https://tankie.tube/videos/watch/3293e97c-f040-4faa-abfe-7bc807085fa0 How Palestinian women and their families played central roles in the first Palestinian uprising of the late 1980s. During the first Palestinian Intifada – or uprising in the occupied territories – courageous female activists took a full part in the movement, building self-sufficiency for Palestinians under Israeli occupation and collectively blazing a trail of resistance. This film tells the story of Naila Ayesh, a student organiser in Gaza at a time when nearly every political activity was punishable by the Israelis. “Men were the main targets, and we felt women would face less scrutiny. So women took on more significant roles. When I got out of college, I saw more and more women joining the resistance against the occupation,” Ayesh says. “I was drawn to young people from the Democratic Front and I’d participate in their activities. I knew that joining the struggle was a big risk.” Ayesh spent years building the infrastructure for economic independence for women. She was pregnant when she was first arrested in 1986 and sent to Maskubiya prison in Jerusalem. “I was interrogated for two weeks. I was tied to the chair in a very uncomfortable way for days. I had already told them that I was newly pregnant. They told me it didn’t make a difference to them – woman, man, pregnant or not, to them, they said, I was a saboteur. I started bleeding,” Ayesh says. In October 1988, Ayesh was transferred to Telmond prison for female political prisoners, leaving behind her young baby who was still breastfeeding. Ayesh was held without charges for several months. Soon after she was sent to Telmond, however, the Israeli authorities allowed her baby son to join her there. “My son was the only child in prison. I saw so much pain in the eyes of the other female prisoners. They all had children,” Ayesh says. She adds: “Our relationship inside the prison was really strong, like sisters. If we didn’t build those ties, we’d lose our humanity. Our strength was our unity.” Ayesh and dozens of other women continued their activism and started building parallel institutions to challenge the Israeli military’s control of Palestinian life. They spearheaded underground classrooms to replace schools shut down by the army, citizen-run health clinics to treat those with no access to hospitals; and “victory gardens” to break the reliance on Israeli agriculture. “Everyone took part in the struggle, without exception. Even though it was dangerous, since Israeli soldiers were everywhere. We felt we were doing something important. We were convinced this uprising would succeed.” Thu, 09 Apr 2026 08:54:27 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://tankie.tube https://tankie.tube/lazy-static/avatars/3ba3ff73-a8b6-49c9-add8-9653ef090c7f.webp https://tankie.tube/videos/watch/3293e97c-f040-4faa-abfe-7bc807085fa0 All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://tankie.tube/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.