Gaza women voice solidarity with Jerusalem counterparts

By Nour Abu Aisha and Said Ibicioglu

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - Women in Gaza on Thursday staged a protest against Israeli violations committed against women in Jerusalem.

Gathering at Gaza City’s Square of the Unknown Soldier on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, Palestinian women and girls held banners aloft, reading, "Protection from Israeli violations is the right of Jerusalem’s women".

Mina Sekik, public relations director at the Palestinian Ministry for Women's Affairs, declared at the event: "We condemn the [Israeli] violations to which Jerusalem’s women are regularly subject."

She added that Jerusalem’s women suffered greatly as a result of what she described as Israel’s “policy of institutionalized violence”.

"Women in Jerusalem are suffering from Israel’s policy of institutionalized violence, which Israel pursues in an attempt to empty the city [of its Palestinian inhabitants]," Sekik said.

She went on to assert that many women in Jerusalem had suffered psychological trauma after their homes had been demolished by the Israeli authorities.

In 1999, the UN designated Nov. 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

*Ali Murat Alhas contributed to this report from Ankara