“Women and girls are facing the indignity of having no supplies to attend to their menstrual cycles, not to mention privacy, something that is an unimaginable luxury for them to even dream of now.”
Ryvka Barnard, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, addressed the Labour & Palestine “Women for Palestine” rally in the run-up to International Women’s Day. You can read a published version of her speech or watch the event below:
Thanks as always to Labour and Palestine for organising this really important event, and for all the work you are doing and it’s a huge honour to share this panel with such a brilliant group of women campaigners.
This is a particularly difficult year to speak on the topic of Palestine, not because last year the occupation was easy, or that the apartheid system being imposed on the Palestinian people was light-touch or not a major challenge… but obviously, this year is different because of the absolutely unprecedented scale of the horrors being inflicted on the Palestinian people daily, which as we all know, are now being investigated in the International Court of Justice as a case of genocide.
Others have spoken about the particular impact this violence has had on women…the conditions facing tens of thousands of Palestinian women in the Gaza Strip who are pregnant, in a situation where they are being constantly bombed, displaced multiple times and often living in tents or temporary shelters, with no health care available, since part of Israel’s war has been the pointed and intentional obliteration of Gaza’s already overstretched hospitals. Women are giving birth without access to clean water or medicines, and those who are in medical facilities requiring c-sections are having those operations done without anaesthetics.
Women and girls are facing the indignity of having no supplies to attend to their menstrual cycles, not to mention privacy, something that is an unimaginable luxury for them to even dream of now.
And all this on top of the famine facing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, the bombing they are all subjected to, the ground invasions, the forced disappearances by Israeli military and the torture and ill-treatment in prisons, which is also meted out to women.
As comrades have said before me, the burden of war and colonialism hits women doubly hard.
But also, as always, Palestinian women are no exception to the global phenomenon of women also being at the forefront of the struggle for justice, and in service to their people. I want to pay tribute today to all of the Palestinian women who are courageously facing these unprecedented challenges: the doctors, nurses, and other medical workers who are saving lives or providing comfort to the dying in the Gaza Strip; the teachers and community activists who are organising lessons and play for Palestinian children in shelters, children whose lives will never be the same after this, if they even survive, and the structure of a group activity might be the only thing that can bring a smile to their faces. The women who are working as journalists, and particularly since international media cannot get into Gaza, who are diligently reporting and documenting both the violence against, and the strength of their people. The mothers, sisters, aunties and others who are at the same time, very ordinary, but actually extraordinary in their work to keep their community together in the face of such horrors.
These are the women who will never be celebrated by name in international forums, who won’t become news sensations or heroes, but whose work is the foundational work that Palestinian women have been doing for decades to uplift their people that has inspired so many of us, including myself.
So what is our responsibility as people of conscience in the solidarity movement, in the face of such horrific violence, and such inspiring courage and strength? And what do we do in the face of overwhelming British complicity in Israel’s violence, and government attempts to stifle and silence our solidarity movement, attempts which have reached a fever pitch this week? Our priority at PSC, and across the solidarity movement, must be to work tirelessly for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. PSC and partners are planning another national march this Saturday, and I’m proud and excited to say that this weekend we’ll have an entire line-up of women speaking in support of a ceasefire and an end to British arms sales to Israel. And I do want to thank those on this call who have been supporting and speaking at these marches for months now, especially those MPs who have done so at huge cost and despite threats, not from their constituents, but from the British government and party leaders!
In advance of this event tonight, I spoke to a Palestinian friend in the occupied West Bank, and she asked me to mention to you all how important is has been for her and her comrades to see our marches in London. Of course, the main purpose of our marches is to put pressure on politicians here to take action, but they do also provide some comfort and hope to Palestinians around the world, including in occupied Palestine, to see that they have not been forgotten by the majority of people in the world, even if they’ve been forsaken by those in power.
There’s much more for us to do…marching for a ceasefire, keeping up our Stop Arming Israel campaigns, and starting new campaigns to push for accountability and to support the Palestinian call for justice. Thanks to all of you who have showed up today and I hope to see all of you in London this Saturday for our next Ceasefire Now march!
- This article is a published version of the speech given by Ryvka Barnard, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, during Labour & Palestine’s ‘Women for Palestine‘ rally held in the run-up to International Women’s Day 2024.
- You can watch back the event on YouTube or listen back on the Arise Festival podcast.
- You can follow the Palestine Solidarity Campaign on Facebook, Twitter/X and Instagram.
