Unveiling Apathy: The Gaza Crisis Through the Lens of Women and Children | Gender Tales

Nov 26, 20236 min read

Every morning, I grapple with the decision not to open my social media, determined to focus on research. Yet, the pressing question remains: research what? Is it merely to compile information for it to sit untouched on bookshelves? Despite this internal debate, I find myself opening my laptop, intending to delve into the world of a Gender-Responsive Built Environment. However, my social media accounts reveal a stark contrast, showcasing the disintegration of both gender and the built environment.

Graffiti in solidarity with Palestine, Dublin, Ireland

Google diligently presents promising agendas and overwhelming reports from esteemed organizations. Meanwhile, LinkedIn showcases scholars engaging in discussions on gender, feminism, and urbanism. The safety of women and children remains a central discourse both online and offline. Yet, amidst these discussions, a population of 2.3 million is bombarded almost every second, as the world echoes its familiar, and usual rhetoric.

A shudder courses through me, prompting me to shut my eyes momentarily, envisioning a genocide unfolding before me. As a researcher, I turn to the words of Jewish academic and Israeli historian Ilan Pappe in his book ‘The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine,’ embarking on background research. Before articulating anything, as a researcher, I believe it's crucial to understand what transpired before October 7, 2023, leading me back to May 14, 1948—the Nakba. As a woman and a researcher dedicated to the built environment with a focus on women, I cannot close my eyes; I must write and share this piece. While nowhere close to being an expert on the subject, however, armed with decent research, a beating heart, and a truth-seeking mind, I pour my heart out.

Historical Context: Addressing the Israel-Gaza conflict necessitates acknowledging the concept of Ethnic Cleansing, especially regarding the events in Palestine in 1948 [1]. In his book, Pappe, a Professor at the University of Exeter, asserts that the notion of ethnic cleansing accurately applies to the instance of Palestine in 1948. The term 'Nakba' signifies the mass exodus of Palestinians from their homeland in 1948 to make way for the fledgling state of Israel. It's vital to dispel the notion that the conflict began on October 7, 2023, with the Hamas attack, as propagated by Western media. The roots run deeper, back to 1948, under the direction of David Ben-Gurion, the leader of the Zionist movement during the Jewish War of Independence.

The Present Situation: For the past 75 years, Palestine has been colonized by Israeli settlers, and occupying forces. Currently, since October 7, 2023, over 47 days, the Israeli forces relentlessly attacked the Palestinian people of Gaza in retaliation to the Hamas attack, displaying utter disregard for human life. More than a million Palestinians from northern Gaza remain trapped between homelessness and the south [2]. Khaled Beydoun, a Law Professor, author, and public scholar, describes Gaza as the world's first digital genocide [3].

a. Built Environment Loss: The harsh truth is that Palestinians' homeland is irreversibly damaged and completely uninhabitable [2]. Over 60,000 residential units have been destroyed, in addition to hundreds of targeted precision attacks on hospitals (25 out of 37 knocked off, according to the World Health Organization), primary care clinics, and other medical facilities, including ambulances. Additionally, 90 education facilities, including schools and universities, and 49 media offices have been razed to the ground [5]. Israel's air campaign has been quoted as the most aggressive since World War II [15]. With the United Nations estimating that 1.7 million people have already become homeless, many wonder if Gaza can ever recover [15]. However, Palestinians argue that it's not only damaged infrastructure that needs rebuilding, but also a traumatized society.

b. Gendered Impact of Genocide: According to the New York Times, after two years of conflict, twice as many women and children have been reported murdered in Gaza compared to Ukraine [6]. UNICEF, UNRWA, UNFPA, and WHO caution that women, children, and newborns in Gaza bear a disproportionate burden of the hostilities, both as casualties and due to limited access to health services [4].

In the past 47 days, the world has witnessed Israel's genocidal attack on Gazans, resulting in nearly 13,000 Palestinian deaths, with over a third being children [5]. Another 24,158 Palestinians have been injured, many unidentified, and dismembered beneath the wreckage. UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell quoted Gaza as the ‘most dangerous place in the world to be a child’ [7]. Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of UNFPA, reported 5500 pregnant women expected to give birth in the following month.

Every day, roughly 180 women give birth in deplorable conditions, with the future of these infants unknown [8]. According to the Executive Director of UN Women, Sima Bahous, on the 22nd of November 2023, the number of civilians murdered since October 7th has doubled that of the previous 15 years combined, with the current estimation that 67% of the more than 14,000 persons killed in Gaza are women and children [9].

c. The Gendered Overview: The impact of the devastating attack on the Gaza Strip post-October 7, 2023, is enormous and beyond comprehension:

Two mothers are killed every hour, and seven mothers are killed every two hours [9].
Over 493,000 women and girls have been forced to flee their homes in Gaza, with temporary shelters being targeted [5].
Nine to ten classrooms of children are wiped off [10].
One Palestinian child is killed every 10 minutes: about 1 in every 200 Palestinian children is dead [11].
Lack of access to dignity kits and clean water for personal hygiene, with forced use of birth control tablets to disrupt their menstrual cycle [12].
The horrendous genocide in Gaza has led to a new acronym - WCNSF-Wounded Child, No Surviving Family. According to Ghassan Abu Sittah, a British doctor working in Gaza City, 'there is no lonelier place in this universe than around the bed of a wounded child who has no more family to look after them’ [5].

d. Women Journalists at Risk: As I write this and simultaneously check my Instagram, I see an update from Bisan, a Palestinian female on-ground journalist who reports today, the 26th of November 2023, as Day 50, with 20,000 killed, 7000 under the rubble, and 8000 children murdered. This does not indicate the huge number of Palestinians displaced and injured [14]. Not to forget the atrocities of the Israeli occupation against female journalists targeted for their voices, including killings, detentions, persecutions, beatings, and assaults [13]. The dreams of six young and promising female journalists - Salam Mema, Eman al-Aqili, Salma Mkhaimer, Doaa Sharaf, Alaa Taher al-Hassanat, and Ayat al-Khaddour - have been silenced permanently, revealing the ugliness of the occupation [13].

e. Women Palestinian Hostages: The seemingly humanitarian pause that started on Black Friday and ends on Cyber Monday brings to the fore the countless women, girls, and children held as prisoners, treated as badly as detainees in Guantanamo Bay or Abu Ghraib prison [16]. Among the 300 Palestinian names of the 8300 hostages submitted to Israel for release as a part of the 4-day truce, 270 were children, 30 were women; 235 were never convicted, and 22 were charged for throwing stones [17]. Marah Bakeer, who was imprisoned in 2015 at the age of 16, was among those freed in Jerusalem at the age of 24 reported that many of the released hostages required medical attention [18]. Like Marah, there are several other young girls and children held as hostages raising critical questions about the moral conduct of the Israel Occupation Forces.

As I write this and think through it all, my young nieces, 3 and 5-year-olds, come running to me. How could I, or anyone, focus on business as usual? How, as a woman myself, with dreams of researching areas that would promote a more inclusive built environment for women and consequently children, could I not see the truth?

As I sign off, a poem by a Palestinian child shatters my heart 💔, and tears follow: