Dr. Muhammad Akram Zaheer
The fluid way in which Palestinian women devise and revise strategies and narratives of resilience reflects a dynamic responsiveness to both local and international events, forces, and discourses. These women navigate a complex socio-political landscape, responding to the shifting political realities of occupation, economic hardship, and the growing influence of international institutions in their daily lives. The contemporary, post-Oslo, neoliberal, fragmented, NGO-ized West Bank presents a unique set of challenges that require Palestinian women to adopt innovative and adaptive resistance strategies. Given this evolving context, Palestinian women have increasingly chosen incrementally transformative tactics as a means of navigating and countering both structural and direct forms of oppression. Their desire to identify a resistance strategy that meets three crucial criteria commanding local legitimacy, possessing the potential to produce radical outcomes, and remaining feasible in a context of gendered violence, patriarchal social norms, and marginalization illustrates the depth of their political engagement and strategic acumen.
Palestinian women’s strategies of resistance, while sometimes appearing vague and limited in scope, resonate deeply within their communities due to their compatibility with local political ethics and the social limitations imposed on their activism. The seemingly modest nature of these tactics does not indicate a lack of ambition or radical potential. Rather, they reflect an understanding of the necessity for sustainable, culturally rooted, and context-sensitive approaches to resistance. In an environment where open confrontation with the Israeli occupation is fraught with danger and where patriarchal norms continue to shape women’s roles in political life, Palestinian women have strategically crafted forms of activism that subtly challenge and erode these constraints over time. This approach, often termed “transformative incrementalism,” allows women to make gradual yet profound contributions to their communities and to the broader project of national liberation. By emphasizing the value of small, cumulative acts of resistance, this strategy offers a means of preserving political agency in an era characterized by fragmentation and disillusionment.A crucial aspect of transformative incrementalism is its function as both a demonstration and a source of resilience for Palestinian women. The process of engaging in resistance even in forms that appear non-confrontational or limited enables women to assert their agency and maintain their connection to the broader struggle for self-determination. Many women repeatedly affirm the significance of feeling that they are contributing to their communities and the larger liberation movement. This contribution is not merely symbolic; it provides a tangible sense of purpose and empowerment that counteracts the disempowering effects of occupation and socio-political marginalization. The meaning derived from participation in transformative resistance serves as a crucial psychological and emotional resource, reinforcing women’s commitment to their struggle despite the obstacles they face.Furthermore, transformative incrementalism presents an important means of subverting the constraints of a ‘resilience’ framework championed by international NGOs. In recent years, the development sector has increasingly co-opted radical concepts, repackaging them in ways that align with neoliberal ideologies and governance models. Resilience, once understood as a collective capacity for resistance and endurance, has been redefined within NGO and development discourse to emphasize individual adaptation and coping mechanisms. By promoting a neoliberalized version of resilience, international organizations present Palestinians with a model of survival that focuses on personal psychological fortitude and medical intervention rather than collective political action. This reframing subtly shifts the responsibility for overcoming political violence from structural change to individual perseverance, undermining the legitimacy of broader resistance efforts.In this context, Palestinian women’s adoption of transformative incrementalism represents a critical intervention. By redefining resilience on their own terms, they challenge the passive, depoliticized version advocated by international organizations and reassert the radical ethos of earlier Palestinian resistance movements. Their approach to resilience is not about mere survival or psychological adjustment; rather, it is about fostering a foundation for sustained resistance that addresses both immediate and long-term challenges. Unlike the resilience framework promoted by NGOs, which encourages Palestinians to ‘bounce back’ by accepting their circumstances as an immutable reality, transformative incrementalism insists on the possibility of change even if that change is slow and difficult to achieve.Despite the radical potential embedded in transformative incrementalism, it remains vulnerable to the creeping effects of NGO-ization. Over the past few decades, international funding and institutional partnerships have played an increasingly significant role in shaping Palestinian activism, often steering movements away from grassroots organizing and toward professionalized, donor-driven initiatives. This shift has, at times, led to a dilution of radical politics and a reliance on frameworks that prioritize bureaucratic compliance over genuine political engagement. Palestinian women’s resistance is not immune to these pressures. While transformative incrementalism offers a promising alternative to co-opted notions of resilience, it must constantly navigate the risks associated with NGO-ization, ensuring that it remains rooted in local political aspirations rather than donor agendas.Nevertheless, Palestinian women’s determination to begin a transformative process that starts from society’s foundations provides greater prospects of sustainability and grassroots legitimacy. By prioritizing community engagement, cultural continuity, and locally driven initiatives, women’s resistance efforts foster a deeper and more enduring form of resilience one that is less susceptible to external manipulation. This grassroots orientation not only enhances the legitimacy of their strategies but also increases the likelihood of their long-term impact. By reclaiming mobilizing concepts and ideas from the development sector’s attempts at depoliticization, Palestinian women assert their right to define their own modes of resistance and resilience.Moreover, transformative incrementalism allows for the construction of alternative social and political structures that challenge both occupation and internal systems of oppression. By engaging in forms of activism that are embedded in everyday life such as community education, economic empowerment projects, and grassroots organizing Palestinian women are able to create spaces of resistance that are both practical and radical. These initiatives contribute to the broader liberation movement by building the capacity for sustained resistance at the societal level, ensuring that political struggle is not confined to moments of crisis but remains an ongoing, lived reality.
Palestinian women’s engagement in transformative incrementalism represents a nuanced and strategic approach to resistance that is both adaptive and deeply rooted in local political ethics. By choosing incrementally transformative tactics, they navigate the complexities of the contemporary Palestinian context, balancing the need for local legitimacy, radical potential, and feasibility. Their approach challenges the depoliticized resilience framework promoted by international NGOs, reclaiming the concept of resilience as a tool for collective empowerment rather than individual adaptation. Despite the challenges posed by NGO-ization and external pressures, Palestinian women’s commitment to grassroots organizing and community-driven change offers a model of resistance that is both sustainable and politically significant. Through transformative incrementalism, they assert their agency, challenge structural injustices, and contribute to the ongoing struggle for national liberation in ways that are both innovative and deeply rooted in historical traditions of resistance.
