The launch of the national campaign to combat violence against women in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip

Gaza.
The Palestinian NGO Network and the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution signed a cooperation agreement with Norwegian People's Aid. The agreement includes carrying out the national campaign to combat violence against women, which will be carried out in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The project coordinator in Gaza, Hossam Ahmed, said: "The campaign aims at mobilising Palestinian public opinion and pressing decision-makers to work on protecting women and combating all forms of violence against them, particularly killing on the grounds of honour, by carrying out a national campaign with the participation of academic, religious and legal figures, members of the Legislative Council and representatives of civil organisations in workshops on the issues of violence against women, and offering the recommendations needed to draft the national document on combating violence against women."

The campaign's adviser, Dunia Al-Amal Ismail, explained that the campaign comes in the framework of international and Arab, and particularly Palestinian, concern with fighting the phenomenon of violence in general and against women in particular, where official figures and statistics indicate the growth of this phenomenon in recent years.

Ismail noted that the violence practised has come to constitute a real threat to the lives of many women, particularly regarding killing on the grounds of what is called family honour. She called on governmental and civil organisations to unify their efforts and to stand firmly against this phenomenon and to punish the perpetrators as criminals, and to amend the laws that discriminate between women and men in general.