How support for Israel’s illegal occupation and militarization undermines States’ commitments to gender equality and the WPS Agenda
Twenty-five years after the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adopted the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda, women in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) have no peace and no security. The agenda promised a new era of elevating women’s voices in conflict and peacebuilding, a transformative vision of gender equality and feminist peace. But the reality for Palestinian women and girls has been daily, brutal violence for decades under Israel’s prolonged illegal occupation, culminating in the genocide we are witnessing today. Indeed, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women described the situation in Gaza as an unfolding ‘femi-genocide’ due to the crimes inflicted on women and girls by Israeli forces.
The briefing paper highlights how the WPS Agenda has failed to confront two major obstacles to peace for Palestinian women: the arming of Israel and militarization; and the unlawful occupation of the OPT which, sustained by international support and a lack of accountability, continues to erode Palestinian women and girls’ rights, protection, and participation in political and public life. It notes that the WPS agenda has at times been understood in relatively narrow terms and calls for States signed up to the agenda to take a wider lens and address the broader political, military and legal context that disproportionately impacts Palestinian women and girls.