Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA)

• Since 2007, the EU has donated over 1.8 billion euros to the Palestinians to promote “Gender Equality.” More EU funds were donated to achieving this goal than any other goal.
• Despite the substantial support, the Palestinian Authority has failed to adopt the legislative steps to implement this goal.
• While it had full jurisdiction to pass new legislation, for over 30 years the laws regarding personal status and criminal offenses implemented by the PA are still British Mandate law, Egyptian law (in Gaza), and Jordanian law (in Judea and Samaria).
• While the PA has been willing to take the substantial EU donations, Palestinian society, which is deeply rooted in Islamic Sharia law, rejects “Gender Equality.”
• In order to ensure that the EU aid to the Palestinians is used to reach the goals for which it was donated, the EU must set clear, non-negotiable, benchmarks that the PA must comply with, before any additional funding is provided.

Since 2007, the European Union (EU) has donated over 19.7 billion euros to support programs, projects, and development goals connected to the Palestinians. The development goal that received the largest¹ amount of EU funding, 1.81 billion euros, promotes “Gender Equality” in the “West Bank and Gaza Strip.”

Further analysis of the EU aid tracker² shows that out of this sum, more than 800.7 million euros has been given to the “Central Government.” This means that over 44% of the money has been given directly to the Palestinian Authority.

Considering the centrality of the goal, and the sum donated by the EU to promote it, it is important to assess to what extent the donations have achieved their purpose.

The Definition of Gender Equality

The EU Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025 defined³ “Gender Equality” as a situation in which “women and men, girls and boys, in all their diversity, are free to pursue their chosen path in life, have equal opportunities to thrive, and can equally participate in and lead our European society.” UN Women⁴ defines Gender Equality as “the elimination of discrimination against women and girls, empowerment of women, and achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action, and peace and security.”

EU Policy Toward “Gender Equality” in the Palestinian Authority

The “European Joint Strategy in Support of Palestine, 2021-2024, Toward a Democratic, Accountable, and Sustainable Palestinian State”⁵ often refers to the development goal of “Gender Equality,” but it does not define what this goal entails. Paradoxically, the strategy itself notes “Notwithstanding the PA’s will and few steps taken to strengthen gender equality and women’s rights, women and girls continue to experience violence at home and within the society.”⁶ It further noted “In addition, access to natural resources and property is limited and exposed to gender-based discrimination,”⁷ and that “access to capital, land, labor, and entrepreneurial opportunities, are still characterized by widespread gender bias.”⁸

These fundamental conclusions in the 2021-2024 strategy were not new. The “European Joint Strategy in Support of Palestine, 2017-2020, Toward a Democratic, Accountable and Sustainable Palestinian State”⁹ contained similar language, noting that “Notwithstanding the PA’s will to strengthen gender equality and women’s rights, women and girls continue to experience violence at home and within the society,”¹⁰ and that, “in addition, access to natural resources and property is limited and exposed to gender-based discriminations.”¹¹

Since the EU itself admits that the substantial aid that has been provided to the PA to improve “Gender Equality” has not achieved its goals, it is still, nonetheless, important to present the wider picture, if only to demonstrate how great the failure has been.

PA Legislation or the Lack Thereof¹²

Historically, from 1948 till 1967, Judea and Samaria (a.k.a. the West Bank) was controlled by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and the Gaza Strip was controlled by Egypt. While the PA was created in 1994, it never adopted new laws to govern personal status issues. Accordingly, as remnants of the Jordanian and Egyptian periods, the PA adopted and implemented two separate laws.

Thus, on the subject of personal status, in Judea and Samaria, the PA implemented the 1976 Jordanian Personal Status Law,¹³ and in the Gaza Strip, it followed the 1954 Egyptian Family Rights Law.¹⁴ Both of these laws mistreat women and have roots in Shari’a law. For example, these laws state that the minimum age for marriage for girls is lower than for boys, men can have up to four wives, women need a male guardian to get married, women only get half what men receive in inheritance, and men can easily divorce their wives. Women, on the other hand, need to provide proof and often have to give up the mahr (bride price) and any financial support claims.¹⁵ Additionally, the infusion of Shari’a¹⁶ law in areas of Palestinian society life contributes to these unequal rights, specifically the law regulating inheritance issues that state a woman has the right to half a share of a man.

On the subject of criminal law, in Judea and Samaria, the PA follows the 1960 Penal Law and in Gaza, it follows the British mandate law from 1936. On May 15, 2011,¹⁷ a presidential decree suspended Article 340¹⁸ of the Jordanian Penal Code and 18 of the 1936 Penal Code.

“Honor” Killings

These articles allowed perpetrators of “honor” killings to receive reduced sentences under certain circumstances. While this suspension marked a significant step towards some sort of “gender equality” in law, the decree did not address other provisions within the same legal frameworks that continue to offer leniency for honor killings. Specifically, Article 62 of the 1960 Jordanian Penal Code¹⁹ allows courts to rule in favor of a father who kills his child if such actions are justified by “local customs.” Similarly, Article 98²⁰ of the same code grants reduced sentences to those who commit honor murders if they claim an inability to control their anger.

In 2018, The Women’s Center for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC) documented²¹ a total of 23 killings: 10 in Gaza and 13 in the West Bank. A 2021 WCLAC on femicide report²² added that most of the victims were young women; 37% were between 18-29 years old and 18% were under 18 years old. The report noted that many of these femicide cases are registered as “suicidal cases” or “deaths for unknown reasons” and are not counted by official judicial entities. This goes as far as some of these cases (especially in the Gaza Strip) being closed immediately and not being investigated at all.

While the PA did draft its own Penal Code in 2011, to replace the Jordanian and mandate-era law, the draft was never adopted as legislation. Moreover, close attention to the content of the draft reveals that no substantial progress was planned on crimes displaying major gender disparities compared to the old Law. Thus, for example, as one commentator noted,²³ “Article 486 [of the draft law – M.H], for example, makes it legal to murder women in cases where the family has been dishonored, similar to Article 340 of the Jordanian Code; rather than trying to extirpate honor killing, it thus enshrines it in law.”

A 2018 UN study,²⁴ whose findings are still relevant, summed up the legislative status of women’s rights using a color-coded infographic.

The PA Adopts the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)

In 2009, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas adopted the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).²⁵ In 2014, following the UN recognition of “Palestine” as a non-member observer state, Abbas formally accepted CEDAW on behalf of the “State of Palestine.” By accepting this, the PA committed to following the guidelines and requirements outlined in the convention to properly ensure gender equality and eliminate discrimination against women. While CEDAW includes provisions that do not enjoy broad consensus in Arab and Islamic countries, as opposed to those countries, Abbas adopted the convention without registering any reservations.

In 2019, during the first five-year evaluation regarding CEDAW, Palestinian clans in the West Bank announced their rejection of it and criticized the PA for committing to it in the first place. Additionally, they called for “banning feminist groups in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.” They claimed that the CEDAW treaty goes against Arab and Islamic norms and teachings.²⁶

At the time, in a post shared on his Facebook page,²⁷ PA Supreme Shari’ah Judge and Chairman of the Supreme Council for Shari’ah Justice Mahmoud Al-Habbash noted:

President [Abbas’] ratification in 2009 (sic., 2014) of the CEDAW convention was ratification conditioned on what is consistent with the Palestinian constitution, with the Basic Law… We have a Basic Law that says: “Islamic law is the source of legislation” … Truthfully, even if we signed the CEDAW convention we are not committed to it at all, except for what is consistent with Islamic law.

In the 2018 report²⁸ of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) issued after a series of meetings, the committee shared some recommendations as to what the “state party” (sic, the Palestinian Authority) should do.

In the report, the committee stressed the need for the PA to “adopt, without delay, a comprehensive strategy to eliminate discriminatory stereotypes concerning the roles and responsibilities of women and men in the family and society.”²⁹ The committee also noted concern relating to the fact that a family protection law has been in draft for “far too long” and emphasized that priority must be given to adopting it, to ensure that women and girls are “protected from gender-based violence.”³⁰ The committee further raised concern about the high prevalence of honor killings and domestic and sexual violence, “which remain socially accepted and underreported due to the stigma suffered by victims.”³¹

The committee suggested that efforts must be intensified so that “perpetrators of gender-based violence, in particular so-called “honor killings” are prosecuted and adequately punished.”

In the absence of implementation of the recommendations, in 2023, a report from UN Women noted³² that “despite the numerous policies, strategies, programs, and interventions that have been jointly implemented by governmental, non-governmental, and international partners, progress towards gender equality lags. This is due to the lack of the necessary political will, economic resources, and enabling social and cultural norms.”

The Status of Women – Palestinian Attitudes

In a 2019 UN study,³³ it was reported that 15% of married women in Gaza experienced incidents of sexual abuse by their husbands over the previous year. More than half of these experienced it repeatedly (three+ times). Shockingly, the report added that 50% of Palestinian females and 63% of Palestinian males agreed that a woman should tolerate violence to keep the family together.

