Dear Ms. Liel,

Re: The NIF grantees’ ‘rape’ poster

During my presentation on May 11, I displayed a poster attributed to Mada al-Carmel suggesting that IDF soldiers are involved in sexual harassment. On that occasion you repeated the claim that Mada al-Carmel was not involved in the poster’s creation, nor responsible for the campaign surrounding it.

I am therefore sending you the email that we received on November 9, 2009, including the original attachments. Please note that Mada al-Carmel is explicitly listed both at the top and bottom of the press release.

Please also note that all three organizations involved in the campaign (Mada al-Carmel, Women against Violence, Muntada) are NIF grantees.

I encourage you to respond to this evidence and its implications. If you have information showing that this evidence is in any way incorrect, please include it in your response. 

Sincerely,
Prof. Gerald Steinberg,
President, www.ngo-monitor.org

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Gender Studies Program – Mada Al-Carmel     The Arab Forum for Sexuality

Press Release
"My Land, Space, Body and Sexuality: Palestinians in the Shadow of the Wall"

Within the “One Day One Struggle” campaign organized by the Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies (CSBR), held on November 9, we are seeking to break the “walls” of silence on daily violations of our sexual and bodily rights in the Palestinian society. We are principally highlighting the Israeli structural and legal violations of sexual, bodily, psychological, social and economic rights of Palestinians that intersect with the patriarchal social context, which restrain individual freedoms, perpetuates women’s inferior status and imposes silence on physical, psychological and sexual violations committed against women.

This day is being marked in 11 Arab and Muslim countries with the participation of over 20 organizations with the aim of challenging the violation of sexual and bodily rights in general and women’s rights to safety and security in particular.

Sexuality and bodily rights are an integral part of human rights and an essential component in understanding the effect of militarization in the context of the conflicts with patriarchal power holders be it the state, society and other social institutions such as religious institutions. Recent years have witnessed frequent violations of these rights in several countries by the enactment of laws that undermine reproductive and sexual rights. An example is the “nationality” law in Israel affecting people’s right to choose their partners.  In conflict ridden areas, young girls and women are suffering serious violations of their bodily, sexuality and reproductive rights such as unsafe abortions, imposed child marriage and other kinds of violence against women.

We, the Gender Studies Program – Mada Al-Carmel and the Arab Forum for Sexuality, Education and Health, believe that it is important for Palestinian women and men, and all human rights activists to take part in this international campaign in order to expose Israel’s racist policies. We further stress that in militarized zones, and under the realities of occupation and colonialism, the political and social context should never be divorced from individuals’ sexuality and bodily rights.

We, in the Palestinian campaign, believe in the necessity to sustain our struggle and intensify our efforts at the local and international levels against all forms of physical, sexual, psychological, political and social prejudice, oppression, discrimination and violence.

Through the campaign "My Land, Space, Body and Sexuality: Palestinians in the Shadow of the Wall", we stress the need to intensify all efforts aiming at protecting the Palestinian woman and man, their families, homes and homeland.

Media Coordinators:

Mada Al-Carmel – Mr. Nawaf Athamneh – 052-665-3226 or 04-855-2035 pr@mada-research.org

Muntada – Sexuality Forum – Ms. Safa Tamish – 054-330-2209  safa@jensaneya.org

For more information about the racist Citizenship Law click  here
http://www.adalah.org/eng/famunif.php#latest

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Attachments included: