Background

IWPS-Palestine is an international team of women based in Haris, a village in the Salfit Governorate of Occupied Palestine's West Bank, which began for three continuous years from August 2002. IWPS-Palestine documents human rights abuses, nonviolently intervenes in abuses, and works with the media. IWPS-Palestine joins Palestinians in acts of nonviolent direct action to oppose human rights abuses and the confiscation and destruction of land and property of Palestinian people. This includes joining demonstrations and opposition to the Apartheid Wall, helping remove roadblocks, and accompanying ambulances and Palestinians whilst they farm. IWPS-Palestine supports Palestinian and Israeli anti-occupation groups in their grassroots resistance to end the brutal and illegal military Occupation.

Palestinian Context

At the beginning of IWPS-Palestine, the people of Palestine were living under a brutal Military Occupation and Siege that was worsening every day. Thousands of roadblocks and military check-points prevented the free movement of vehicles, goods and people causing a serious shortage of supplies including food and petrol; prevented the disposal of sewage and garbage; paralysed the health care systems; prevented access by emergency services; closed universities and schools; and led to more than 50% of the population being unemployed with the rest unable to get to their jobs. The Israeli military had also imposed curfews; tanks were terrifying people whilst Israeli soldiers arbitrarily occupied homes. During the first 21 months of the second Intifada there had already been approximately 1,600 Palestinian deaths and over 20,000 injuries with over 2,000 people suffering from permanent disabilities due to the conflict. Unfortunately, two years later, by the beginning of August 2004 these figures had increased to 3,136 Palestinian deaths and 27,033 Palestinian injured, with Israeli deaths for the same time-period being 972 and Israeli injured being 6,506. For current figures you can refer to the Palestinian Red Crescent website at www.palestinercs.org and the Israeli Defence Force website at www.mod.gov.il.

Outline of IWPS-Palestine

IWPS-Palestine established an International Women's House in Haris village in the Salfit Governorate with the intention of creating a permanent presence of Internationals throughout the Siege and Occupation. Haris is at the centre of a vulnerable group of Palestinian villages right next to Ariel. Ariel is the biggest of the illegal Israeli Settlements in the West Bank and was built on land forcefully expropriated from several of the villages around Haris. It is still expanding into more of the Palestinian's rich agricultural land. The area is particularly isolated due to the difficulty of transport caused by the closure and is very vulnerable to military and settler incursions. The founders of the project had experience of nonviolent intervention and human rights monitoring in the area having led various short-term international delegations to help remove roadblocks and provide accompaniment to the Palestinians whilst they planted and harvested their crops. The villagers then requested urgently a permanent presence in Haris to provide a timely response to emergency calls. A formal letter of invitation was received from the Haris Villager Council inviting IWPS-Palestine to come to the village to set up the International Women's House. After detailed discussions with members of the Council a project description was written for an initial 3 years, funding sought and the first women started work in August 2002.

IWPS-Palestine trains and supports an international team of women in Haris:

• to provide written and photographic documentation of human rights abuses in the Salfit Governorate and forward these to human rights lawyers and organisations;
• to work with independent media and outside press to promote and facilitate the dissemination of the documentation through use of the internet;
• to nonviolently intervene in any human rights abuses witnessed;
• to provide supportive accompaniment for civilians as they try to live normally;
• to engage in acts of nonviolent civil resistance in order to oppose the human rights abuses and the confiscation and destruction of land and property of Palestinian civilians, which is internationally recognised as illegal;
• to support Palestinian and Israeli peace movements in their civil resistance to end the Occupation;
• to provide an experiential model for setting up further international women's peace teams in other places.