In a 2015 study,³⁴ conducted in collaboration with UN Women in Palestine, more alarming statistics were found. Some of these include; 25% of male respondents and 22% of female respondents reported witnessing their mother being beaten by their father or a male relative during their childhood. Around 80% of men and 60% of women agreed that a woman’s most important role is taking care of the home. 76% of men said that boys are responsible for the behavior of their sisters, even if they are younger than their sisters, and 34% of men said there are times when a woman deserves to be beaten.

While internationally the PA has feigned greater openness to promote domestic rights, including women’s rights, commentators have suggested³⁵ that their goal was first to “preserve foreign funding… make political gains and win sympathy.”

Thus, while projecting to the international community an ostensible willingness to promote “Gender Equality,” in practice, the messaging of the PA to the Palestinian population presents a different picture.

For example, in 2018, Mahmoud Al-Habbash, the same PA official who rejected CEDAW, explained on PA TV that men are permitted to beat their wives for “disobedience.”³⁶ In another program broadcast on PA TV, the Mufti of Gaza explained the framework for Palestinian men to correctly beat their wives.³⁷

The Rights of Palestinian Women under Hamas

Since 2007, Hamas, the internationally designated terror organization, has ruled the Gaza Strip. Hamas’ treatment and attitude towards the rights of women was even worse than that of the PA.

In 2013, for example, Hamas instituted a gender segregation law in all schools in Gaza, including private schools, Christian schools, and UN-run schools. Men cannot teach in girls’ schools and separate classes for boys and girls over the age of nine were also mandated.³⁸

Additionally, girls are encouraged to dress conservatively and punished if they fail to conform to these standards. Girls have been told to wear hijabs and have been threatened with expulsion³⁹ if they fail to “cooperate.” Women were told that “the right hijab is your way to heaven,”⁴⁰ and women who wear a hijab but with jeans have been compared to Satan.⁴¹

The modesty code is not just related to dress. This was proved by the 2013 cancelation of the UNRWA Gaza Marathon⁴² when a decision was made by Hamas to prohibit women’s participation. Instances of violence against female journalists⁴³ for not wearing a hijab, have also been registered.

In 2021, a Hamas-run Islamic court ruled that women require the permission of a male guardian to travel. The decision provided that an unmarried woman may not travel without permission from her “guardian” referring to her father or another male relative.⁴⁴

Conclusions

For over 15 years, the EU has provided the PA and Palestinian society with substantial donations to improve “Gender Equality.” To promote this goal, the EU has donated over 1.8 billion euros to the PA and other Palestinian actors. The cumulative EU donations to achieve “Gender Equality” in the PA are higher than its donations to achieving any other Palestinian goal, including improving education, health, and social welfare.

While the PA has often feigned a willingness to promote “Gender Equality” for the consumption of the international community, its domestic practices present an entirely different picture.

Despite having had three decades to formulate and pass the necessary legislation to promote women’s rights, in practice, the PA still relies on and implements archaic legislation, frozen in time. Similarly, while declaratively joining, without reservation, CEDAW, in practice, the PA fundamentally breaches many of its central provisions. PA attitudes and policies, founded in Islamic religious Shari’a law still entrench institutional and cultural discrimination against women, including but not limited to condoning violence against women.

Even though consecutive EU-Palestinian multi-year development plans have recognized that few steps have been taken by the PA to promote achieving this goal, the flow of EU donations has continued, unabated.

While promoting “Gender Equality” in Palestinian society is the most important EU goal, from a financial perspective, the EU attempts to purchase and impose European values, such as “Gender Equality” on Arab society, with its deep roots in Islamic law, culture, and tradition was doomed to failure. The failure was compounded by providing the funds to the dysfunctional PA, which lacks any semblance of democratic or good governance.

Recommendations

Achieving “Gender Equality” in general, and in Palestinian society in particular, is a noble goal. Eradicating institutional and societal discrimination while simultaneously improving the status and standing of Palestinian women is without question of the utmost importance. However, aimlessly throwing EU donations at the PA and Palestinian organizations without first developing quantitative and qualitative benchmarks to measure the impact of the donations has proven to be futile.

Accordingly, to prevent the further waste of EU funds, the EU must act to suspend all funding and donations to the PA and Palestinian organizations to promote “Gender Equality.”

To resume the funding, the EU should demand, at the very least, that the PA adopt and implement all the necessary legislative changes that form the prerequisite for change in this important field. These changes should include fundamental changes in the laws governing personal status, bringing them in line with EU practices. The PA’s criminal laws should similarly be brought in line with EU values and include provisions that outlaw all forms of violent behavior against women, specifically outlawing any acceptance, tactic or explicit, of “honor killings.”

Annex 1

Legend:

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Notes