Palestinian Feminist Group Forms
The following was originally published in Palestine in America’s 2021 Politics Edition. Order a print copy, download the digital version or subscribe today!
The Palestinian Feminist Collective
Who We Are:
The Palestinian Feminist Collective (PFC) is a group of Palestinian and Arab women and feminists committed to the liberation of Palestine and all its people from all systems of oppression. We believe it is our duty to challenge gendered and colonial violence, oppression and dispossession while, at the same time, re-imagining, cultivating, and nurturing the holistic wellbeing of our people and the generations to come. The PFC’s membership is comprised of inter-generational Palestinian/Arab women and feminists primarily located on Turtle Island (the lands in North America occupied by the United States). We are artists, activists, practitioners, thinkers, scholars, healers, creators, organizers, resisters, water and land protectors and defenders, life-givers and life-sustainers.
Our Palestinian Feminist Praxis:
Our Palestinian feminist praxis is defined by two interdependent frameworks: anti-colonialism and life-affirming decolonization.
Our anti-colonial approach centers the political urgency of the Palestinian struggle recognizing that as each day passes, the integrity of Palestinian life and land is further threatened by unabated Zionist settler-colonialism, military occupation and ethnic cleansing. Based in the US shatat, the PFC resists the normalization of Zionist violence, oppression and hegemony in all aspects of US public life. We pay particular attention to the egregious ways Zionist, colonial, imperialist, anti-Muslim and Orientalist feminisms have historically been weaponized against the Palestinian people and our claims to our land and freedom. We reject any form of feminism that is not intersectional and that does not account for colonialism, racism, classism and imperialism. We assert our voices as Palestinian/Arab feminists, resisting erasure and efforts to stifle, criminalize and/or suppress our narratives, identities, right to self-determination and political aspirations.
Our decolonial approach centers a life-affirming set of principles and practices to redefine movement cultures through a feminist approach rooted in transformative justice and Indigenous Knowledge. As we work to tear down systems of oppression, it is equally vital to create the world we want to live in; a world characterized by reciprocal care and respect for land and life. Looking to our Palestinian ancestry and history of struggle as a compass for the present, and thinking forward for the generations that will come, we uphold the values of intergenerational healing, transformative accountability and internal community building to achieve collective liberation and to heal from the injury, harm and violence to which our people and lands have been subjected. Our decolonial praxis works to create safe spaces for dreaming, thinking, planning, organizing, and envisioning the world we want to live in. We draw from past and present Palestinian, Arab, Black, Indigenous, and Third World Women’s movements and creative practices in order to do this work.
CALLING ON OUR COMMUNITY: Our 2021 International Women’s Month Pledge:
The PFC , in alliance with lovers of freedom everywhere, will launch a pledge to call on women’s movements and feminist’ spaces in the US to recognize Palestine as centrally a feminist issue and to stand with the Palestinian struggle for liberation. The pledge is meant to shed light on the way Zionist colonialism is also a project of gendered and sexual violence, afflicting harm and injury upon Palestinian women and families. We call on our communities to endorse the pledge and circulate it widely. Our hopes are that it will instantiate serious accountability measures for US feminist spaces which have historically used “women’s rights” as a discursive weapon against Palestinian collective aspirations for freedom and demonize our struggle, culture, and people. Further, we invite our community to join us in a number of discussions to think about the relationship between Zionist colonialism and gendered and sexual violence and oppression.
Our forthcoming events and activities can be found here.
An Invitation to Our Community:
The PFC strives to be a space of belonging and a nurturing space to all members of our community. We understand belonging to be more than a slogan or policy, but an ongoing form of engagement and method of co-creating a space that accounts for the varied and interconnected experiences of us all. If you are interested in learning more about the PFC or getting involved, we welcome you, and invite you to contact us at palestinianfeminists@gmail.com.
