A survey of the history of the Palestinian women's movement since the beginning of the previous century illustrates clearly the permanent intersection between feminism and the national agenda. The feminist agenda was expressed through several means such as charitable societies in which women were widely involved.

Towards the beginning of the ninth decade, a feminist identity emerged based on gender equity. The new trend in the women's movement was interpreted through the newly-adopted strategies of women organizations as they started to build an independent Palestinian state following the Oslo Accords. The strategies applied by the women's movement reflected the deep understanding of global feminism concepts expressed in the plan of the 1995 Beijing Conference. These strategies include the following:

For the moment, the Arab revolutions have marginalized the Palestinian issue. For the first time in over half a century, the agenda of the Arab world--both that of governments and the people--is not determined by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but by the social and political difficulties they are facing: poverty, economic development and democracy. And when the Palestinian issue is marginalized, the Gaza Strip is pushed to the margins of the margins.

Human rights campaigners are celebrating after the West London Waste Authority ('WLWA') excluded French multinational Veolia from a £485 million contract covering 1.4 million inhabitants of the London boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Richmond-upon-Thames, for treatment of residual domestic waste.

According to Maan News Agency, Zakaria Daoud Issa, 43, died on Monday in the West Bank. Daoud, who was arrested by Israeli authorities in 2003 under charges of being an active Hamas member, spent eight years as a political prisoner in Israeli jails. He was released in August due to his poor health and his death raises questions about the medical care Palestinians receive in Israeli prisons.