In late September 2019, a new Palestinian feminist movement known as “TALIAAT” [Coming Out] led by many young women, was mobilized following a new feminicide in the occupied West Bank. The nature of the movement is part of a larger dimension.
The Palestinians mobilized around the “TALIAAT” movement to denounce all kinds of physical, psychological, economic and political violence under the slogan “no free country without the liberation of women” or “dignity, freedom, justice social “.
Since the beginning of 2019, nineteen Palestinians, according to official figures, have been victims of feminicide. But numbers are probably much higher. Reports show that femicide is on the rise in the West Bank, Gaza and among the Palestinians of 48 (inside Israel).
The TALIAAT movement mobilized for the first time in Ramallah on September 26, 2019, bringing together more than one hundred women against violence committed against a woman by her husband. Other demonstrations were organized at the same time throughout all of historic Palestine, including the cities of Jerusalem, Haifa, Jaffa, Nazareth and the Gaza Strip, and abroad, as well as in Beirut and Berlin, calling for a “unified cry” of support for Palestinian women.
Feminist and progressive movements in the Middle East and North Africa, particularly in Tunisia and Algeria with various actions of solidarity, have brought their support to the mobilizations in Palestine.
The movement was attacked by conservative and reactionary sectors in Palestine, accusing it of “distorting the image of the Palestinian man to serve outside agendas,” in other words, betraying the Palestinian cause.
On the contrary, many Palestinian feminist and progressive sectors have affirmed the connection of women’s struggles with the liberation of their people against Israel’s colonial, racist and apartheid state. The Palestinian women mobilized, asserted that any plan for liberation and emancipation, including the fight against toxic masculinity, patriarchy and violence against women, must be deeply rooted in Palestinian political and social movements from below to struggle against the Israeli colonial project. Likewise, they oppose any attempts to instrumentalize their movements by Israel and its regional and international supporters in the name of women’s rights.
Thus the TALIAAT feminist movement described itself on its facebook page as a group of Palestinian women who fight for a free, just and safe Palestinian society for all. The freedom of Palestinian women is at the heart of the Palestinian national liberation project.
As the movement’s major slogan states, this “revolution is a decision against patriarchy and colonialism”.
Joseph Daher
October 14, 2019