The Feminist Foreign Policy Memo is a monthly publication by MADRE to share updates from our global partners and provide US policy recommendations to support frontline, feminist, grassroots movements for justice, accountability, and peace. |
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FEMINIST FOREIGN POLICY MEMO |
The Feminist Foreign Policy Memo is a monthly publication by MADRE to share updates from our global partners and provide US policy recommendations to support frontline, feminist, grassroots movements for justice, accountability, and peace. |
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In October 2023, Palestinian midwife Samah Qeshta delayed her scheduled C-section because she believed a ceasefire was imminent. At nine-months pregnant, she walked over an hour from Rafah to work at Nasser Hospital. Sometimes, she would hear explosions. She wanted to run, but her pregnant body wouldn't let her. When she gave birth in November, Samah was given a ride home, but the streets were blocked: damaged by the airstrikes. She walked half an hour to get home while carrying her newborn girl: Naya.
“Women around the world have the right to a safe pregnancy and birth,” said midwife Aisha Saifi, co-founder of MADRE partner organization Midwives of Peace, “unfortunately, in Palestine, we don’t have that luxury”.
Since October 7, 2023, approximately 66,000 babies have been born in Gaza as Israeli forces raided hospitals, dropped US bombs, shot nurses, and the dangers of famine and disease grew. Palestinian midwives like Samah work tirelessly to give Gaza’s newborns a chance at life and health. Nuseirat lived at al-Awda Health Center, where she is a midwife, for three months. Midwives at Nasser Hospital were also too busy to go home. “They are exhausted,” said UNFPA Representative Dominic Allen, “and [they] demand a ceasefire."
Naya was carried by her mother, Samah, through a combat zone, but she is one of the lucky ones: she was born in a hospital bed and her mother survived. She was not born on the floor of a hospital or in a crowded shelter. She wasn’t born in a restroom, on the side of the road, or in a tent. In Rafah, Ramzy was born on the ground, in a small, private space between tents. His umbilical cord was cut with an unsterilized scalpel and water was heated in tin cans to keep him warm. Despite the heroic work of midwives, many of Gaza’s newborns must come into the world through unassisted deliveries. “We Gazans were stitching each other’s wounds,” reported Noor Rihan.
Palestinian healthcare workers face immense risk to provide care. At least 220 UN staff have lost their lives since October 7th and the Gaza Ministry of Health reports that 1,151 Palestinians working in Gaza’s health sector have been killed since October 7th. Despite the risks, MADRE partners at the Palestinian Medical Relief Society worked with the Middle East Children’s Alliance to open a new health care center, providing medical care to up to 100 people per day.
However, a permanent and immediate ceasefire is the required first step to protecting Gaza’s newborns and caregivers. The United States must stop selling arms to Israel until it complies with existing US oversight laws that prohibit the sale of US arms to military units that violate human rights and nations that interfere with the delivery of US foreign aid. That requires US policymakers to respect those laws. A ProPublica report last week revealed that, days after USAID and the State Department's refugee bureau determined that Israel was blocking humanitarian aid delivery into Gaza, Secretary of State Antony Blinken denied that obstruction in testimony to Congress.
Midwives from around the world have responded to the needs of displaced expecting parents through innovative healthcare delivery, including creating instructional videos in Arabic on emergency unassisted births, connecting parents with known nearby caregivers, and providing essential supplies, like tents for private deliveries and packs of diapers. However, in-person and remote care have been disrupted by telecommunications blackouts and aid diversion by Israeli authorities, who have blocked ultrasound equipment and maternity kits from entering Gaza.
Over the next month, 13,649 Palestinians are expected to be born in Gaza and the West Bank. Newborns are especially vulnerable to the life-threatening conditions faced by Palestinians as Israel’s assault grows. They cannot run. They cannot ask for help. On September 17th, Gaza’s health ministry published the names of 34,344 Palestinians killed by Israeli attacks. The first 710 names are newborns less than one year old. The first adult names do not appear until page 215.
If they do survive airstrikes, newborns face other threats. As Noora Alyacoubi was starving, her body stopped producing breast milk for her daughter Lya. Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya told Human Rights Watch in April that 26 children in his hospital had died after experiencing starvation-related complications. One two-day old newborn died due to severe dehydration. And baby formula is not readily available, forcing mothers like Zainab al-Zein to feed newborns solid foods, leaving them at a higher risk of developing certain chronic diseases. These crises are compounded by family separations. UNICEF estimates that more than 19,000 children in Gaza have been orphaned since October 7th. As of April, more than 41% of families in Gaza were caring for children that are not their own.
And now: polio. In August, a 10-month-old baby was partly paralyzed, in the first confirmed case of polio in Gaza in 25 years. The lives of Gaza’s newborns depend on immunization. In September, the humanitarian community secured a series of nine-hour pauses over sequential days, allowing more than 2,180 community health workers to vaccinate around 560,000 children. The Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS) and the Culture and Free Thought Association, MADRE partners, joined that campaign. Palestinian families celebrated getting the vaccinations, but this work is not over: the UN is negotiating with Israel so the second round of vaccinations can start in mid-October.
