Women's Needs in Shu'fat Refugee Camp
Last Tuesday, ICAHD interns visited the Shu'fat Refugee Camp in Anata, East Jerusalem, for a presenation of a recent study on women's aid needs by the Women's Center. This was my first event dealing with gender in the conflict or in Palestinian society, so it was refreshing to see a major event (there were many United Nations and Palestinian Authority officials there) devoted to the subject. This was also my first visit to a refugee camp, so I ws surprised by a few things.
The workshop focused on the status of women within Palestinian society and the Israeli occupation, holding both accountable for women's struggles. A recital of "Biladi," the Palestinian national anthem, and posters of Yasser Arafat set a patriotic mood from the beginning, and a number of speakers seemed more interested in general Palestinian liberation than in gender, emphasizing the right of return to Israeli land and the importance of al-Quds/Jerusalem as a capitol, without specifying what these general rights mean for women.
The workshop covered women's progress in Palestinian politics, citing that service to women was one of President Abbas's fourteen campaign points. They listed steps forward like the addition of six female ministers to the Palestinian Authority, "gender-sensitive budgets," and the abolishment of a law that tolerated honor killings. A representative from UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) promised a commitment to vocational and leadsership trainingto continue the progress.
The study used a sample of 1500 women from Shu'fat Camp and surrounding areas in Anata and Hizma (a total population of 44,415, 20,000 in the camp). Most of the participants held Jerusalem IDs, so had more privileges and rights than West Bank residents.
What most interested me was a poll citing that 83.4% of women saw economic needs as major needs, 64.1% saw living conditions as a major need, 63.3% social needs, 61.4% psychological needs, 60% health needs, 54.2% educational needs, and 45.8% political needs. This surprised me because, often, the issue of Palestine is thought to be a political rather than economic problem: Palestinians are generally well-educated, and poverty in the West Bank is less extreme than many areas of the Global South. While poverty comes out of political oppression, Palestinians and solidarity activists often focus on the problem of political oppression itself. For example, current political battles, like that in Sheikh Jarrah, are fought for wealthy Palestinian families. I was very surprised that, especially in the political climate of a refugee camp, less than half of women would identify their political needs. I wonder if the results for men would be higher.
