IWS issues a statement denouncing the brutal assault on colleague Lena Miari
May 29, 2021
A statement issued by the Institute of Women's Studies - Birzeit University
Affirmation of the Palestinian right to resistance and condemnation of Zionist barbarism
The Institute of Women's Studies denounces the brutal assault on colleague Lena Miari, university professor and former director of the Institute of Women's Studies at Birzeit University. Israeli Border Police fired a stun grenade directly at her head to prevent her voice being in solidarity with the people of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem, and with all prisoners, wounded and martyred in Palestine.
The Institute of Women's Studies reaffirms its position against Zionist colonialism in Palestine, condemning its measures to eradicate Palestinian presence and attempts to suppress every form of Palestinian resistance and steadfastness. The Institute commends the resistance activities that Palestine witnessed in Jerusalem, Gaza, the occupied territories of 1948, and the West Bank during the past weeks, reuniting Palestinians against the project of colonial fragmentation and the erasure of Palestinian national identity since the year 1948. The Palestinian people have not and will not be subject to eradication and uprooting from their land.
The Institute of Women's Studies believes that Israeli colonial structures and practices that include killings, arrests, displacement, confiscation of lands, and home demolitions constitute basic infrastructure in the oppression that Palestinian women are subjected to, and we emphasize that Palestine is a feminist issue. We stress that resistance to colonialism is an essential part of the Palestinian feminist struggle, as colonial oppression cannot be separated from patriarchal and capitalist structures and any project for the emancipation of Palestinian women from patriarchal oppression and capitalist exploitation is linked to Palestine's liberation from the Zionist colonial structure.
Our colleague Lena Miari, a faculty member at the Institute, a member of the Union at the University, and an activist on the ground is a model for the women's struggle in Palestine that rejects and confronts every form of oppression and injustice. We have seen Palestinian women of all generations resist in Sheikh Jarrah and in Damascus Gate in Jerusalem, as well as in the marches in the West Bank and the occupied territories of 1948, and in the enormous resilience and resistance of women in Gaza in particular.
In this regard, the Institute of Women's Studies denounces the brutal attacks on the families of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood that aim to uproot them from their homes and land, as well as the barbaric attacks on the Gaza Strip that targeted the homes and lives of entire families and led to the displacement of thousands of women and children leaving them without shelter. We condemn the campaign of intimidation and arbitrary arrests against Palestinians in the occupied territories of 1948, and we call on all to boycott and resist the Israeli colonial state for its crimes against the Palestinian people.
