Why we must speak up for the women of Palestine – Carole Regan
“The casualties are horrendous and are still increasing. There are 30,800 people who have been killed and 72,298 who have been injured. It is women and children who form more than 70% of those numbers.”
Carole Regan addressed the ‘Rising Women in the Global South – Solidarity Rally #IWD2024’ on International Women’s Day (March 8th). You can read an edited version of her speech or watch the event in full below:
I’ve been a member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) since 1980s and Ive been to Palestine a number of times. The first time when I was President of the NUT in 1996 and my Union (now the NEU) has continued to support justice for the Palestinians
I want to begin by reminding ourselves how The International Court of Justice defines the crime of Genocide:
“Acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group:
(a) Killing members of the group
(b) Causing serious bodily harm or mental harm to members of the group
(c) Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group
(e) Forcible transferring children of the group to another group.”
The Republic of South Africa has accused Israel of being guilty of the act of genocide – Israel is undoubtedly guilty – not only in the court in The Hague but in the court of world opinion.
The overwhelming majority of the members of the United Nations and the overwhelming majority of people here in this country are calling for an immediate ceasefire.
The casualties are horrendous and are still increasing. According to figures released this morning (March 8th): There are 30,800 people who have been killed and 72,298 who have been injured. It is women and children who form more than 70% of those numbers.
On International Women’s Day it’s important to remember those thousands of women who have lost their lives under the Israeli brutal occupation. The current toll is two women dying each hour. These women are Workers, doctors, nurses, teachers, reporters, aunties, sisters, grandmothers, and mothers.
They are experiencing absolutely horrendous conditions with no sanitary products, nowhere to wash; and lack of dignity.
We must also remember the 50,000 pregnant women who may have to give birth without medical help, with 5,500 expected to give birth in the next month without proper medical support and the almost 1m women who have been displaced.
Palestinian women have been, and continue to be, in the forefront of the struggle of the Palestinian people for self-determination and since 1948 resisting the illegal occupation.
Just to mention a few:
Tarab Abdul Hadi, a Palestinian woman born in Jenin in 1910 who founded the Palestinian Women’s Congress which resisted the British Mandate’s occupation of Palestine.
Fatima Bernawi who was amongst some of the first to mobilise against Israeli colonisation and was the first female Palestinian political prisoner serving 10 years in Israeli prisons
In 1936 Palestinian women from Baqa Al-Gharibiyeh stormed a British Mandate prison in response to the mass arrest of Palestinian men by British soldiers, then succeeded in freeing all the prisoners and ending the enforced curfew on the village.
Probably the most well known resistance fighter is Leila Khaled, who was involved in 1969 in the hijacking of TWA flight on its way from Rome to Tel Aviv. She was imprisoned and released later in a hostage deal.
And of course the courageous young Palestinian women at the forefront of the fight today, like Ahed Tamimi who defied Israel’s occupation with a slap that was heard around the world.
Muna El Kurd another brave Palestinian woman whose fearless journalism covering the continued Israeli colonisation and evictions in her neighbourhood, Sheikh Jarrah, led to the Palestinian struggle going viral in 2021. She was honoured as one of TIME Magazine’s most influential people.
Hanan Hroub is recognised as one of the world’s best teachers. Nujoud Merancy one of the leaders of NASAs Orion Spacecraft programme which is planning to send the first woman to the moon this year.
On 11 May 2022, the Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead while she was covering a raid by the Israel Defense Forces at the Jenin refugee camp. Despite overwhelming evidence that she was killed by the IDF – no one has been brought to justice.
There are many other women who have been and continue to be part of the Palestinian resistance against occupation.
Most importantly is that without the end of the brutal occupation, girls, women, boys and men will never be able to fulfil their potential, their dreams, their aspirations – which is why we need to:
Continue to build solidarity with the Palestinian people;
Demand an immediate ceasefire;
Support the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.
- This article is an edited version of the speech given by Carole Regan, speaking on behalf of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign, to the ‘Rising Women in the Global South – Solidarity Rally #IWD2024’hosted by Arise Festival on International Women’s Day. You can watch the event in full here.
- You can follow the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) on Facebook, Twitter/X and Instagram.
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