The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation

World War. The joint interests of the two movements allowed a great
coordination of efforts in Palestine: The British mandate in Palestine,
which forms the heart of the Arab World, with the Zionist colonial activities.
These two activities lead to the Naqba in 1948, which destroyed
the national Palestinian entity and deprived the Palestinian people of
their right to self-determination. The Naqba lead to the displacement of
the majority of the Palestinians in different countries. It destroyed the
social fabric of a nation and deprived it of its homeland. It also lead to
the division of Palestine into three parts: the largest, called Israel, formed
78% of historic Palestine, another part, known as the Gaza Strip, was
under Egyptian administration, and the third part, known as the West
Bank, was under Jordanian Administration. Although there were other
reasons why the Naqba succeeded, the most important was the complete
superiority of power of the imperialist and Zionist alliance and the
enormity of their ambitions. Other factors were the retardation of the
Palestinian social, political and economic structure, including gender inequality,
patriarchal society, and the prevailing feudal agricultural relations;
however, the Zionists and imperialism targeted Palestine for their own
reasons, regardless of these socio-economical structures. The British
mandate supported Zionist colonialism, while its policies withheld development
opportunities from the Palestinian people.
The trigger of the conflict/war
Zionist colonialism leaned on the British occupation before 1948, as it
depended later on the American superpower, and then on its own
power. The Zionists – and, after its establishment, Israel – used all avail -
able means to gain control of Palestinian land: power, money, destruction,
and various forms of violence. The main goal was to clear the
land of its people, and to subject those who refused to leave to the
worst forms of oppression in their own land. They undertook huge efforts
to eliminate the existence of the Palestinians as a people on their
own land, which some people, including myself, consider political extermination.
The British army and later the USA used all available devel -
oped weapons to allow the Zionists and then Israel to control the land
of Palestine and build its colonial settlements in it. This also would not
have succeeded without the excessive use of power. On the other hand,
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