The Need for Palestinian Women’s Leadership in Recovery and Peacebuilding

The world has come to know Palestinian women through a narrow lens – often as occupation, conflict, or humanitarian crisis victims. Rarely are they seen for what they are: pillars of resilience, agents of change and key actors in the reconstruction of society. In few places is this lack of recognition more evident than in Gaza, where women bear the scars of destruction and carry on while being systematically denied entry into peace and reconstruction processes.

The recent spate of violence as the International Court of Justice looks into Israel’s plausible case of genocide in Gaza not only destroyed homes and buildings, but also exposed the entrenched fault lines in global peacebuilding frameworks – including the inconsistent and selective use of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. While the world hastens to respond to the humanitarian crisis, one question remains: Will Palestinian women have a say in the future of Gaza – not as recipients of reconstruction, but as peace decision-makers?[1]

Palestinian women as frontline responders

Since the war started in October 2023, women have borne a disproportionate burden. Over 70 per cent of the killed and injured have been children and women – an ironic reversal from previous trends when men constituted the overwhelming majority of war casualties under Israeli military occupation. Yet amidst displacement and deprivation, women in Gaza have stepped up with essential roles: organising shelters, distributing relief goods, providing psychosocial counselling and sustaining what little remains of social life.[2]

For instance, Alaa al-Najjar, a paediatrician in Gaza, lost nine of her ten children in an Israeli airstrike on their home in Khan Younis while she was at work saving other children’s lives.[3] Her youngest, six-month-old Sayden, was among those killed. Only one child survived and has been evacuated from Gaza to Italy with his mother.[4]

Hanadi Sikkeik, a mother and social worker who lost all her immediate family members including her husband, managed to rise from the rubble and create the Samir Foundation: with her only remaining child Ezzedin, they provide medical and mental care to thousands in Gaza.[5]

These efforts are nothing novel. Palestinian women have long led grassroots efforts in healthcare, education, food distribution and trauma response – especially in the absence of reliable state institutions. What is changed, though, is how thoroughly their leadership has been made invisible to official political actors. As men occupy negotiation tables, it’s women who carry the work of daily survival, conflict resolution in the family and neighbourhood, as well as extended community rebuilding.

Precisely at the moment when a bold, expansive vision is necessary, Palestinian women are all too frequently confined to footnotes. This is not just wrong – it is short-sighted. Omitting the participation of women in recovery is not just about gender; it is a lack of vision that negates the stability of peace itself.[6]

Structural barriers to women’s leadership

Even while their vital contributions are acknowledged, Palestinian women are systematically kept out of official political decision-making institutions not only in Gaza but in the West Bank and all occupied Palestine – an exclusion triggered by patriarchy and colonialism. Military occupation institutionalises structural violence along gendered lines: movement restriction, economic marginalisation and repression severely curtail the involvement of women in education, the economy and public life. These are not secondary war consequences, but rather instruments of domination enshrining a patriarchal order and precluding any possibility of inclusive rule.

In parallel, entrenched male dominance of Palestinian political institutions like the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority limits women’s opportunities for leadership. Even projects self-consciously bound by international norms like UN Security Council Resolution 1325 hardly ever do more than ensure a façade participation. Donors’ money, training and planning all too often prove ineffectual in achieving political transformation. Dozens of years of investment in gender empowerment by foreign donors have yielded too little structural change – a failure that is symptomatic of a broader reluctance to confront the intersections of patriarchy and colonialism.

Amidst a documented, 20-month-long genocide, and on the 77th anniversary of an ongoing Nakba, the need to look back and critically examine the politics and society we’ve constructed is never more necessary. And in the process, we must confront a glaring, decades-long unspoken truth: Palestinian women are systematically excluded from the heart of decision-making.

From armed resistance to diplomacy, from street activism to political platforms across the world, Palestinian women have led the battle for resistance and change for decades. And yet, despite their relentless struggles, real political representation remains elusive to Palestinian women. If we dig deeper into the facts, the picture is even starker – and unsettling.

Women make up 49.3 per cent of the Palestinian population, and 49.6 per cent of those working in the public sector. But they occupy only 14.9 per cent of leadership positions (Director General and above). In local government, women are 26 per cent of municipal council members, but just 5 per cent are deputy heads, and less than 1 per cent (0.7 per cent) are council heads. In the cabinet, just 14.3 per cent of ministerial posts are occupied by women – a paltry four ministers – and only one woman is a governor out of sixteen in the West Bank and Gaza (6.3 per cent). In the police, women make up a miserly 4.5 per cent.[7]

In the PLO, matters are no different: not a single woman is part of the Executive Committee. Women occupy 13 per cent of the seats in the National Council and 30 per cent in the Central Council.

In foreign affairs organisations, while making up 57 per cent of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs public servants and 44 per cent of foreign affairs officials, only 17 per cent of Palestinian ambassadors traveling abroad to represent the nation are women.

Likewise, in the medical, academic, judicial and business sectors, Palestinian women are significantly underrepresented in leadership positions: for instance, while making up 30 per cent of university faculty, they represent just 10.7 per cent of members in university boards.

These figures tell a tale of continuous exclusion.[8] Empowerment of Palestinian women and their inclusion in senior decision-making positions is not a ceremonial act for the global community: it is a national necessity and an internal matter of legitimacy.

The exclusion of women from political representation is a conscious omission of half of Palestinian society and a denial of the very democracy we are seeking to uphold in global institutions. Palestinian women bear a double burden: one of occupation and oppression, and another of structural barriers in politics and society. Despite all this, women have consistently shown their leadership, innovation and impact in academia, diplomacy, civil society and more.

