Women's leading role

Women, equally with men, have been the victims of the repression flowing from the imperialists' actions. Many women joined the ranks of the GUPW and the Popular Front (PFLP) and other guerilla groups, after the campaign of arrests and terror in Jordan in 1966. Palestinian women fighters distinguished themselves in the resistance to the Jordanian offensive in 1970. Women led the huge demonstrations against occupation in Jerusalem in 1968. The call to strike against the Israeli occupation in the West Bank, which resulted in school students and teachers striking in 1967, was issued by the Palestinian women.

Palestinian women take part in the military operations carried out in the heart of the occupied territory. The number of Palestinian women in Zionist gaols currently is over 360. Many brave women have suffered humiliation, rape and torture under the Israeli occupationists" gaolings. Included in the list of martyrs who have died in Zionist interrogation centres, rather than yeild, are many women. Lengthy prison terms are dished out to many women, for their militancy and political activism.

The way in which many women have faced and endured torture and even death has been a contributing factor in the changing of attitudes of the men in the Palestinian resistance, steeped as many still are in age-old prejudices and traditions.