Two teenage Palestinian girls were killed in separate incidents last month in so-called "honour killings", revenge attacks carried out most often by family members against women suspected of "immoral sexual conduct".When this trend became apparent last year, the Palestinian Minister of Women's Affairs Rabiha Diab blamed....Israel: "The Israeli occupation is the one practising the utmost violence ... it's the main thing keeping us from advancing."
The deaths sparked protests with more than 100 people assembling outside the general attorney's office in Gaza on March 3, demanding violence against Palestinian women come to a halt. Five women died in honour killings in the Palestinian territories in 2011. That number rose to 13 in 2012 and doubled to 26 last year.
...[A]nother woman, Samah Bader, was stabbed to death by her husband in their apartment in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. She became the eighth woman killed in the Palestinian territories since the beginning of the year - raising concerns the deadly trend will continue to spiral upwards.
...A survey by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics from 2011 showed that 35 percent of married women in Gaza had been exposed to physical violence by their husband within the past year, and that 40 percent of unmarried women had been physically abused by a household member.
I would argue that the main thing keeping them from advancing is their refusal to take responsibility for anything, and to blame Israel reflexively no matter what.