Peace for Palestinian women cannot be achieved through tokenistic participation or empty rhetoric. It requires dismantling Israel’s unlawful occupation, ending militarisation, and ensuring accountability under international law.
Oxfam Ireland: Palestinian women should lead the future for Palestine
25 years after the UN pledged to elevate women’s voices in peacebuilding, Palestinian women have been abandoned, Oxfam Ireland warns in a major new report published today.
A new Oxfam report,Arming Injustice with Impunity, reveals how the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda has not only failed to protect Palestinian women but has reinforced the status quo. It does this by ignoring the root causes of violence: Israel’s unlawful occupation and militarisation, and the international community’s complicity through trading with illegal settlements and arms transfers.
The findings come as Ireland prepares to mark the 25th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which underpins the WPS Agenda.
The report documents the catastrophic consequences of Israel’s military campaign and occupation for women and girls:
Almost 70,000 Palestinians killed and 170,000 injured in Gaza since October 2023 – the majority women and children.
90% of Gaza’s population forcibly displaced, with no safe zones remaining.
Collapse of healthcare: hospitals bombed, health workers killed, maternal care denied.
Women giving birth in tents without anaesthesia; sharp rise in miscarriages and premature births.
Armed settlers committing gendered crimes, including sexual harassment and threats of rape.
Women human rights defenders arbitrarily detained without charge or trial.
“Twenty-five years after the UN pledged to elevate women’s voices in peacebuilding, Palestinian women have been abandoned. The Women, Peace and Security Agenda was meant to challenge militarism and protect women, yet in Palestine it has been hollowed out by political expediency and silence on the root cause of violence: Israel’s unlawful occupation.
The figures are staggering: almost 70,000 Palestinians killed and 170,000 injured in Gaza since October 2023, the majority women and children. Ninety percent of Gaza’s population has been displaced, with no safe zones left. Women are giving birth in tents without anaesthesia, facing trauma, humiliation, and heightened risk of gender-based violence.”
“Every transfer of weapons through Irish airspace also undermines global commitments to peace and women’s rights and fuels a genocide that has gendered impacts at its core."
“Peace for Palestinian women cannot be achieved through tokenistic participation or empty rhetoric. It requires dismantling Israel’s unlawful occupation, ending militarisation, and ensuring accountability under international law."
“Women and girls must not be an afterthought in any ceasefire negotiations, peace and reconstruction processes – they must be at the very centre. Women must lead any peace process. Perpetrators of sexual violence must be brought to justice. Anything less is a betrayal of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda and of Palestinian women’s right to justice.”
— Jim Clarken, Oxfam Ireland CEO
Ireland’s Role
Oxfam Ireland is calling on the Irish Government to:
Advocate for an end to Israel’s unlawful occupation and dismantling of illegal settlements.
Ensure the full participation of women and women-led civil society groups in any process around ceasefire, ensuring peace and the rebuilding of Gaza and the opt
Fund gender justice programmes as part of the path to peace as well as women and women led groups to fully participate in all peace and rebuilding processes
A firm focus on sexual violence and Gender Based Violence in any peace processes and follow-up in terms of prosecutions of offenders and trauma-based health and psychological health services
Encourage allies to suspend all arms transfers and military cooperation with Israel, in line with obligations under the Arms Trade Treaty and the WPS Agenda.
Champion accountability measures at the UN and ensure gender justice is central to peacebuilding efforts.
Pass the Occupied Territories Bill before Christmas with services included.
The full report, Arming Injustice with Impunity: How Support for Israel’s illegal occupation and militarization undermines States’ commitments to gender equality and the WPS Agenda, is here
Another recently published Oxfam report on WPS, Beyond Rhetoric - Feminist Leadership for a Transformative Women, Peace and Security Agenda at 25 is here:
The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda was established by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000. It was the first resolution to formally recognize the unique impact of conflict on women and girls, and the critical role they play in peacebuilding and conflict prevention. The agenda is built around four key pillars: prevention, protection, participation, and relief and recovery.
Palestinian women face what has been described as ‘double jeopardy’: the combined impact of Israel’s prolonged military occupation and entrenched patriarchal laws and norms within Palestinian society. Discriminatory legal frameworks—many of which predate 1967—continue to restrict women’s rights in areas such as marriage, mobility, access to healthcare, and political participation. These are further compounded by the extreme challenges presented by Israel’s illegal occupation, including violence, displacement, and restrictions on movement. One particularly harrowing dimension is the treatment of Palestinian women in detention. According to a March 2025 report by the UN Commission of Inquiry, Israeli detention practices are marked by widespread and systematic abuse, including sexual and gender-based violence, which has intensified significantly since 7 October 2023. Women and girls have reported being subjected to forced nudity, threats of sexual violence including rape, and physical assault of a sexual nature during interrogations and searches. The Commission concluded that such acts amount to war crimes—including outrages upon personal dignity and inhuman treatment—and crimes against humanity, including torture. It further found that these abuses reflect an intentional policy aimed at humiliating and degrading Palestinian detainees through sexual, reproductive, and other forms of gender-based violence, observed across multiple facilities and transit locations.
“Twenty-five years after the UN pledged to elevate women’s voices in peacebuilding, Palestinian women have been abandoned. The Women, Peace and Security Agenda was meant to challenge militarism and protect women, yet in Palestine it has been hollowed out by political expediency and silence on the root cause of violence: Israel’s unlawful occupation.
