The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation

estinian President Yasir Arafat’s death in late 2004, Mahmud Abbas was
elected president of the Palestinian Authority in January 2005. A month
later, Israel and the PA agreed to the Sharm el-Sheikh Commitments in
an effort to move the peace process forward.
In September 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew all its settlers and soldiers
and dismantled its military facilities in the Gaza Strip, as well as from
four small northern West Bank settlements. Nonetheless, it still controls
the airspace as well as all maritime and most land access to the Gaza
Strip; and it enforces a restricted zone along the border inside Gaza.
In January 2006, the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, won control
of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). Hamas took control of the
PA government in March 2006, but President Abbas had little success
negotiating with Hamas to present a political platform acceptable to the
international community, so as to lift the economic sanctions against Pal -
estinians. Violent clashes between Fatah and Hamas supporters in the
Gaza Strip in 2006 and early 2007 resulted in numerous Palestinian deaths
and injuries. In February 2007, Abbas and Hamas Political Bureau Chief
Khaled Mashal signed the Mecca Agreement in Saudi Arabia that
resulted in the formation of a Palestinian National Unity Government
(NUG) headed by Hamas member Ismail Haniya. However, fighting continued
in the Gaza Strip, and in June 2007, Hamas militants succeeded
in a violent takeover of all military and governmental institutions in the
Gaza Strip. Abbas dismissed the NUG and through a series of presidential
decrees formed a PA government in the West Bank led by independent
Salam Fayyad. Hamas rejected the NUG’s dismissal, and
despite multiple rounds of Egyptian-brokered reconciliation negotiations,
the two groups have failed to bridge their differences. Following the
take over, Israel largely sealed its border crossings with Gaza, on the
grounds that Fatah had fled and was no longer providing security on the
Palestinian side. Israel’s twenty-two day military action against the Gaza
Strip known as Operation Cast Lead, which began on December 27,
2008, left about 60,000 homes damaged or destroyed. Since then, the
blockade of the Gaza Strip has prevented the UN from conducting any
significant repairs or reconstruction. It also places severe restrictions on
goods and services which UNRWA supplies (World Bank Report, 2010).
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