Change-- whether positive or negative—is destabilizing. Change forces movement from one state of being to another, one form to another. Often, neither the new state nor the new form is clearly felt or exactly formed. Change requires moving from the familiar to the unfamiliar, from a taken-for-granted position, the status quo, to another that requires adjustments. For most of us, facing change frightens us so we resist, at least initially. At the same time, however, we embrace the challenge, knowing deep down inside that the transformation will bring forth new life. Moreover, even during times of the greatest of changes, some things remain unchanged. We live with the paradox. One significant change at WCLAC during 2008 was the long planned and much anticipated consolidation of staff into one building. We are now housed in Batn el-Hawa in Ramallah. This required significant fund-raising alongside staff being required literally and metaphorically to change their desks. This takes getting used to.

One thing remains clearly unchanged: working under Israeli occupation that insists on denying us our right for self determination and our right to live in peace and security in an independent state. Occupation, militarism and patriarchy work together on disempowering Palestinian women and violating their human rights.

The year 2008 was promised as one of hope for Palestinian people owing to the much-heralded Annapolis Peace Conference at the end of 2007 advanced by the Bush administration. In my Director’s Message last year, I predicted that, if this process did not meet its objectives, it would cause further disappointment, pain, and suffering. As feared, it was just a media event, nothing was followed up, and the situation, especially in Gaza worsened resulting in severe humanitarian crisis. Hence, 2008 year ended with the Israeli war on Gaza—using the threadbare pretext of “retaliation against rockets propelled out of Gaza" resulting in the illegal and unforgivable destruction of civilian life and infrastructure. The final death toll: over 1,300 Palestinian casualties, most of them civilians with hundreds among those women and children. We feared and predicted violence and human suffering. What actually happened in Gaza was beyond our wildest imagination! Once again, according to many credible accounts, Israel has committed war crimes, with impunity, with support from western governments the bystanders, the passive supporters. We know Israel waged war on the civilians without having to account to any one or any existing judicial body.

The year 2009 begins with the deeper, profoundly disturbing and painful realization that, we Palestinian people, are expendable and that our human rights and entitlement to live in dignity can be, indeed will be, sacrificed by the existing powers for the sake of the wider geo-political interests. The world prefers to see us as “terrorists,” thus justifying the unjustifiable, or to relegate us to the status of poor and helpless victims needing charity. As a people we, refuse both characterizations.

We will continue to struggle for our collective right to live in dignity and with self-determination. We are not passive recipients of charity. The international community sends humanitarian assistance as an ethical and moral responsibility for their role in perpetuating the Israeli-led atrocities against the Palestinian nation. It is the trade-off for not having the political will to exert their political and economic influences to hold Israel accountable for every violation of international law that Israel had committed since its establishment.

As a Palestinian women’s human rights organization, we challenge ourselves and all Palestinian women to struggle for the survival of the Palestinian nation and of ourselves, both as Palestinian and as women. We also will gather our strength to move beyond survival in order that our nation and our people will thrive in a unified, just, and truly secure and sustainable state.

And the struggle will go on. The Gaza child innocently smiling at the camera while sitting among the rubble of what used to be his family home and mostly women and children walking through rubble salvaging whatever belongings they could from all that was destroyed are the images that keep us going. Like a phoenix rising out of the ashes, we will bring forth new life. Our challenge is to stay together and support each other so we can continue to struggle for our life not only as individuals but as a people with a rich heritage and culture. We need to keep struggling for our lives, and keep resisting those who want to disconnect us from our past and deny us and our children a future. Our struggle is to keep connecting our past with our present and keep the hope for a peaceful future.

During these times, working with women is essential. They are the ones who must continue functioning to keep the families together. They are the ones who manage to keep a smile on the faces of children, working to erase, at least partially, the horror they experienced. Women must stay strong and steadfast, and Palestinian women have proven, time and time again, that we have the capacity. As the late African-American poet June Jordan wrote for the South African women’s Movement during their anti-apartheid struggle: “We are the ones we have been waiting for.” We hold the keys to our destiny.

Maha Abu-Dayyeh Shamas
Executive Director