WUNRN
WCLAC – Women’s Center for Legal Aid & Counseling - Palestine
http://www.wclac.org/english/etemplate.php?id=1599
PALESTINE – ESCALATING & CONTINUING VIOLENCE IN PALESTINE
& IMPACT ON WOMEN
[13
October 2015] – For well over a year prior to the recent upsurge in violence
the UN, EU and civil society have been warning that tensions were on the rise
in Jerusalem. The general consensus is that the tension can be attributable to
a number of factors including:
- Restrictions on access to the Al Aqsa mosque;
- Police/military brutality and night raids;
- Relentless settlement construction in the City and the
West Bank;
- Lack of adequate housing and building permits for
Palestinians; and
- Freedom of movement restrictions imposed by the Israeli
permit system.
In
addition to these factors the failure of any credible political process to
resolve the conflict in accordance with well-established principles of
international law inevitably leads to an erosion in faith in a peaceful resolution.
According
to the latest data released by
the UN, in the first week of the latest upsurge in violence (29
September to 5 October), 4 Palestinians and 4 Israelis were killed. During the
same period, 794 Palestinians and 7 Israelis were injured, representing a ratio
of 113:1.
As with
the periodic upsurges in violence in Gaza, cycles of violence in Jerusalem and
the West Bank are the inevitable and foreseeable consequence of a comprehensive
failure to enforce legally binding UN Security Council resolutions dating back
to 1967, which in turn only serves to undermine the international legal order
to the detriment of all.
As has been reported in the past, the current state of insecurity frequently has a disproportionate impact on women in the society.