In Gaza, Hana al-Tarazi has spent years as a lawyer working on cases that turn on the details of both civil law and Islamic jurisprudence in courtrooms where women still fight to be heard. These include personal-status disputes that can decide the future of a family; and who keeps the children, who inherits the home or whether a mother can secure financial support after separating from her spouse.
Al-Tarazi’s career is now being pulled into a much larger arena as she has been named the social affairs commissioner on the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, or NCAG, a new technocratic body established at the lowest tier of the United States-led Board of Peace. The board is reportedly meeting for the first time on Feb. 19 in Washington.
Ali Shaath, a civil engineer who was born in Gaza and has worked for the Palestinian Authority, heads the 15-member NCAG, whose participants are all originally from Gaza. Most of them are affiliated with or close to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. The new committee is tasked with administering Gaza under international supervision, focusing on security and infrastructure in the next phase of the US-led 20-point peace plan. The first phase began on Oct. 11 with a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel — regularly violated by the latter — and the return of all hostages, dead or alive as well as releasing Palestinian prisoners.