طاقم شؤون المرأة

The Impact of House Demolitions on Gender Roles and Relations

“We will come back to build in the same place, we are here and we will stay here”


Prepared by: Hanan Abu Ghosh
Issued by: Women Affairs Technical Committee – Ramallah
2013

Index
Introduction
Methodology
Moral Standards
Limits of the Study
Obstacles of the Study
Chapter 1: Literature review
1.1 Right to adequate housing
1.2 Forced internal displacement
1.3 Impact of conflict and forced internal displacement on women and roles change
1.4 Impact of displacement and houses demolition on families
1.5 What does home mean for Palestinian women?
1.6 Impact of house demolitions on Women
1.7 Displacement and gender based violence
1.8 Internal displacement and adaptation policies resorted by women
1.9 Looking for relief assistance
1.10 How to deal with violence against women
1.11 Women's relationship with support organizations and programs
2. Chapter 2: Data analysis
2.1 First theme: Description of House Demolition and its consequences
2.1.1 Description of family life before and after house demolition in terms of family category, place and space capacity
2.1.2 Notification time of house demolition
2.1.3 Taking out homes items and supplies
2.1.4 Men and women's feelings and reactions to this event

2.2 Impact of House Demolition on Gender Roles
2.2.1 The reproductive role of both men and women
2.2.2 The productive role
2.2.3 The political and social role
2.3 Impact of House Demolition on Relationships inside family and with the surround
2.3.1 Family members' relationships, specifically relationship between men and women
2.3.2 Relationship between husband, wife, and family members regarding decision making inside the family
2.3.3 Relationship with the neighbors ands surrounding community
2.3.4 Impact on the economic situation
2.3.5 Houses demolition impact on the educational situation of families
2.3.6 The p7sychological impact
2.3.7 Domestic Violence
2.3.8 Houses demolition impact on immigration
2.4 The relationship with the human rights organizations, psychological, social, relief and media organizations after demolition
2.4.1 Addressing human rights organizations
2.4.2 Relationship with media institutions
2.4.3 Relationship with psychological organizations
2.4.4 Relationship with relief organizations

2.5 (NEEDS TITLE)
2.5.1 Values transferred by women to family members
2.5.2 A view towards the future
2.5.3 Planning for the future
2.5.4 Additions by the participants
3. Chapter 3: Findings and conclusion
3.1 Data analysis compared to previous studies
3.2 Steps and actions to be formally and informally achieved
3.3 Final recommendations

4. Chapter 4: Annexes
4.1 The preparatory commission
4.2 External arbitration
4.3 List of researchers who worked on the study of houses demolition
4.4 Aspects of discussion groups
4.5 Detailed questions
4.6 Interview questions
4.7 Questionnaire

Introduction
Houses demolition is one of the Israeli prominent inhuman practices implemented by the colonialism in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The British were the first to implement this policy as a collective punishment during the British Mandate over Palestine.
The Israeli Occupation has been practicing the policy of houses demolition since 1967. Many Palestinian houses were destroyed for different arguments and justifications. Such arguments included security reasons, nearest to settlements or bypass roads, construction without permit or just because these houses are violating the terms of the Israeli Authority for housing. Many times, the Israeli Authorities destroy these houses just because there is someone wanted in the house regardless if the house owner knows that person or not. Some of those houses have been totally or partially demolished, others have been closed.
Houses in the West Bank and Jerusalem are daily demolished. Israel justifies this action by illegal justifications. It aims to achieve Israel’s future plan, which is expelling the largest number of Palestinians from their land, building more Israeli settlements, bypass roads, military bases, and outposts. In addition to that, it aims to confiscate more Palestinian land to build the Apartheid Wall. Most of these practices aim to expel the Palestinians from their land and apply ethnic displacement.
Displacement policy was implemented throughout the Palestinian people history. More than 750,000 to 900,000 people have been displaced as a result of 1948 war and 325,000 people were displaced from the West Bank and Gaza as a result of 1967 war when Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
The process of houses demolition started in 1967 and many Palestinian families and communities have been forced to exit as a result of demolition caused by settlement expansion, settlers' violence, Apartheid wall, and military closures.
Bedouins’ displacement policy has been also implemented since the year 1948 until present. This old-new policy has been practiced more by Israel after Oslo Agreement for settlement expansion and a de facto before the final solution negotiation. The Bedouins consider themselves the front line in defending the land and tackling settlement expansion policy.

Thousands of houses and people have been affected by this policy since the year 1967. 25 thousand houses were demolished according to Israeli human rights organizations data. House demolitions policy has been practiced more since the second Intifada in the West Bank where 350 houses were destroyed and 2455 Palestinians became without a shelter. According to estimates by Amnesty International, 169 buildings containing 374 apartments have been totally demolished in Jenin Camp in the West Bank. This happened during the aggression over Jenin Camp executed by the Israeli Occupation in April 2002. Furthermore, many other houses in this camp were partially demolished.
Between the years 2000 – 2009, more than 10151 houses were demolished with an average of 1011 houses a year according to the Israeli Committee against house demolitions statistics. In 2008, 1151 Palestinians living in 156 housing units were forced to leave their houses and 56% of these houses are located in East Jerusalem.
Houses are often destroyed without prior warning and sometimes people are given 15 minutes to exit their property. These minutes are not even sufficient to exit their official documents and money. It is not permitted for the owners to build again in the same place of the destroyed house, which increase their sufferings.
Between the years 1967 - 2012, 1501 houses units have been destroyed in Jerusalem, the lives of 7413 people were destroyed, and 54% of them are children.
Between the years 2000 - 2012, about 1124 buildings in Jerusalem were also demolished and 4,966 people were displaced among them 2,586 children and 1,311 women. In addition to people's sacrifice, the total loss of the Palestinian as a result of house demolitions is about three million Dollars excluding the amounts of money that had to be paid as a fine under the name of “construction violations”. The occupation authorities got used to enforce the people to execute self-demolition. The data indicate that the number of self-demolitions has increased since 2000 where the occupation authorities enforced 303 people to destroy their houses by their hands.