It is time that we stop treating Palestinian women as a ‘special case’ to be handled through tokenism. Instead, we must redefine our national leadership model to include women’s voices, experiences and vision in a holistic manner. Inclusive leadership is not only a political imperative – it is the foundation of any equitable and lasting future for Palestine. If gender justice is ever to be achieved in Palestine, it must be envisaged as a national and political priority. It has nothing to do with quotas or seats on backwater committees. Palestinian women are not a ‘sector’ of society – they are half of it and must be accorded treatment accordingly in every government and negotiation organ.

Reorienting reconstruction with a gender lens

Once the genocide is stopped and reconstruction begins to take shape, there is a compelling necessity to redefine reconstruction in terms of more than roads, buildings and infrastructure. Reconstruction must be about rebuilding trust, social relations and justice systems too. All this cannot be achieved without women’s leadership at the forefront.

Palestinian women are not passive victims of war – they are community architects, mediators, organisers and custodians of life in the midst of impossible conditions. When Gaza sets out on the long and arduous process of rehabilitation, the question will no longer be whether women will get involved – they already are. The question is whether their leadership will be recognised, strengthened and institutionalised.

Gender-blind reconstruction would perpetuate the same injustices that led to social breakdown. Examples include mechanisms for aid distribution that circumvent women’s organisations, thus misdirecting resources and overlooking urgent household needs. Likewise, security regimes agreed upon without women’s involvement frequently neglect community-level tensions or gender violence. Transitional justice initiatives without women’s participation are unrepresentative and thus illegitimate in the view of survivors and communities.

If the United Nations WPS agenda and the international community are truly intent on peace and justice, then they must demand more than rhetorical incorporation. They must demand actual, structural change that places women at the centre of governance, reconstruction and diplomacy. The Mediterranean Women Mediators Network (MWMN) is a central actor to reimagine the peacebuilding architecture by acting at the intersection of diplomacy, mediation and social movement. Far in excess of symbolic inclusion, efforts of the network have been aimed at methodically grounding women’s political agency, not only as actors, but as intentional influencers of discourse and decision-making. Through its action, the MWMN enables access to higher-level forums, promotes transnational solidarity and positions women mediators and peace actors so that they not only exist but really have the possibility to make a difference. It also plays a critical role in connecting emerging and veteran women leaders across contexts, forging formal and informal mediation arenas. In locations like Palestine and others, women are frequently excluded from formal negotiations despite being central to community resilience. The MWMN’s model offers a blueprint for institutionalising feminist leadership in reconstruction and political capacity-building processes. This work is not simply about recognition – it is an open invitation to all of us to reimagine peace processes as co-authored and co-led by women.

A gender-egalitarian recovery is not a fantasy; it’s a reality – if achieved by political will. To that end, representation must be provided to women’s organisations in all coordination bodies of the recovery, while considering women for leadership positions in reconstruction agencies and donor coordination platforms. Gender audits must become compulsory on all international aid packages, developing gender-sensitive monitoring and evaluation systems. Women’s participation at all levels of governance – including transitional institutions and constitutional processes – must be ensured. Finally, with a long-term view, there is a need to create institutionalised systems for gender mainstreaming in national policymaking, invest in capacity-building for women in mediation, governance and transitional justice work and integrate feminist peacebuilding strategies into future peace negotiations and agreements.

In sum, reconstruction must be feminist in character – participatory, inclusive and based on experience. Without this approach, it would just be another exclusionary chapter – one that further solidifies disparities rather than closes them.


Dalal Iriqat is Associate Professor of Diplomacy, Conflict Resolution and Strategic Planning at the Arab American University Palestine (AAUP) and a founding member of the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network.
Published with the support of the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network (MWMN), an initiative launched by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and implemented by Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) and Women in International Security (WIIS) Italy. The views expressed in this report are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Network or the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

[1] Dalal Iriqat, “Women after War: At the Helm of Rebuilding and Recovery in Gaza”, in IFI Policy Blog, 21 March 2025, https://www.ifipolicyblog.com/policy-blog/women-after-war-at-the-helm-of-rebuilding-and-recovery-in-gaza.

[2] Dalal Iriqat, “In Post-Genocide Gaza, Women Will Rise from the Rubble”, in Afkār, 9 March 2025, https://mecouncil.org/?p=474173.

[3] Malak A. Tantesh and Lorenzo Tondo, “‘One of the Most Heartbreaking Tragedies’: Gaza Doctor’s Last Goodbye before Nine Children Killed in Airstrike”, in The Guardian, 25 May 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/p/x2bhmm.

[4] Lorenzo Tondo and Julian Borger, “Gaza Doctor and Son Evacuated after Husband and Nine Children Killed in Israeli Strike”, in The Guardian, 11 June 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/p/x2f53k.

[5] BWP Palestine, “In Commemoration of Palestinian Women’s Day: A National Dialogue for the Palestinian Women’s Summit 2025”, Facebook post, 31 October 2024, https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Au8CT5giX.

[6] Dalal Iriqat, “Reconstructing Sovereignty: Gaza’s Future Beyond Rubble – A Palestinian-led Vision”, in Fiker Institute Policy Briefs, April 2025, https://www.fikerinstitute.org/publications/reconstructing-sovereignty-gazas-future-beyond-rubble-a-palestinian-led-vision.

[7] See Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) website: https://www.pcbs.gov.ps/default.aspx.

[8] PCBS, H.E. Dr. Awad Highlights the Status of the Palestinian Woman on the Eve of the International Women’s Day on 08/03/2025, https://www.pcbs.gov.ps/post.aspx?lang=en&ItemID=5936.