Statement Issued by the General Union of Palestinian Women and Women’s Centers
No to Division… Yes to National Unity
Our gathering today is a renewed and continuous demand to end the political division in the Palestinian arena, which is causing our people significant losses at the national level and weakening our national cause at the Arab and international levels. We are here, as we have been every Tuesday in our weekly stand, to emphasize that ending the Israeli occupation, liberating our land, and building our national state with Jerusalem as its capital requires unifying the national ranks in a strategy of resisting the occupation by all means. This necessitates, as a top priority:
First: Ending the division in the Palestinian arena is a national and legitimate demand for all members of the Palestinian people.
Second: Working to achieve national reconciliation with all its files as a single package to end the suffering of our people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, resulting from the fragmentation of the homeland.
Third: The immediate cessation of all policies and measures that would deepen the division, especially media campaigns and arrests based on political affiliation, whether in Gaza or the West Bank, and the issuance of decisions and laws, the latest of which was the issuance of a number of laws unilaterally by the Change and Reform bloc in the Legislative Council in Gaza. We emphasize that the continued persistence of the parties to the division in these policies and measures does not serve the building of Palestinian society on the basis of justice and equality, nor does it serve the national cause towards achieving national unity. Rather, it contributes to consolidating the division among the Palestinian people on political and geographical grounds between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Our gathering today coincides with Prisoners’ Day, so that we all remember that hundreds of the strugglers, both men and women, who sacrificed long years of their lives inside Zionist detention centers for the sake of our people’s national cause. We say today to our prisoners: we will not forget you, and we are here to demand an end to the division and to look at your case seriously so that you may be among your families and loved ones in the near future. Decision-makers in Gaza and the West Bank must look at the issue of prisoners with greater depth, and their issue must receive attention, especially in light of the neglect witnessed in Israeli prisons, the latest of which was the death of prisoner Maysara Abu Hamdiya due to medical negligence. We affirm that we are with you and we strengthen your hands in your sit-ins and hunger strikes.
We also affirm the unity of our people in all places of their presence, and we condemn the targeting of Palestinian families in the Yarmouk camp in Syria, which is raising the toll of Palestinian victims daily without any fault committed by them. We demand that Palestinian camps be removed from the circle of internal violence that Syria is witnessing.
We, in the General Union of Palestinian Women and the women’s frameworks, centers and associations, reiterate our demands:
A greeting of reverence and respect to our brave prisoners, men and women, in the occupation prisons. A greeting to the souls of our righteous martyrs. A greeting to all the sons and daughters of the Palestinian people in the homeland and in the diaspora.
Together for our national unity. General Union of Palestinian Women and the women’s frameworks, centers and associations. 16/4/2013