The number of self-demolition of houses has increased since the year 2000 where the occupation authorities obliged 303 people to destroy their houses by their hands. 2010 witnessed the highest rate of self-demolition, 70 cases and 49 cases in 2009, 20 cases in 2011, while in 2012, 14 cases of self-demolition occurred. There are many self-demolition cases that people hide and media, human rights organizations and civil society institutions weren't informed about, according to Almaqdisi Organization.
In 2009, 53 Palestinian refugees were evacuated from their houses in Shaikh Jarrah Quarter in Jerusalem when an Israeli court issued a judgment in favor of an Israeli settling court claiming the ownership of the building in that area. The estimates of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs indicate that another 475 Palestinians in Shaikh Jarrah are subject to evacuation and displacement as a result of settlement expansion in the region. In Al Bustan Quarter in Silwan, Jerusalem Municipality approved a plan to destroy 22 houses out of 88 houses in that region in order to build the Jewish archeological park. In addition, not less than 28% of the Palestinians houses in East Jerusalem are subject to demolition arguing that their construction is in contrary to the Israeli urban planning requirements. This means that 60 thousand Palestinians are at risk of forced eviction and their houses are at risk of demolition.
150 families in Silwan received demolition orders, therefore, 1500 people are at risk of displacement. These families need instant practical assistance such as humanitarian aid. They also have long term needs such as shelter, resources, and education as well as psychosocial support.
In 2009, 3900 house were demolished in Gaza because of the war. 2009 witnessed the largest number of houses demolition since the beginning of the Israeli Occupation. During the 22 days war on Gaza in 2009, 200,000 people including 112,000 children were temporarily displaced from their houses. 3900 families are still homeless because their houses were destroyed and these families are now living with other families while they are unable to build houses because of shortage in construction materials as a result of closure.
Through the above, it seems that the house demolitions policy and displacement of the Palestinian people is an old policy but still practiced intensively on daily basis targeting Palestinians (in the West Bank and Gaza). It does not exclude children and adults, children and women. It aims to expel and uproot them from their homeland, causeing physical and psychological loss and damage, and certainly affects various aspects of their lives. Therefore, this study mainly aims to recognize the fact of the families whose houses are demolished in terms of houses demolitions impact on gender roles and relations of these families.
The importance of this study is that it addresses a new subject on the Palestinian level and for objective pertaining the Palestinian situation, houses demolitions impact on gender roles and relations. Thus, this subject will add new information in this aspect. The collected information and data are voices, thoughts, and feelings of men and women whose houses have been destroyed and lived the effects of demolition.
The purpose of this study is to arrive to conclusions and recommendations that may offer help during pressure and gain advocacy here and abroad. Thus, in order to stop houses demolition to help the decision-makers and specialists of the official and unofficial institutions to offer interventions, programs, and policies to help solving the problems of the families whose houses have been destroyed in order to develop their situations.
Main objective and sub-objectives
The main objective:
Identification the impact of houses demolitions on gender roles and relations in Palestine during 2002 - 2012.
The sub-objectives:
- Identifying the impact of houses demolitions on the gender social, reproductive, productive, political, and social roles.
- Identifying the human rights, relief, and media organizations role in dealing with houses demolitions in terms of press coverage and humanitarian intervention.
- Analyzing the impact of houses demolitions over the economic, educational, and psychological situations of the family members.

Methodology
The preparatory stage
A 5 members committee representing Women Affairs Technical Committee was formed to discuss the researcher about the research details related to the main and sub-objectives, the research sample, its distribution between Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza, and the method. There was constant contact and some meetings with the preparatory committee for discussing what has been achieved in the research process and there was interaction between the researcher and the committee in terms of providing feedback and support to the researcher.
Data collection and analysis
Quantitative and qualitative methods of research were used for the purpose of this study. The qualitative method helped to discover and understand deeply the meanings, the thoughts, the feelings and the changes occurred to the family members when their homes were demolished. It helps to recognize if their point of view towards these issues have changed or not. We gathered the information from the primary sources through quantitative method, through using individual interviews, questionnaires, and focus groups to collect replies to specific questions and also to know the compatibility between the replies given by the discussion groups and the replies received from the questionnaires. Ten focus and discussion groups were held in the West Bank and Gaza. These groups were distributed into six discussion groups with women, four discussion groups with men. The total number of participants (male and female) in these discussion groups was 130 people (75 women and 55 men). Secondary resources such as studies, reports, and researches of the same subject were also used as a qualitative method. The target participants in this study were selected from the families affected by house demolitions between 2002 and 2012. We tried to held the workshops, interviews and questionnaires in the West Bank as well as in Gaza including men and women from families whose houses were demolished in different times and for different reasons. It worth to mention that the participants do not represent a representative sample, therefore, the study results describe the real life of the group. The data was collected in June and July 2013 by 15 researchers from the West Bank, Jerusalem, and Gaza. Themes, interviews, questions, and questionnaires were also discussed with the field researchers.
The data was analyzed according to the research theme and objective. The data taken from the questionnaires were analyzed by analytical systems programs. They were analyzed and linked to previous studies in order to identify the similarity and difference between this and other studies results, to build on the results and form, recommendations that shall help these families to overcome their crisis.
Data collection from primary resources
First: focus groups formation.
The following groups in different locations in Gaza:
10 women from Nusairat
13 women from South of Rafah
15 women from Alzaytoun Quarter
14 men from South of Rafah
17 men from Beit Hanoun
Groups of the West Bank were as follows:
13 women from Jiftlik
14 women from Beit Dajan
10 women from Msafer villages - Yata
14 men from Kirbet Almifqer – Yata
10 men from Dura
Second: 30 individual interviews with men and women (10 interviews in the West Bank, 10 interviews in Gaza, and 10 interviews in Jerusalem).
Third: the questionnaires. 120 questionnaires were filled (50 in the West Bank, 50 in Gaza, and 20 in Jerusalem) and they were distributed equally between men and women. The questionnaire was judged by a foreign expert with good experience in this field.
The study community & the research sample
The community of this research is the families that their houses have been demolished by the Israeli Occupation in the period between 2002 and 2012. The research sample is a group of men and women selected intentionally whose houses have been demolished during the research period. The sample is taken from the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem and divided equally between men and women.
Moral standards
The selected field researchers had good experience in this field, knowledge of dealing and interviewing different categories of people where they should respect the interviewee privacy. The researchers got trained and advised to inform their interviewee about the research real objective, not to promise the interviewed of any material assistant or other but to inform them that the research results will be published and delivered to the decision-makers and other officials and to work to achieve the research recommendations.
Limits of the Study
The research sample is limited to the families whose houses have been demolished during the period between 2002 and 2012, after the second Intifada, because it was a crucial time for the Palestinian people in terms of Israeli invasions during that period, number of demolished houses, the wars against Gaza in 2008 and 2011 as well as the martyrdom operations had increased in that period and became as phenomenon.
Obstacles of the Study
Discussion groups weren’t conducted in Jerusalem because the persons who were invited there could not attend for personal reasons. They were substituted by individual interviews.


1. Chapter 1: Literature review
In this part of the research, the following subjects will be discussed:
Right to adequate housing
Forced internal displacement
Impact of conflict and forced internal displacement on women and roles change
Impact of displacement and houses demolitions on families
What does home mean for the Palestinian women and its impact to them?
Displacement and violence based on gender
Internal displacement and adaptation policies used by women
Women’s relationship with support organization and programs.

1.1 Right to adequate housing
This right is one of the most important foundation for human being life and integrity. It is one of the main human rights. The international conventions of human rights had great importance of having adequate housing considering it as an essential part of human rights. Adequate housing means the right of each person in possessing of a private and safe place for living, which enables him/her to create social and family relations and social, political, and cultural effect on others. Since home is the place where man/woman spends most of his/her time in, launches to the world, affects it and is affected by it, and as far as housing is appropriate, the human being would be more active, creative, and innovative in social, economic, political, and cultural life. Having an adequate housing is a key condition and important tool to enjoy the other human rights. Providing the adequate housing shall enable all human beings of getting the services, health, safety and respect. Therefore, right to adequate housing exceeds the narrow physical concept to include man’s relation and interaction to his society, a prerequisite to enjoy the various freedoms.
Consequently, violating the right of housing leads to violating many other civil, political, economic, and cultural rights and violating family life, privacy and movement including the right of any human being of selecting his/her place of residence, and not to be displaced by force. Since the house is a safe place for people, violation of this right is a violation of life and other rights such as the right of health, healthy environment, social security, family life and many others.
1.2 Forced Internal Displacement
It is necessary to discuss this topic because it proves the lack of precedent intent or planning for leaving, but people are forced to leave their homes involuntarily to avoid the armed conflict, any public violence or violations, or to avoid man-made disasters. In internal displacement, people do not go beyond the borders of their country and must live within the authority of their state, which already displaced them 17. But for us as Palestinians, displacement and deportation occurred inside and outside the country. Moreover, the Israeli Occupation is the authority that performs the internal and external displacement and deportation.
Forced displacement has existed during the whole history of the human being but it differs from voluntary migration. By the end of the Second World War, millions of internal IDPs (internally displaced people) and 80% of them were children and women. Internal displacement became an international crisis. Half of the IDPs are from Africa. 18

Forced displacement is a serious subject to be studied because it affects millions of people and the development of many countries. in the last two decades and since 1986, 4 million people were internally displaced in Sudan, 2 millions in Uganda, 4 millions in Mozambique, and more than half of the people in Liberia. Some indicated that Africa was affected by the armed conflicts, internal displacement and the resulting violations to the human rights, patriarch governments, weak legal structures, dictatorial regimes, and gender based violence. The main reasons for forced displacement are wars and armed conflicts. The reasons of conflict are political, social, economic, religious, cultural or ethnic. Sometimes, forced displacement is caused by natural disasters such as flood, storms, or desertification. Other times, development projects are reason for internal displacement.
Regardless of the reason, forced displacement is a violation to the human political, social, and economic rights, negatively affects women and development, leads to social exclusion and poverty, family collapse and fragmentation, and affects the roles and gender relations. It has specific impact on women because it limits their access to the resources that can help them to adapt to the family needs, which increase their physical and emotional stress. Many demographic changes happen as a result of conflict and displacement, the matter that makes us find many families headed by women. Forced displacement impact depends on the political, social, economic, and environmental situations. The effects vary according to gender, age, social category, race, and ethnic.
Forced displacement is usually temporary, but sometimes it was for long times as in Somali and Sudan. Many generations were displaced because of armed conflict and many people were displaced repeatedly.
1.3 Impact of conflict and forced internal displacement on women and roles change
Women experience differs from men as well as the girls differ from boys during war and conflict. On one hand, women roles change because of changes that make them victims and active, on the other hand, war is a burden for women including gender based violence, sexual violence such as rape, sexual diseases and AIDS and women are more affected by them. During conflict, women make more efforts to take care of the big family, develop methods of adaptation, and go beyond their own space.
Displacement affects women in different ways. In Sudan for example, tribes and ethnic groups are marginalized just because they are minority. Women of these groups are the majority of victims which affect their social, productive, and reproductive roles. During war and conflict, women and girls normally become more responsible of taking care of children, old people, and sick people in addition to the housework instead of going to school. This change in responsibilities affects women’s social welfare. This negatively affects their future. Forced displacement has negative effects on women social, cultural, economic, and environmental development and the increase of inequality in gender’s relations during and after migration.
Despite the hard experiences that affected women during displacement, others could gain good experience and new skills. These skills made women responsible of family living in case the husband was killed. This change gave another meaning for masculinity and femininity and gender’s roles. Men sometimes dealt with these changes by some frustrations, or alcoholism or practice of violence against women. Forced displacement creates new opportunities but sometimes it marginalizes their position in the society.
Regarding women adaptation to the new circumstances, those who were obliged to be responsible of their families, they were able to overcome their physical and emotional pain caused by their loss of their husbands and children and took care of their families’ economic needs and the family as a whole.
As for change of gender’s roles and relations, they are exposed to stress and anxiety, interaction and response to emergency but they differ from male to female and from men to women because their needs are different. Change of roles occurs because men go to war and women stay and take care of higher number of family members. They also take the role of men during their absence. Women challenge the traditional role and in case of emergency, they can play more important role in production. Women usually do their basic role, reproduction, but in case of lack of main materials, it would be impossible to provide their families by the basic needs.
1.4 Impact of displacement and houses demolition on families
Displacement affects all life aspects as well as gender roles. Women, who were interviewed for the study by the two researchers Abdo and Kufr Kayan, said that the ongoing displacement disperses the families and destroys people’s economic and social life. It affects women’s life in particular. It affects their position at work, education, and economy. It affects the social relationship with husbands and children and relatives. It also creates a mixed of feelings and emotions. Despite that displacement affects all women, but the level of effect differs socially, economically, and demographically.
House is a main source of physical and economic safety for the family; therefore, house and property demolition and forced displacement for the Palestinians have serious and dangerous effects. House demolition may result in killing one of the family members or injuring another. On the physical level, house demolition destroys livelihoods, lowers life’s level, and reduces access to the main services such as water, education, health, and sanitation services.
House demolition may affect people’s psychological life where the family may immediately becomes shocked. After six months, the family faces health, educational, and economic problems. The economic hardship may be an inevitable consequence for forcing people to leave their house as a result of the cost of evacuation and later.
Children in particular suffer from social deterioration compared to their colleagues at school and in town and they will also suffer of deterioration in their academic performance, psychophysical stress, and sometimes of post-traumatic stress.
Houses demolition affects children’s life because losing a house may change their behavior and relationship with their mothers. For children, losing the house means losing their bed, books, toys, clothes, neighbors, and friends34. Wife’s relation with her husband may change and become more anxious.
A study conducted in Gaza after the war of 2011 indicated that the Israeli severe aggression against Gaza affected people’s psychological and mental life. The feelings of fear, threat and post-traumatic stress of people in general and children in particular had great effects on their life.
Furthermore, parents may face emotional stress but they do not usually talk about it because they are shocked and they don’t accept to be victims. Therefore, they always blame women for that.
Various studies were conducted to check the appropriate housing and space effect on people’s life. A recent study about living conditions, done in Johannesburg and consisted of 240 people. The first group of 120 persons lives in appropriate houses and the second group of 120 persons from different communities facing challenges in obtaining privacy and suffers of not having sufficient space for living. The study showed that there are differences between the two groups in the level of insomnia, depression, imbalance, addiction, and risky behaviors. The study also indicated that the first group shall get psychological support and appropriate housing in order to lessen psychological risks.
1.5 What does home mean for Palestinian women?
Housing is the life center for most women in our Palestinian society because it is not only a shelter for them but also the place where they practice their social and economic activities and they can provide safety to their children. Therefore, there is a special relationship between the Palestinian woman and the house. It is the place for resistance, survive, and source of their voice. It is the place of sorrow and happiness, gathering for celebrations and meeting people, and it is a place for relaxation. It is the place that supplies her with power and energy and where their children grow. Then, displacement them by force had great and severe effects on all the family members and women in particular because they endure the emotional sufferings of others and try to recover injury of loss.
Forced eviction affects the economic and psychological aspects. Economically, it is not just losing the house but losing it may cause poverty because of realizing that the money spent on the house went in vain.
Destroying the house affects her physical safety, privacy, movement, lifestyle, social safety, her physical and psychological health and the social protection system. Women and families may suffer from shock as a result of losing their homes. In addition to the physical loss, house demolition causes hard psychological suffering. The house is not only a place for sheltering the human being, but a human and personal value for most people. House keeps the family heritage. At the house, people keep their memories and intimate things. The UN special reporter, in his comment on the right to adequate housing, said that houses demolition tear apart the social relationship and causes dangerous psychological sufferings especially for children.
1.6 Impact of house demolitions on women
The Palestinian woman in particular is greatly affected by the demolition of her house. This demolition has great negative effects on her because the house is her life center. House does not only provide a shelter, but a source of strength for her. It is the place where she does her duties, controls its components, and practices her social and economic activities. Home is the safe place and environment for her and her children. Thus, the special relation between women and home means that her eviction by force from home has severe effect on her life.
Losing home is not just losing a place for living but to live in crowded conditions, usually with her husband’s family or the extended family. She loses privacy and space where she has to live in a narrow and crowded place, which affects children. Children behave badly and their school achievement falls down in narrow space and noisy.
In addition to women psychological suffering as a result of home demolition, they take on the responsibility of providing comfort to others around them, especially their children. Woman tries to compensate her family members as a result of loss or mental confusion that may happen. In addition to the psychological pressure as a result of aggression, they have to cope with their children unrest and fears 45. Women try to compensate and enable themselves through joining the political campaigns to claim her rights.
Nadera Kufrkayan study indicated that women’s lives were affected by the house demolitions and building the Wall, they lose feeling of safety, tranquility, and independence and many times they lost their feeling of economic independence. They expressed in details their permanent feeling of fear of losing their homes or any of their family members, their fear of inability to support their families. The interviewed women said that they have slept while wearing their usual clothes, not in pajamas in case of being attacked at night for demolition. Losing home affect women physical safety, privacy, movement, lifestyle, social security, physical and mental health, and her social protection system. Thus, attacking home, body, and work shall destroy the individual’s life because of the military occupation.
1.7 Displacement and gender based violence
Women are victims of conflict, displacement, and any situation resulted by war, which affect people’s life and women’s life in particular. They affect women’s life more than the others. Women and girls are exposed to domestic violence and patriarchal control and violence based on gender during and after the conflict. Rape is also used as a weapon during the war.
In a study conducted in Turkey, about the Kurdish displaced women indicated the increase of women’s exposure to violence, control, and practice of inferiority because of men’s fear of their wives and female relatives in cities, where men think that cities are full of danger. Another reason of violence increase is men’s exposure to violence by the international forces and so men reflect or empty this violence on women and children. This is called “the continuation of the cycle of violence”.
Houses demolitions affect gender based violence, results of a study carried out through making interviews with 708 men and 754 women between 18-59 years old and through 8 groups of discussion (4 with women and 4 with men) and 24 deep interviews (10 with men and 14 with women)50% of the men who were forced to leave their homes, practiced gender based violence while 37.3% of men who were not forced of leaving their homes, practiced gender based violence.

1.8 Internal displacement and adaptation policies resorted by women
Some previous studies discussed women ability of dealing with political suffering through finding ways and mechanisms of survival, adaptation, and resistance of living conditions. Women are not victims or cons, but active and resist the occupation.51
Adaptation policies used by women in coping with their situations resulted from conflict and displacement, a study about the Kurdish women experience who were forced to move from their villages towards the city center as a result of the continuous armed conflict in Turkey between Kurdistan Workers Party (KWP) and the armed forces of the State. 30 women from three different cities, Istanbul, Mersin, and Diyarbakir have been interviewed. The study showed that many women moved to the cities centers and became responsible of their families as a result of violence which causes death, disappearance of people, and internal displacement from the east and the southeast. Women are usually seen as victims of conflict, but this study showed that women have moved from being victims and became empowered. The study clarified women’s new strategies used for work, joining the political organizations, addressing relief organizations, and how to adapt with violence so as women’s families can stay and survive.
Some of these strategies were to learn the language of the Turkish people there, learn reading and writing, dealing with the governmental agencies and working for low wages. Women worked in unsafe conditions, low wages, seasonal employment, or housemaids on daily basis because of lack of education and lack of knowledge in Turkish language. They also looked for relief organizations in order to support their families.
Joining women organizations: it is an adaptation strategy used by women. Many women organizations members helped other women especially in domestic violence, humanitarian aid, and ending poverty. One of the most famous feminist organizations was “Mothers of Peace” Organization. It was formed in 1997, used to belong to the Kurdish Party and then became independent. It mainly includes housewives. It became one of the most active organization in strikes and demonstrations. Its members could move between the cities. They did not have any character at home while they could ask to held a meeting with the President of Turkey. These women changed from being weak to strong women who are active on the political level in the State.
1.9 Looking for relief assistance
The displaced women had to cope with poverty and find solutions to help and support their families. One of the adaptation strategies used by these displaced women living in cities, was finding humanitarian aid such as clothes, food and house ware especially during the religious festivals. Women asked for help from the municipalities and used the social relation network to get this help. These networks are available there but women themselves initiated and looked for help. They registered their names, 97% of the registered names were women. Men felt lost and unable to take care of their families in these conditions.
1.10 How to deal with violence against women
Kurdish women who have experienced violence, turned to encourage their husbands to join the political Kurdish party. During the interviews with women, they said that they don’t think of addressing the police to complaint the husbands who practice violence against them because they believe that police do not use violence against men and children, therefore, the police would not support them. Moreover, women see the security forces as enemy to the Kurdish population. Instead, women asked help from the local committees founded in each region. These committees consist of male and female members in the party. Women trust these committees, and usually try to negotiate with men and women and then find solutions. In case of not finding a solution, they would delegate a lawyer and go to court. The last solution may be divorce, but divorce was impossible in these cases because of good relations especially between adults.
It would be very long to keep writing about the Kurdish experience. Besides, their situation is very different of our, so we can summarize.
1.11 Women’s relationship with support organization and programs
Although women afford all war’s burdens and participates in fighting activities, but they are excluded from the formal negotiations and decision making during the conflict or even after.

Their participation in re-planning is very limited where women needs and concerns are not given the priority. They are rarely represented in the planning process and in executing the humanitarian aid or be part of negotiation. Women and children’s needs and concerns are usually neglected in the planning process and in executing the humanitarian assistants although they make up the majority of the displaced people in conflict. Some countries and organizations began to include special programs for the displaced women and their children. Despite women’s suffering, they do not talk in the media and thus their concerns, needs, and expectations won’t be discussed or took into consideration because they do not address media. In addition, the international officials who are investigating peace, are often disqualified in gender and women rights issues as part of the human rights issues and they are not qualified to deal with gender based violence, especially these related to sexual harassment.
It is important to understand women needs which helps in taking decisions and distributing the resources between men and women during crisis. It is important to consider women strategic needs such as leadership, women empowerment, and decision making process and focus on women strengths more than their weaknesses, which will be useful for all.
It is the same for practicing other roles such as women participation in civil society institutions. Normally, these institutions lack the ability and interest of give priority to women’s issues.
When it is realized that war’s political, economic and social influence is different for men and women, male and female, there will be better understanding for the post-conflict needs. This is an important step to promote reconstruction where there is better understanding of gender. Women can effectively participate in this process, rebuilding the civil society, reorganizing police and army, promoting human rights, accessing to and controlling the resources, taking care of land issues for women who are heading their families as well as forming real committees for reconciliation.


2. Chapter 2:Data analysis
This part presents the themes addressed through the focus groups questions and the interviews as follows:
2.1 First Theme: Description of House Demolition and its consequences
This part discusses family life before and after house demolition, number of persons living in this house, it’s capacity, impact of demolition on the family nature in terms of nuclear family to extended family or vice versa, and the impact of this change on the family members relationship with each other and their daily life.
2.1.1 Description of family life before and after house demolition in terms of family category, place and space capacity
Type of family
Some families were living as nuclear families and others were living as extended families, sometimes living with the husband’s family, his brothers and his sisters. This life has changed after their house demolition. Some nuclear families moved to live with an extended family and vice versa especially the families that were living in tents. A big family cannot live in one tent. This change had direct effect on the family life and its daily practices.
The place and its capacity
In general, the space used to be sufficient for a family, for its daily life and for children to play even though some houses or tents were somehow small and then became smaller after the demolition where there was no space for the children to play. Some women who used to live in a tent, said that there is no space for children to play there and that their children are “wronged”, no place to play, there is only dust and dirt or they can watch TV. A woman said: “our children are also maltreated in this country, no place to play, only the dust and dirt or watching TV, no place to go to”. She added: “we are a marginalized and neglected country, no one is concerned of us and no authority is looking after us although we are the source of food for the West Bank. Why don’t they look at us and tell themselves that those farmers and their children have needs, talents, and hobbies?”.
Some people used to live in houses made of brick. So children had a room or more to sleep and play but not sufficient to practice their hobbies. This place became smaller after demolition and so no children did not have their own space after moving to live in tents. After demolition, this tent is not enough, therefore, each husband, wife and their children took a separate tent containing a small room for children to sleep in. sometimes, and other extended family members also lived with the nuclear family.
Women compare their life before and after their house demolition in term of space. A woman from Gaza said: “we used to live in a big land where there were all kinds of fruits and vegetables. my brothers, sister and I used to play between the trees, no one was disturbing us because no one was living near to us and because the land was big, so we used to play, laugh, and shout as much as we can, no one can hear us and we ate from the fruit of this land and we did not worry of anything”.
Another woman said: “we lived in big and beautiful houses, in a block comprising all family and relatives. We were visiting each other, stay up late, exchange food, and cousins used to play together. We used to feel safe for ourselves and for our children”.
Some women are still living with the extended family, one of these women said that she has only one room for her children and herself, but those who live in separate houses, can have separate rooms for the children but not of enough space. In some cases, children’s room is a store for the house or a place to receive people during the day and at night, it becomes a bedroom. Not much options for playing and children had only to play ball or with sheep in pastures.
The families, whose houses are demolished, became smaller and no private rooms for the children because it is known that any house is subject to demolition. Anyone whose house has been demolished and rebuilt again, would not be built on big space but only a small one in order to save money and because he knows that his house is subject to demolition more than once. Regarding exercising hobbies, basically before or after demolition, children play football and play in dust. Some people said that children do not play although there is a youth club there; however they do not attend it because it is too far and they have to walk for 2 km, and sometimes they do not have much time because they work with their parents in agriculture.
After the war on Gaza, families suffered a lot as a result of houses demolition and sometimes as result of injury or martyrdom. These families were forced to look for a place that shelters their members. They moved into rented houses or to their relatives, sometimes they were obliged to live in a public school for a period of time until they find a place to live in, sometimes they lived in tents waiting for the house that will be built of tin. This process was accompanied with a lot of harassment and hassle at the psychological and physical level.
A woman from Gaza says:”we left the house after receiving bombing threat. We went to schools then to my parent's home. After war, we restored our house by ourselves and moved to live there again. It was better than living with parents because nobody can afford others for a long time. My children are of different educational stages, preparatory, elementary, or secondary”.
Another said: “we lived in schools and with parents in Shaikh Zayed city. My married son is also living with me. I have two sons studying at the university and an unemployed one. We currently live in a house built by the UNRWA in the same place of our old house but it is not as good as the house that was destroyed”.
Girls also suffer a lot. A girl said: “the girl here cannot find even the least necessities of life that we wish at our age. We are separated of people, activities, and family visits. This causes a catatonic state”.
Some families were forced to live with their married sons/ daughters. Some lived in UNRWA schools and then moved to live with married children who already have their own family. This made the house crowded no space for anyone to practice life naturally. The situation becomes more complicated when a member is sick or has a special case. A woman had a handicapped child who needs special care. Living with her married son would allow her to take care of her handicapped son who was also worried that his family would leave him. He was saying to them: “don’t forget me when you escape”.
Women speak in details about their sufferings caused by moving to live in narrow places. Here are some of their words.
A woman from Gaza said: “our family is suffering because we live in our son’s house. It is small, the husband is sick and he underwent a surgery in his cartilage and we have two children studying at the university. The house is like a market because many people live here”.
Another woman from Gaza said: “we lived in schools for ten days. Then we went to live with my parents in Gaza and then returned back to our damaged house because it is better than living with others, and my husband is also sick”.
The Israeli army used to take photos of the houses when they are destroyed. Then they show them to the houses owners in prison as a way of torture. This caused many diseases to them such as blood pressure and diabetes as a result of sorrow and extreme distress.
Many families suffered from feeling of dispersion and instability as a result of moving. They have been forced to live in governmental schools, UNRWA schools or with neighbors.
The participants described their situation when destroying their houses during the war in Gaza. A man said: “the army called through loudspeakers to come out of the house within minutes or they will destroy it on our heads. We came out quickly and frightened. Then, they separated men from women and asked us to go to the UNRWA schools. They have destroyed the houses by bulldozers and they did not leave anything”.
A woman said: “I swear by God, we came out barefooted. Some of us forgot their babies because they were frightened, but they came back and brought them”.
Many families suffered a lot from demolishing their houses, looking for a shelter, losing their properties, and from being injured.
Moving to the new place not having all basic life needs added to many other problems between the family members. A woman from Gaza joined the group to talk about her suffering caused by their house demolition, and moving to live in a very small house. She suffers from problems with her husband, she cannot do what she wants, and she is not free to choose her food or even time to sit with her husband. She said that her children cannot play freely inside the house and that she and her children shall all the time stay in a room until her husband comes back at night to sleep. She feels like a stranger at home. The husband suffers from leg injury and cannot see in one of his eyes. He lives on painkillers and there is no hope of recovery. This is another burden for the wife as well as for the husband.
Here is some sayings for women from Gaza describing their situation after their houses were demolished.
A woman from Gaza says: “my husband, children, and I were brought out from under the rubble and we were deeply injured. The house was made of tin and it was bombed at 5:00 am. we have lived in schools for eleven days and we are now living in a rented house. I am suffering a lot but I am working in some projects today”.
Some families were forced to live with their married family members. Some lived in schools for a period of time and then moved to live with their married family members. Those already have families and another family is added to them, so the house becomes very crowded and there is no enough space to live naturally. This life becomes more complicated when one of the family members is suffering from a permanent disability or disease.
We can summarize that regardless of the house location whether it is a tent or a house made of bricks, whether it is a nuclear family or another, problems are very similar in terms of lack of space, dispersion and instability. All the other family rights have been violated such as the right of privacy, movement, comfort and luxury, children’s right to play, and women suffered a lot because they became responsible for the family. Lack of suitable place for living causes many physical and psychological problems and additional responsibilities for women.
2.1.2 Notification time of house demolitions
Pursuant to interviews with thirty families whose houses were demolished, the replies were as follow: twenty three of them said that demolition occurred without prior notice. The other seven families are different where one of them was notified a day before, another was notified two weeks before, another was notified by a month before, and the other three members were notified six months before. Most of them occurred without prior notice especially in Gaza.
The Israeli justifications for house demolitions were mainly three: construction without permit, collective punishment for the family of a martyrdom and the last is resulted from bombing especially in Gaza.
2.1.3 Taking out homes items and supplies
The participants agreed that in most cases, houses were demolished unexpectedly and early in the morning and that it was almost impossible to evacuate and remove any of the supplies because most people did not know that their house will be demolished earlier. They were only concerned to get out safe. Regardless of that, the loss is the same and the family lost its home and it is not easy to compensate them because as many have said: the house contains all the family memories. Losing the house means losing all beautiful and happy events lived and witnessed in this house such as the birth of a new baby, children graduation and marriage, and the good times spent with friends and family.
2.1.4 Men and women’s feelings and reactions to this event
The discussion groups held in the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem mentioned that it was very hard to witness your house demolition where men, women and children felt sorrow, sad, worried, frightened, anxious, and frustrated. These feelings still exist until the moment.
They described themselves as follow: the family started from scratch – sadness and sorrow for moving to live in a new house – a state of dispersion and disappointment – where we were we and where we become – we were not fully conscious – very bad time – looking for help and covers to protect us from cold- we received some help but not sufficient – we experienced very bad conditions – we lost everything – we have to adapt to the new and hard conditions.
The participants describe their situation when their houses were destroyed especially in Gaza. One of them said:
These words for women from Gaza describing their situation after their houses were destroyed.
Feeling of sorrow and sadness for the past, the house is destroyed, the mother is dead, the father is suffering from cancer, two of the children are in the Israeli prisons, and nothing is the same as before. There are feelings of sadness, sorrow and grief on the past and memories.
What can be inferred through discussion groups is that expressing the feelings differs between men and women. Men always try to hide their feelings, especially from children, so that the feelings of fear and anxiety do not spread to the rest of family members. Women tried to express their feelings by screaming and wailing. Strikingly, there is difference in expressing the feelings between the West Bank and Gaza. People from Gaza have clearly, in details, and courageously expressed their feelings of horror, pain, sadness, shock and amazement while people from the West Bank did not express their feelings clearly and they focused on their attitude of the houses demolition. This can be interpreted that the way of destroying houses in Gaza was different than in the West Bank. In Gaza it was accompanied with war, attack and missiles. Therefore, their feelings are stronger because the event was strong.
These quotations for some participants from Gaza:
“I did not expect what was happening and I was shocked and surprised. Our house was bombed while we were sleeping and my brother was killed and another was severly injured. It was the worst moment of my life. Sure it was a feeling of fear and worry but the worst is the scene of killing people in front of our house.”
“I felt pain, shock, and fear of what I saw in my eyes and I felt angry. My thinking was scattered.”
In both cases, in Gaza and in the West Bank, both men and women were affected by the horrible event and the hard catastrophe and sometimes, women were more frightened than men because they were afraid of their husbands and children.
The participants from Gaza described in details the process of house demolition and their feelings at that moment. They remember accurately. A participant said:
“we were very shocked and even more. I looked for the house and she gathered the children”.
Another said: “Frankly, it was an action film, injuries, martyrs, and destroyed house on one hand, and on the other hand, fear and horror, it was very hard, the social relations are very important and they must be strong.”
“the house was destroyed and my family was there. My mother, my wife, my children and my sister were inside the house. The bombing started from 10 pm to 3 am. Nobody expected that anyone will stay alive. This fear and horror was repeated every day. We weren’t able to get the children out of one crisis while we entered a new one.”
People felt in tragedy especially in Gaza because of the war and house demolition occurred in sudden. People were even afraid inside their houses. Some people said that they were psychologically destroyed. Their houses were destroyed and they could not get out anything from the ruins but their children and husbands were safe. Others said that because it is a collective disaster, it was easier to accept.
Some men and women are still affected by feelings of fear. A woman from Gaza said:
“I am still very afraid and I am psychologically destroyed and cannot feel comfortable.”
The impact was very hard on children. A man spoke about children’s feelings of the houses demolition and said:
“I am very sure that if you make a psychological study on children, you won’t find anyone in good sound. Imagine that a child wakes up frightened at midnight or sees the wall destroyed while he is sleeping in the street. We did not take care of the psychological side nor did the human right institutions. We were almost taking care of daily life hardships and forgot children’s problems, and the institutions did the same. Everybody has problems, and many problems. The child empties his energy at street and he wants only to live. Children cannot forget and live apart of the occupation. When I was shot by Hamas, my child was only 3 years old, but today, when he sees the man, he says to me: dad here is the man who shot you and he points to him. Can you see his reaction?”
In spite of men and women sufferings, but their reaction differ. It was said that women sometimes are more practical in dealing with the problem. A woman said:
“At war, even the red Cross could not make any coordination for us and I used to go to my destroyed house and bring some items. I was stronger than my husband.”
Some women said that men used to spend their time talking to each other and women had to take care of the children. Sometimes, husbands were only thinking of their own comfort. They did not think of their family while women alone had to look after their children.
Some other women said that husbands’ feeling with their wives has increased because they lived the same life of fear, worry and horror.
Men from Gaza expressed their feelings and reactions of what happened there. They were worried but they tried not to reflect this fear to their wives. They were more practical and they searched for a place to live safe, far from the area where they used to live. Their role during the war focused on finding ambulances to rescue the injured and move the bodies.
In the West Bank, women said that bulldozers came to destroy the houses, both men and women tried to stop them and prevent them from destroying their houses, but many times, it was very hard to stand in front of these bulldozers because they were accompanied by tens of soldiers when they arrived. Both, men and women, felt sad and incapable but there is a difference in the nature of feelings. Men felt that by destroying the house, their manhood represented in providing protection, security, and shelter had been humiliated. A man looked to his house which symbolizes his financial ability and his ability to protect his wife and children. The house is destroyed and he is standing there incapable. Women could recognize these feelings especially when she felt that her husband, brother, or father were weak and incapable of providing protection and shelter for his family, they supported them so as they would not collapse. They tried to lessen these feelings and promised their men to resist and support them.
Women felt frustrated and incapable and they also realized that their husbands pent-up anger and incapacity just because they are strong men and can afford that and women need support. The man supported his wife and his mother by repeating words that help them to be patient in life and to start again. Therefore, man became more sympathetic with his wife who was psychologically destroyed, weak, and incapable just because as some women said that: woman cannot afford seeing furniture and goods have become broken.
It became clear through discussion among the groups that men and women were strongly affected by the house demolitions but the way they expressed their feelings was different. Men in the West Bank could not even talk about this issue, their replies were somehow unclear, not decisive. They were hesitated when asked about their feelings. This can be explained because men are not able of expressing their feeling or not wishing to answer. In Gaza, men expressed their feelings strongly. This can be explained as a result of war violence. Feelings are mixed as a result of their suffering from war, house demolition, and dispersion.
It can be said that reaction to any event should be different between people. Men’s reaction is not totally the same whether in Gaza or in the West Bank because reaction comes out of experience, maturity, volume of interaction with any subject. The aim of this discussion is not only to know who is affected more, but also to recognize the different feelings and reactions resulted by houses demolition. A common denominator is that the impact on men and women in Gaza and in West Bank is very big. They all looked for a safe place for their children, tried to lessen the effect and support each other.
What can be seen in this part related to feelings towards houses demolition is that men of Gaza could describe the process in detail, express their feelings in that moment, their memories and their permanent feeling of anger and sorrow of losing their houses and properties. The details indicate that these feelings still exist and cannot be forgotten, especially their anxiety about their husbands and children. There was fear because of the unknown.
On the other side, men and women have been strongly affected by house demolitions but their expression of their feelings was different. Women expressed their feeling by crying and screaming. They expressed their feeling of sorrow in a direct way, but men looked sad without expressing their feeling. It was also clear through groups discussion that men and women support each other.
2.2 Second Theme: Impact of House Demolition on Gender Roles
In this part, we will discuss the changes of men and women three roles as a result of house demolitions, which are: reproductive role, productive role, and political and social role.
2.2.1 The reproductive role of both men and women
This role includes taking care of the home and children and running their affairs in a way that keeps the family survive as well as social visits and children’s health and medical treatment. It was clear through groups of discussions that women are mainly responsible of this role. The mother and her daughter carry out this role while men do not help a lot even though men recognize the wives responsibilities while women also work in livestock breeding and home cultivation.
Parents responsibilities have increased after house demolition. The questionnaires results showed that 59% agreed that the father’s responsibilities have increased, 39% disagree and 12% neutral and the number of responses was 113. While 63% agreed that the mother’s responsibilities increased and the number of responses was 121.
Although this group tended toward approving that there is an increasing of mother’s responsibilities after the house demolition by 5% while more than 15% disagreed that the father’s responsibilities have increased after the house demolition. This group acknowledges the mother’s responsibilities increase. Heading to medical institutions to address the negative effects of house demolitions on children, 59% agreed that this is the mother’s duty and 31% disagreed while 38% agreed that this is the father’s duty and 43% agreed that the father’s responsibility of heading to the medical institutions has increased after the house demolition, which means double of those who consider that the mother is mainly responsible for children medical care more than the father. These duties are part of women’s reproductive role. Therefore, more duties are added to women’s reproductive role.
2.2.2 The productive role
It was proved through the groups of discussion that employment outside the home is mainly the men duty. Men and boys are those who shall carry out this role as shown by most interviews and discussion groups, but women said that they participate in this role mainly inside the house such as livestock breeding and cultivation. Women’s productive works inside the house vary according to the area of their place of living. If this area is an area of livestock breeding and cultivation, then women works in livestock breeding, bring wood for cooking and washing. Women said that they participate in this role in case of emergency in order to improve the family economic situation. They sometimes work in agriculture or in the Israeli settlements as what happened with some women in the Jordan valley. Other women said that house demolitions pushed them to work in agriculture to help their husbands to save money to rebuild their houses and sometimes work for extra hours. A woman said: “if I have the chance to work in land at night, I would not spare it”. Some women said that they work in cleaning houses in the settlements. Women from Gaza said that they would work outside the house, but there are no available opportunities. Many of them applied for jobs,

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