A Voice For the Voiceless

MISSION

The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

Palestine - Civil Society Under Siege

This series of On the Record - Palestinian Civil Society Under Siege  describes how Palestinian civil society responded to the outbreak of the intifada in 2000.

For more of AP's coverage of civil society and the Palestinian conflict, see the section below: Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Issue 1: Rising to the Challenge (Series Launch)

Issue 2: From Resistance to Empowerment
This issue looks at the way Palestinian civil society has evolved since the 1980s, from being an integral part of the Palestinian resistance movement to a network of independent, professional nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

Issue 3: Betrayed by Oslo
This issue concerns the Oslo process and why it failed, a failure that contributed to the outbreak of the intifada in 2000.

Issue 4: Feeling the Strain: Gaza's Mental Health Crisis
This issue profiles a family from Gaza that was asleep when their house was torn down. Months later the entire family was still deeply traumatized and sought care at the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP). The second half of this issue takes the form of an open appeal recently written by Dr. El Sarraj, a doctor at GCMHP, to European heads of state concerning the effects of occupation on Palestinians.

Issue 5: Empowering Women
This issue looks at how Palestinian women's groups face a dilemma due to the crisis: whether to return to a nationalistic cause or fight for specifically women's empowerment. This issue will address the way the dilemma affects three of the groups that receive support from Grassroots International (GRI) and are working with women specifically.

Issue 6: Breaking the Cycle of Dependency
This issue looks at some of the pressures facing Palestinian laborers who work in Israel and the efforts being made on their behalf by the Democracy and Workers' Rights Centre (DWRC) in Ramallah.

Issue 7: The Challenge of Agricultural Development
This issue looks at the efforts of the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC) to help the farmers of Beit Duqqo - a small country town in the West Bank - to ride out the storm.

Issue 8: In Defense of Human Rights
This issue looks at the work of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) in Gaza. Raji Sourani, its founder, and his colleagues have been working to monitor abuses committed by the Israeli forces since the outbreak of the uprising in September 2000.

Issue 9: The Refugee Connection
This issue profiles a community center in a crowded refugee camp on the West Bank, which among its many services helps young refugees use computers.