news - ISRAELI ATTACK ON GAZA

Jordanian Women Union mobilizes in support to the Palestinian population in Gaza

The Jordanian Women Union (JWU), main partner to the Movement for Peace –MPDL- in Jordan, elaborated an action plan as an answer to the last Israeli aggression in Gaza, which in January caused the death of 1,300 people and left wounded other 5,000.

As the first axis of the project, JWU promoted and canalized the Jordan social mobilization in support of Gaza’s population, and denounced the attacks against houses, hospitals, schools, religious buildings and civil institutions. At the same time, with writings and letters of protest, the end of the diplomatic relations with Israel.

Although the Jordan government didn’t permit that the demonstrations reach the Israeli embassy in Amman –security forces dissolved a peaceful sit-in in front of the building-, they permitted demonstrations in front of other embassies, institutions and international organizations, something that the JPU rated as a “positive response”

In this line, the JWU delivered a memorandum to the Jordan Parliament in which it condemned the Israeli offensive, emphasizing the harshness of the situation of the women, children and elderly, and reclaimed the urgent assistance to the wounded, the end of the attacks, the application of the Chart of the United Nation and the international judgement to the Israeli leaders for all of the crimes they committed against the Palestinian population.

The Women Union also directed a note to the Jordan Prime Minister, Mr Nader Dhabi, and an “urgent call” to put pressure on the Arab League and its General Secretary, Mr Amr Moussa, to which end the JWU started collecting signatures of women from the entire Arab world.

In a second axis of intervention, the JWU supported the start of different mechanisms to collect financial aid and to give assistance to the affected population. Between these, it is important to stress the blood donation campaigns; the transfer of professionals, employees and volunteers that want to collaborate in the Strip’s reconstruction; and the start of a legal support committee to collect information about the crimes perpetrated by the Israeli forces.

Last, to implicate its social base and improve its awareness, the Women Union issued a new statement at the beginning of the aggression, named “A new Holocaust in the Gaza Strip in state of siege and destruction. The statement orientated all the later movements and orientations.
The declaration emphasized the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people, as the right of return, and to their independence as a Nation-State, and stressed the impotence in front of the massacres, the complicity of some of the Arab countries and the necessity to give immediate assistance.

(1) JWU is a democratic popular organization whose objective is the improvement of the woman’s situation, the strengthening of its social role, the defence of the freedom and the construction of a society founded on the equal opportunities, justice, participation and the respect of the human rights.

Towards this, JWU works internationally together with other Arab and non-Arab countries. A great share of the base strength and of the leadership of the JWU is of Palestinian origin (as it happens with more than half of the Jordan population, people displaced because of the conflict with Israel).

Article written by Nadia Shamroukh, JWU's General Manager

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