The platform for a strike presumably in support of feminism and women’s rights was notable in that it did not limit itself to women’s issues, but also called “for the decolonization of Palestine.”
The statement on “Palestine” is included in a section on “Antiracist and Anti-imperialist Feminism” in the platform for the US affiliate of the International Women’s Strike. There is no mention of the Islamic countries in which honor killings, gender mutilation and suppression of women's freedom are the norm,.
The feminist movement organized events around the world on Wednesday.
It groups solidarity with “Palestine” with other causes, including Black Lives Matter, “the struggle against police brutality and mass incarceration,” and immigrant rights.
“We want to dismantle all walls, from prison walls to border walls, from Mexico to Palestine,” the platform reads.
Critics of the platform included Emily Shire, the politics editor of the women’s news site Bustle. She wrote in a New York Times op-ed published Tuesday that as a Zionist she was “troubled” by the platform’s Israel-bashing.
“I find it troubling that embracing such a view is considered an essential part of an event that is supposed to unite feminists,” she wrote. “I am happy to debate Middle East politics or listen to critiques of Israeli policies. But why should criticism of Israel be key to feminism in 2017?”
Shire also criticized the strike for the leadership position and involvement of Rasmea Odeh, a Palestinian Arab terrorist convicted and sentenced by an Israeli military court in 1970 to life in prison for two bombing attacks, including one in 1969 that murdered two Israelis.
The niece of one of the victims of the 1969 attack also criticized the strike over Odeh’s involvement.
“But, explain how my family is supposed to reconcile the reality that the woman who stripped my uncle of his life is now deemed a hero by many of my fellow Americans. What justification is there for Rasmea Odeh, a woman who killed two people (with the intention of killing more!) to lead a peaceful fight for human rights?” Terry Joffe Benaryeh wrote in an op-ed published last week on Huffington Post.