The undersigned women’s and community organizations in the Gaza Strip condemn the recent killings of young women that have occurred in the past few days. On Thursday, February 20, 2014, (A.Sh.), an 18-year-old resident of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, was stabbed to death by her brother while she was prostrating in prayer. On the same day, just hours earlier, (S.N.M.), a 17-year-old girl from Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, was beaten to death by her father in cold blood and buried without a burial permit. Earlier, the body of a young woman from western Ramallah was found, having been recently murdered.
The organizations signing this statement express their concern regarding the spread of crime in Palestinian society in all its forms, especially the recurring killings of young women and women. They had previously warned that these heinous and successive crimes indicate a dangerous escalation of violence against women in Palestinian society, without deterrence or moral restraint.
We, at CWLRCP, the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution, the Women’s Affairs Center, and the Free Thought and Culture Foundation, demand that the official authorities, within their respective jurisdictions in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, take swift action to put an end to violence in all its forms, especially the murders committed against Palestinian women and girls. We also condemn the slow pace of law enforcement agencies in announcing the results of investigations into such crimes and publicly prosecuting the perpetrators. We demand that they immediately announce a public trial of the perpetrators, so that the punishment serves as a deterrent to anyone who considers assaulting the lives of girls and women.
We call on President Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah, Hamas, and all political forces to expedite taking decisive steps towards ending the division and achieving national reconciliation, so that the legislative institution can return to its work and the efforts of the Palestinian National Authority institutions can be united to end the state of fragmentation, security chaos, and violence prevailing in Palestinian society, and to formulate a law to protect women from violence and safeguard their rights and lives.
We call on all civil society organizations and media institutions to join forces to sound the alarm strongly, to clarify the forms and dangers of societal violence against women and girls, to confront it, and to expose and denounce all those who attack the lives of women and girls and all those who practice violence against them in any form.
Signatories:
