Dear Slovak Women,

Allow me as a Palestinian women representing my country as Ambassador of the State of Palestine in Slovakia to address you on the occasion of International Women’s Day and to speak to you as a woman to women. It is said that all women all over the world have almost the same concerns and challenges. On top of our mutual difficulties, Palestinian women have to live in oppressive conditions imposed on them by the occupier and have to struggle every day in all aspects of life under the Israeli occupation.  

Dear Slovak women, I have decided to address you because women in each nation always have been the most empathetic part of the population that can perceive the problems of others, show understanding and give strength and support to the vulnerable in its communities. Your sisters in Palestine have been struggling every day for decades with the obstacles created by the Israeli occupiers – every day they worry whether their husband, who left for work in the morning, will come home in the evening; whether their children will show up for school and return safely; they also struggle when a family member has been imprisoned for the simple reason: because they are Palestinian. Housewives have become wives and mothers of prisoners, and they are often prisoners themselves. Since 1967, nearly 15,000 Palestinian women have been held in Israeli military occupation prisons, some of them even giving birth in detention. During their imprisonment, they have been deprived of basic hygiene items, including the necessities during menstruation. More than one woman has given birth, and sadly miscarried, at Israeli military checkpoints in the occupied territories. The Israeli occupiers also have no regard for female students and minors who also get detained and harassed by soldiers. Many women and girls have been subjected to all sorts of  war crimes, including but not short of, being shot and killed at one of the over 700 military checkpoints in the West Bank including East Jerusalem.   

Let me give you an idea of the situation in which Palestinian women in the Gaza Strip find themselves during the genocide that the Israeli army has been perpetrating on our people since 7 October 2023. I am sorry if some of the information has caused you great anger or even disgust, but unfortunately, I must describe to you the situation in which our women in Gaza find themselves at the present time. There are 2.3 million inhabitants in the Gaza Strip. Half of them are women, with 572 000 women of reproductive age. As the world knows, this aggression is being carried out live, the Gaza Strip is being bombarded across the board and the aggressor has no regard for civilians. We can safely say that the bombing of civilians has been deliberate and that women have suffered the most. The suffering of women is manifold. They suffer as a wife suffers when she loses her husband. They suffer as a mother suffers when she loses her children. She suffers as a child when she loses her parents. She suffers as a sister when she loses siblings. She suffers as a child having now to carry the burden of raising her younger siblings. She suffers as she tries to find food to survive and feed her family. She suffers as she miscarries her baby due to the continues blockade and genocide. She suffers as she watches her childhood home burn into ashes along with her dreams and inspiration. 

During the bombing, which continues to this day, almost one third of the victims, more than 9 000 of the fallen, are women. When we add the children, we get a figure that totals more than 20 000 people. The survivors have to provide for their families while constantly fleeing the bombing, which places a great psychological burden on them. To this must be added the more than 2 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip who are living in a de facto famine because Israel does not allow the delivery of food aid, water, fuel, electricity or medical supplies. Can you imagine? Close your eyes, you will see darkness. Try not eating for a day and you will feel hungry. Try to imagine that your child has nothing to put in his or her mouth for a whole day. Try to imagine your whole family sleeping in the open air for more than 155 days in primitive tents, often made only of rags, even when it is raining and cold. That is the real life they are living today. Constantly in fear, no where to seek shelter or any safety for you and for your family as you hear them cry from starvation and terror. For bombs, tank shells and bullets fall on all indiscriminately. One moment you may be holding your family, the next is a deafening sound and you cannot find them beside you anymore, either beneath the rubble or killed. 

Dear Slovak women, there are currently almost 50 000 pregnant women in the Gaza Strip, which means about 180 births a day and almost 5 500 births a month. You, as women who have become mothers, know best what this condition requires – psychological well-being, no stress, a regular diet, medical care, and when the D-Day comes, a clean bed in the hospital and the necessary professional staff to assist you in the delivery. Don’t be shocked if I tell you that Palestinian women don’t have any of that, neither food, nor psychological well-being, nor medical care. And childbirth? Nowadays they give birth without anaesthesia and very often without a doctor, whose role is often substituted by a paramedic, and instead of anaesthesia they just put a piece of cloth in the woman’s mouth that she can bite into to survive the immense pain of childbirth without being numbed all while being in a refugee tent.  

And the worst thing is that our underage girls are growing up very quickly, because they often have to substitute the role of a mother who has died in a bombing or has been left crippled. These girls have to look after their siblings and take responsibility for the running of the household. You are probably saying to yourself that this is not possible in the 21st century. Unfortunately, yes, it is happening, even now, as you read my speech. I am sure that, as sensitive, perceptive, empathetic women, you will ask yourselves what we can do to stop this. And I will answer you in turn: call loudly for an end to the war, appeal to your leaders to work towards an immediate ceasefire and to stop the displacement of Palestinians from their homeland. Call for an end to the Israeli occupation and for the recognition worldwide of an independent Palestinian state. Call for the protection of Palestinian people to live in freedom and dignity as an expression of their right to life and self-determination.  

In conclusion, dear Slovak women, please be the voice of the voiceless women in Palestine. For women are stronger standing together and no one should be left behind.  

Yours sincerely, 

    Safa Khaldi 

Ambassador of the State of Palestine to Slovakia