestinian people reveals an abhorrent situation in which their human rights are being seriously violated and gravely breached by the occupying Power, trampling their human dignity and controlling almost every single aspect of their lives.

"During this time, the occupying Power has continued to kill, injure and maim Palestinian civilians, including women and children, to destroy homes, properties, vital infrastructure and farmlands, to confiscate land, to construct the expansionist Wall, to build and expand settlements and bypass roads," she said, "to arrest, detain and imprison thousands of Palestinians, and to cause the further deterioration of the already dire economic and social conditions of the Palestinian people by persisting in its imposition of the severest restrictions on movement, including medical and humanitarian assistance, throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem."

Rasheed asserted that not a single day has gone by nor has a single minute passed - during which Israel, the occupying Power, has not deliberately engaged in the violation of international law, including humanitarian law and human rights law, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and in especially in the Gaza Strip.

Counsellor Rasheed pointed out that the Palestinian women have borne the brunt of these illegal Israeli policies and as such the consequent reality for Palestinian women has been one of a constant and merciless assault of harassment and humiliation, violence and terror, and punishment and discrimination.