By Selina Musa
As the world celebrates the 8th of March, international women’s day, there are millions of Palestinian women who are and have been suffering under the longest and deadliest military occupation in world history.
In the ongoing struggles against decades of occupation, and most recently in response to events both in Gaza and the West Bank, many Palestinian women are icons of this resistance.
Many Palestinian women are icons of this resistance. They grow up, fight for justice and educate those around them in resilience. They have never forgotten their occupied country and stolen lands contrary to Golda Meir’s statement “the old will die and the young will forget”. We will never forget.
Palestinian women played an integral role in the region throughout many periods of history including Ottoman control, the British Mandate and the current Israeli occupation. Their involvement in revolution started against the British occupation, when over 40,000 demonstrated in the streets of Jerusalem on the 27th Feb 1920. They participated in meeting the high commissioner (Herbert Samuel who supported the Zionist movement) to demand that Britain cancel the Balfour Declaration.
In 1921, a woman named Zulaikha established the first Palestinian women’s union. Aside from holding large scale protests and demonstrations, they went on to hold the first Women’s conference in Jerusalem on October 29th 1929. 300 women from all over Palestine gathered together to organise future programmes to protest British Mandatory policies and sent a protest letter to King George V and the league of nations.
During the Arab revolt of 1936-1939 Palestinian women started to coordinate with national movements to boycott foreign and Zionist products. They were also involved in carrying and smuggling weapons, food and clothes past British Army checkpoints to revolutionaries in the mountains since men weren’t allowed to move as freely. One key figure here was Fatima Ghazal who was Martyred on 26th September 1936 by the British in Azzoun Vally.
The second major event for Palestinian women was the Nakba in 1948 which forced the Union of Palestinian women to expand its structure to support devastated families in need. In 1967 the Israeli army occupied the West Bank and Gaza igniting a fire in the people, in particular Shadia Abu Ghazaleh.
She was one of the first Palestinian women to participate in military resistance. She was also deeply devoted to education and political struggle treating it as an integral part of revolution and emphasised “the role of education, knowledge, and science as weapons in the struggle for liberation.”
A more well known female hero of the Palestinian struggle is Leila Khaled. She joined resistance movements at age 15 and is still fighting to end the atrocities of the Israeli occupation now at age 80.
Renowned Palestinian artist Suleiman Mansour has repeatedly highlighted women’s struggles and resistance through his art. A major work being “The Bride of the Homeland” Lina Nabulsi. She was 17 years old when she was martyred in cold blood on the 15th May 1976, hiding under a table in her school uniform.
Israeli soldiers chose to make an example out of her the day she died all because she joined one of the weekly protests against the building of illegal settlements on her way home from school.
Palestinian women are well known for fighting against the occupation. Dalal al-Mughrabi, dubbed “the Bride of Yafa,” is considered one of the most prominent Palestinian freedom fighters and one of the most famous women among them. The heroism, courage, and determination shown by the twenty year-old Palestinian aroused pride throughout the Arab world. She was eulogised by many well-known Arab writers, including the Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani and Lebanese novelist Elias Khoury.
In December 1987, after four Palestinians were martyred by an Israeli truck driver, the first intifada was triggered. Women were at the forefront of the popular committees that proliferated in towns and villages to sustain the intifada. They managed strikes and physically resisted arrests despite curfews and
restrictions on movement. The Palestinian flag was banned at this time so women used their skills to make them en masse.
Palestinian women then held their own marches and participated extensively in demonstrations and other forms of protest. They exhibited tremendous courage in their confrontations with Israeli soldiers, and frequently risked their own lives to save Palestinian youth from arrest or beatings.
Political figures like Hanna Ashrawi and Intisar Al-Wazir have played very important ministerial roles post Oslo accords. We mustn’t forget the hundreds of women keeping Palestinian culture alive internationally through the arts such as novels, poems, songs, embroidery like tatreez and through food.
Today we have a new generation of Palestinian heros. Palestinians are currently under siege, struggling, while Israel commits an active genocide. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian women are becoming heroes of the resistance movement, much like some of their predecessors mentioned before. Their defiance needs to be recognised. Netanyahu and his government have tried to kick them out of their homes and forcibly remove them from their land. They have refused and continue to build hope. They constantly show resilience and steadfastness against the occupation simply by staying put and ensuring their family is cared for. Bisan Owda, or wizard-bisan on Instagram, has made it her responsibility to showcase the atrocities happening in Gaza. She has been persistent in
posting the war crimes committed by Israel, even though there was barely any access to electricity or the internet. She wouldn’t let her voice be silenced. Palestinian women have also taken to social media to bring to light the struggles all across the world. One struggle recognises another, growing global
solidarity.
Palestine in general and Palestinian women in particular, in Gaza and the West Bank, are in a dire situation. It is time for all Palestinians and all parties to unite in order to stop the genocide, ethnic cleansing and deportation of Palestinians. There must be an immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces and an end to the illegal occupation on Palestinian Territories. Palestinians must be granted equal rights and the ability to determine their interests on their land as well as the establishment of an Independent Palestinian State on the borders of 1967 with East Jerusalem as it’s capital and the return of refugees in accordance with UN resolution 194. All of this is essential for peace
This is a (lightly) edited version of a speech delivered by Selina Musa on behalf of the Palestinian People’s Party at an International Women’s Day meeting held in Portcullis House, Westminster parliament, 5 March 2025
Selina Musa, a Palestinian Londoner, was born to a family of well-known and well-regarded progressive activists. Her late father, a long-time activist and advocate for a political solution to the Palestinian problem, was the London resident representative of the Palestinian People’s Party (PPP), founded in 1982 and one of the constituent members of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) since 1987. The PPP has consistently campaigned in Palestine and among the diaspora on a progressive nationalist platform; for peace, democracy, and social justice; and for the two-state solution. In November 2023, deeply affected and spurred-on by the criminal genocidal campaign unleashed upon the people of Gaza by the Israeli government, Selina decided to follow in the footsteps of her dear mother and father in their activism and joined Liberation – and has become an important and highly valued presence at Liberation’s central office in London.
The views expressed in the articles published on this website do not necessarily represent those of Liberation.
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Image: CC BY-NC-SA 2.0/Romain Guy
