/ The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
cfd's critical media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict looks at the consequences of the occupation for Palestinian women and girls. It shows how the violence of the conflict has affected the status of women in Israel and Palestine. The rapid militarisation of the Intifada has made it more difficult for Palestinian women to gain access to the public sphere or political decision-making positions. Increasingly, the legitimation to decide on matters of security and peace agreements is accorded exclusively to men with military status. This applies in Israel as well. To date, the official peace negotiations have been conducted largely without women. cfd supports the demands of Israeli and Palestinian women for full participation in the political process, and supports their concerns in the Swiss political arena.
In the debate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, cfd has broached the issue of the role of power and the 'power to name' in the negotiations for peace. So far, the official negotiations have done nothing to improve the daily lives and political prospects of women in Palestine. In both Israel and Palestine, women's scope of action has in fact narrowed in the political, economic and social spheres. In both societies, the process has strengthened conservative militarist forces.
All of the official plans for peace, from the Oslo Accord to the Road Map, have been dominated by a logic of boundaries based on division, territorial inclusion and economic exclusion. This principle has been given physical expression in the Israeli West Bank Barrier and the blockade of the Gaza Strip following the Israeli disengagement.
cfd's partners in Palestine and Israel break through this logic of division with project work, networking and politics. They make violence, injustice and discrimination visible wherever they occur. And they show where the politics of peace really happen: in social and cultural projects, with the empowerment of marginalised groups, in campaigns for Women's Rights, Human Rights and the implementation of International Law, in public debates and controversial discussions about peace, security and political aims, and last, but not least, in trans-boundary demonstrations against all forms of occupation.
For all of these activities, cfd has created a public arena and mutual systems of support. These activities open up perspectives of peace and new paths of action.