1 march 2024, where are all the women ?

Israel's war cabinet is 5 men and no women. The security cabinet is 13 men and one woman, and its bloated cabinet 30 men and 7 women. Of the 64 coalition MKs elected, just 9 were women. The Palestinian Authority is even worse, with Abbas (prior to the March 24 changes) turning to 22 other men and just three women on the Council of Ministers. A brief survey of key relevant international organisations' leaders and deeply-involved foreign ministers shows an almost clean sweep of males. This matters: such evidence as there is suggests conflicts are more likely to be resolved and remain peaceful if women are involved. UN Resolution 1325 in 2000 recognised this, urging increased representation at all decision-making levels in conflict resolution. We have abysmally failed, with women in the 30 years to 2019 constituting just 13% of negotiators, and 6% of mediators and signatories in major peace processes. Seven in ten had none at all - just like the recent drawn-out round of Israel, Hamas, US, Egypt, Qatar negotiations in Paris: all men. In the World Economic Forum's gender equality index, the Middle East scores worst of all areas, and political empowerment of all categories, making for just 1 in ten women compared to men. It is very hard not to correlate this directly with the disastrous political situation in the region. Whilst the position of both Netanyahu and Abbas is precarious, there are no women at all in the frame to replace them. Indeed, not one single political party in Israel or Palestine is headed by a woman. This is not a second order issue, it may be the most important and least-discussed element of the conflict. A very big change is very much overdue, and we are all suffering from it.