"Dorek": Palestinian women's political renaissance

In this period we continued our work on ending violence against Palestinian women in Israel. This takes place after the major 16 days of activism to end violence against women campaign, which was described in our first report. The work that we have been doing includes ongoing awareness-raising in the field via workshops, and public events for the Palestinian society in Israel on issues of femicide, emotional violence, sexual harassment, political violence, and legal violence. We have reached about 600 people directly since the last report. Other major events in this period included writing press releases and position statements related to critical events in Israel. These have included the murder of two Palestinian sisters by their brother, a joint statement with other Arab NGOs condemning police violence against Palestinians engaged in a non-violent protest against the massacres in Gaza, and an Organizational statement in support of the people of Gaza from a feminist perspective. We also partook in organizing a rally in Nazareth after the murder of the two sisters, which was widely attended and was a public stand against gender-based violence, and in particular so called "honor killings." 

Our ending violence against women project is making waves in the society. To begin the project funded through the generous donations of our supports via global giving, we held a 16 days of activism to end violence against women campaign. This campaign was coordinated with an international movement of feminist activists. The campaign was organized by grassroots Arab women leaders in our network, and featured daily lectures, workshops, rallies, memorials, social media feeds, media articles, and more. We printed book marks, stickers, and posters. Overall our work reached over 1,000 direct participants, and indirectly (through rallies, and media work) we reached 1,000s more. Attending our events were women, youth, men, and decision-makers from local communities. A special feature of this year's work includes an expanded definition of violence. Our work raised-awareness about the varied froms that violence can take including: political, social, economic, physical, emotional, and sexual violence. 

We are continuing this work as we have momentum and there is a still a huge need in the society to address all forms of violence against women. This will include more workshops, and trainings for women and youth on how to be advocates for women's security and safety and agents of social change in their communities as related to ending violence against women.