PNN's Rana Al-Arja was among those in attendance at a women's empowerment conference that was held in December. Although the report is late in coming, the work of the Jerusalem Centre for Women is unending. Al-Arja sends this along.

The JCW website reads, “It is our goal to stand up to the unjust occupation, oppression, war, apartheid, humiliation, and poverty affecting Palestinian women. Simultaneously, we seek to advance a women’s perspective in peace-building with political principles based on respect for human rights, mutual trust, and morality.”

The Jerusalem Centre for Women is a Palestinian non-governmental women’s centre located in East Jerusalem working for the advancement of women and human rights in the region and were among the attendees of a major workshop in the eastern West Bank’s Jericho, the oldest and lowest city on earth. They include a just peace and end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine in their position in addition to advancing the place of women in Palestinian society.

JCW is devoted to enhancing and moving forward joint peace initiatives despite the complex and ever-changing political situation. In the wake of rising political frustrations, JCW remains committed to developing relationships with Israeli peace groups and other organizations who share their vision for a peaceful resolution. As was stressed by JCW’s representative at the workshop, women’s oppression is borderless in this case, thus besides the occupation, women are also oppressed by the patriarchal system in both societies.

The JCW sees its mission as seeking to provide Palestinian women with training opportunities in developing democracy, human rights, advocacy, and other activism skills in order to improve women’s status and their role in Palestinian society. This task is mainly realized through programs such as the Peace Building Program and the Female Youth Leadership Development.

The conference was organized and facilitated by Operation 1325 and WI’AM Conflict Resolution Centre in Bethlehem. It was funded by the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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