Gaza’s newborns, mothers, caregivers, and healthcare workers need a permanent and immediate ceasefire. No one should bring life into the world to see it end so quickly in such horror. |
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MADRE & PARTNER RESOURCES
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Take Action: MADRE & Partners Call on UN to Launch Global Study on Apartheid: Please join us in calling on the UN to launch a global study to ensure recognition of all apartheid victims, including Palestinians, Rohingyas, women, and LGBTQI+ persons in Afghanistan.
Advocates and experts have alerted the world to apartheid conditions in contemporary contexts, including against Palestinians and Rohingyas. They have also called for gender apartheid recognition in response to extreme rights violations against women, girls, and LGBTQI+ persons in Afghanistan. Yet no one has ever been held accountable for the crime of apartheid anywhere, and victims remain unrecognized and without recourse.
A UN study is urgently needed to officially recognize these and other forms of apartheid and illuminate pathways to justice. Such a study would play a transformative role in policy and accountability responses, including for the draft new crimes against humanity treaty where apartheid will be codified. Now is the time for accountability for apartheid and other atrocities. Read more and sign the open letter. |
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Navigating Birth and Conflict in the West Bank: In February 2024, award winning filmmaker Lynzy Billings visited 11 hospitals across the West Bank to document the struggles of midwives working to protect life as violence escalates. Aisha Saifi, a midwife and co-founder of Midwives of Peace, a MADRE partner organization, is featured in this harrowing and inspiring 30-minute documentary. Watch now.
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A Policy Framework for Haiti, by Haitians: Over 135 organizations globally have endorsed the Haitian-led policy framework for an effective and equitable transition. The framework calls for the material inclusion of women in leadership and centering the concerns of Haitian women and girls. The framework was cowritten by Haitian human rights defenders, including members of the Haitian Women's Collective, a MADRE partner. Read more.
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The Pursuit of Gender Justice: A recent decision by the ICC found that members of a militia in Mali, known as Ansar Dine, specifically targeted women and girls with a discriminatory campaign. MADRE Advocacy Director, Kirby Anwar, reflects: "It has taken a very, very, very long time for judges to actually acknowledge that these crimes happen due to discrimination." This is a milestone judgment building on MADRE's documentation of gender persecution. Read more.
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Queering the Draft Crimes Against Humanity Treaty: Grassroots women's and LGBTQIA+ groups around the world came together to ensure an inclusive definition of gender in the final draft of the Crimes Against Humanity treaty send to the United Nations. In a new book "Building Bridges: Contemporary perspectives on gender, sexuality and international human rights law", MADRE's Global Campaigns Officer Danny Bradley co-wrote a chapter reflecting on this victory for gender justice. This chapter begins on page 101. Read more.
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Confronting a Militarized Energy Transition: Our future depends on renewable energy, but climate priorities already risk being co-opted by militarized agendas. As MADRE's Diana Duarte and Jean Su from the Center for Biological Diversity write: "the greenest thing any military can do is reduce the scale and scope of its operations." Read more.
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To protest new restrictions, Afghan women are singing online to defy Taliban orders to be silent. Their songs of protest and grief often end with this phrase: "my voice is not immodest.” Read more.
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Haiti's transitional government is failing to address the needs, or recognize the enduring leadership, of Haitian women. Haitian human rights defender Pascale Solages and international lawyer Sasha Filippovva share a deep-dive look into how Haitian women are being systemically excluded, or tokenized, by Haiti's political leadership, with support from the international community. Read more.
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USAID contractor Alexander Smith resigned when his presentation on maternal and child health in Gaza was redacted by senior US officials. In this webinar with Doctors Against Genocide, he gives that presentation to a public audience. Watch now.
- Since 9/11, 24% of women in the US armed services, and 1.9% of men in the US armed services, have experienced sexual assault. This independent estimate is more than 2.5x higher than official Pentagon estimates report. Read more.
- To decolonize feminist foreign policy and pursue foreign policies that are feminist in practice (not just in name), African feminist movements must be centered in what has been an alarmingly Euro-centrist policy debate. Read more.
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In Israel, an intelligence unit catfishes queer Palestinians on dating platforms like Grindr to solicit incriminating information and blackmail them into becoming informants. A new report from investigative journalist Theia Chatelle, building on past reports from Vice and Buzzfeed News, details how the IDF targets queer Palestinians. Read more.
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NEW: H.R.9649: UNRWA Funding Emergency Restoration Act: A bill restoring US funding to UNRWA to support Palestinian refugees and aid delivery in Gaza.
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NEW: S.J.Res. 111-16: Joint Resolutions of Disapproval: A series of resolutions to block several US offensive arms sales to Israel.
H.Res.786: A bill calling for an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Israel and occupied Palestine.
S.2327/H.R.4627: A bill to provide a pathway to security and safety for at-risk Afghan allies.
S.316/H.R.932: A bill to repeal the 1991 and 2002 authorizations for the use of military force against Iraq
- H.R.1471: A bill to impose universal human rights and humanitarian conditions on security cooperation with the United States to stop arming human rights abusers.
H.R.1838: A bill to permanently repeal the Global Gag Rule and ensure foreign organizations are not restricted from receiving US aid if they advocate for abortion rights or offer abortion counseling, referrals, or services.
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H.R.1369: A bill to pursue meaningful diplomatic engagement with North Korea and South Korea for a binding peace agreement and formal end to the Korean War.
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MADRE is a global women's human rights organization and feminist fund partnering with grassroots groups worldwide to meet urgent needs and create lasting change.
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