Friday, March 25, 2022
Elder of Ziyon
The PA has been a signatory of that convention since 2014, but it hasn't actually put it into law. When pressed, it does what it always does - it blamed the "occupation."
When no Westerners are listening, Palestinians freely admit that the only reason they joined the Convention and other international conventions (without reservations, showing that they barely read them to begin with) was to make it easier to join the International Criminal Court and therefore attack Israel via lawfare.
Palestinians never had any intention to enforce the convention that they signed.
Apparently, the international community has noticed this and it can turn into a source of embarrassment. The Palestinian dictatorship decided to have its cabinet pass a law that is congruent to CEDAW and to do it in a quiet way so that the right wing, Islamist opponents don't stop it.
Now, 41 Palestinian legislators have signed a crazy letter opposing CEDAW, complaining how the legislation was being sneaked by them.
Their letter says the purpose of CEDAW is "to spread abnormal practices in our reality, and turn them into familiar natural phenomena and practices, such as sexual relations outside marriage, absolute freedoms, moral chaos, and homosexuality of all kinds. destroying the foundations on which the family is built."
They also expressed their “astonishment and disapproval” that such an important law was drafted “in secret, discussing and circulating it in closed rooms with a limited group that does not represent society, and avoiding consulting specialists from Sharia scholars, clerics, judges, jurists and opinion-holders." The noted that under Palestinian law, the Legislative Council is the only body authorized to pass laws and legislation.
It seems that the cabinet doesn't even have the power to enact laws like this, and this is just a sham to push off the international community for another couple of years until they notice that the laws are not being enforced.
This sort of stuff happens all the time in the PA. They pretend to be a functioning, responsible government but the PA side is thoroughly corrupt and Abbas does whatever he wants, while the Hamas side is thoroughly Islamist. The entire CEDAW episode has been playing out for years and anyone can see that there was never any desire to actually fight for women's rights.
This 2018 report details the huge gaps between Palestinian laws and equality for women, showing how few women are employed or in important political positions, and how many are beaten every year.
