Palestinian women face discrimination on 3 levels: as members of an underdeveloped minority, as women living in Israel, and as women in Palestinian society. As a result, the social and economic welfare of Palestinian women is severely compromised, from access to education and health services to domestic violence and discrimination in the workplace.

Access to Health Care

Obtaining access to adequate health care is difficult to impossible for many Palestinian women - there are no public hospitals in the Arab sector and in many Palestinian villages and towns no gynecological services are available. Woman must travel long distances to major cities to receive women's health services; a lack of safe roads and societal taboos against traveling alone make these long distances prohibitive for many. Having reached a hospital, women are faced with unaffordable costs and language barriers. In areas of Israel where the economic and social situation is particularly trying for Palestinian citizens, such as the Negev and the unrecognized villages, women often bear the brunt of the difficulties. Poor living conditions often results in miscarriages or conditions such as urinary tract infections. Two out of three Bedouin women, for example, do not receive any prenatal care; the Arab Bedouin infant mortality rate is nearly 3 times that of Jews in the Negev.

Access to Education

All Palestinian Youth are subjected to an educational system which is biased against them in terms of curriculum and access. Palestinian girls must also contend with gender-based discrimination. The Ministry of Education, for example, has tried to reduce gender stereotypes in the texts and curriculum of Jewish schools but has ignored the problem in Arab schools.

Personal Status Laws

Personal status laws are central to the lives of Palestinian women and have a direct impact on their welfare. In matters of personal status, Christian and Muslim women's access to the civil court system is restricted, despite its ready availability to Jewish and Druze women. They must therefore turn to the religious courts which are prone to discrimination in matters such as child marriage, divorce and custody cases.

Opposing perspectives regarding this situation pose a dilemma for Palestinians. <those who advocate for State-wide, unrestricted access to civil courts see this access as a fundamental individual right. Others argue that the strengthening of existing Palestinian institutions is a vital component of the struggle for collective rights. Most, however, find Israel's "respect for Palestinian Culture" in the private sphere hypocritical when viewed in light of the State's disregard for Palestinian culture in nearly every other aspect of life.

Domestic Violence and State Negligence

Domestic violence is rampant throughout Israeli society as a whole, and Palestinian women also suffer from this form of abuse. Recent research has shown that 25% of Palestinian women are physically abused at least once in their lives.

Exacerbating the problem of domestic violence is the negligent response of the State of Israel to the plight of Palestinian women victims. Minimal funds are allocated to deal with violence against Palestinian women. Only 12 government-funded shelters for married women exist in Israel, and of these only 2 are for Arab women. In addition, there is very little guidance or training available to the police on how to deal appropriately with domestic and sexual abuse. Often, the police completely disregard violations of women's rights, using the misplaced excuse of "cultural relativity" as their justification.

Palestinian Woman in the Labor Force

Less than 20 % of Palestinian women work outside of the home; for those who do, challenges include:

• Few opportunities: the lack of government funding for Arab areas in Israel means there are very few employment opportunities for Palestinian women. Additionally, there is no existing governmental framework to promote professional training for Palestinian women.
  
• Wage Discrepancies: Palestinian women earn 50% of what Jewish women earn, who in turn earn 70% of what Jewish men earn. The majority of working Palestinian women earn less than the national minimum wage.
  
• Harassment: 35 % of Palestinian women working in Nazareth reported incidences of harassment in the workplace in a 1998 survey.