The Role of Palestinian Women in Political Participation During the Israeli Siege Imposed on the Gaza Strip, Palestine

Abstract

This study aims to identify the Palestinian women involvementin the politics during the Israeli siege on Gaza between 2006 and 2014. Inregard to achieve the objective of the study, the researcher designed aquestionnaire with a purpose of collecting the required data. Theframework of the study has used quantitative methodology, usingquestionnaire tool for data collection. The study population consists of1,500 Palestinian students studying at 13 universities in Malaysiaaccording to the list of Malaysian universities recognised by PalestinianMinistry of Higher Education. The questionnaire was filled out by astratified random sample of 352 students. The study demonstrates thatthere is a positive significant relationship between political involvementof Palestinian women in the Gaza Strip and the independent variablesconsist of women involvement in the political parties, womeninvolvement in the parliament and ministries, women involvement inNGOs, qualifications, women rights, and difficulties facing the women.The study concludes that Palestinian women were involved in the politics;it argues that, there is an obvious impact of the Palestinian women through the adoption of theresistance to the Israeli occupation. The study shows many difficulties facing the Palestinian women'sinvolvement. This study however concludes several recommendations, most notably is the need tocompel the Palestinian political parties to execute the principle of political pluralism, giving Palestinianwomen's the rights according to the Palestinian constitutions, and exceed social and cultural difficultiesthat prevent political involvement of Palestinian women.