Israel: Women Protest Against Domestic Violence
Now everyone is aware: the lockdown, which aims to reverse epidemic growth, has taken a toll on women worldwide. In Israel, the blow was especially painful. Each year, about 20 women are murdered in the tiny country of 9 million residents due to so-called "domestic violence", which is in fact violence against women.
Usually, the murderers are the partners, and sometimes also the fathers and brothers. This year, 12 women were murdered in just five months, nine of them since the lockdown began. In response to that, women's protests and rallies broke out. These demonstrations are a tradition in Israel and sometimes occur immediately after a new victim loses her life. This time, too, the women took advantage of the right to demonstrate, among the few freedoms that remained under the lockdown conditions. The protesters were holding signs, pouring red paint on the road, and shouting. In one of them, the activists projected the victims' names on the walls of the government building.
It is clear to all of us that the danger of violence increased during the lockdown, but it is also clear that COVID -19 did not create a new phenomenon. Violence has always been there, and its causes are deeply rooted in the ills of society. Here are three of them:
Lack of budget. The program to combat violence against women was budgeted many years ago, but the budget has not passed. Thus, NIS 20 million (approximately £ 4,600,000) allocated in early 2019 to the National Program to Combat Domestic Violence against Women did not eventually reach the Ministry of Welfare.
Lack of prison rehabilitation programs for violent men. Dr Karen Guetta, a clinical criminologist and lecturer at Bar Ilan University who worked with the prisoner rehabilitation authority, sees this as a significant danger. In Israel, a man who beat his wife for years might receive a relatively minor penalty if he has not been convicted of any prior offences. In many cases, and the absence of a duty of psychological treatment in Israeli prisons, he will eventually be released from jail and return home. Even if he is still a danger to his wife, he will not yet be examined. "In the jail, he internalizes all the codes of survival through violence, which increases his perception of his victimhood," says Dr Guetta. "This man does not sit in his cell and say 'Oh my gosh, I will stop being violent to my spouse.' On the contrary, he is even angrier with her because he is in prison, which makes him a more dangerous person. Such a man gets out of jail like a lion that is released from the cage." Indeed, two out of 12 murderers this year were recently released from prisons, serving their sentences for violent offences against the same wife they murdered.
Lack of access to resources. Women lack both financial and social capital, making it more difficult for them to escape violence. Of the 12 women killed this year, nine belonged to marginalized minority groups: Arabs and immigrants. The indifferent voices cling to this fact to claim that the problem is insignificant. "We have violent minority groups," they say, "those people should solve their cultural problem. Israeli society is not violent towards women as a whole”. However, these women's murders may have more economic reasons than cultural ones. Arab and migrant women are poorer and have no parents with a spacious apartment to escape from a violent spouse. One of the murders, Tatiana Chaikin, a 50-year-old immigrant, had no family at all in the country. When her criminal husband was released from prison, the mayor called her and asked her whether she was all right. He did not ask whether Tatiana needed public housing to stay away from her offender spouse. A short time later, the ex-prisoner murdered his wife. Another woman, a 19-year-old Zamzam Mahamid, suffered from severe domestic violence as a child. Two years ago, she escaped her family and moved to another city. Following the Corona crisis, the teenager lost her livelihood and agreed to return to her parents' home. She was murdered in a targeted shooting from a passing vehicle.
Is there hope for change in this bloodbath? Meanwhile, the wave of protests has been partially successful: the governmental budget, which has been delayed for two years, has finally been transferred to the Ministry of Social Affairs. “The Women's Lobby”, one of the most significant feminist organizations in Israel, said: "We are happy about this important step, for so many women and children who live in the shadow of daily and difficult violence. But while government offices are playing a monopoly, women are murdered here [....] The government has to ensure that these funds are used to save lives. This is only a first step, and much greater resources are required, as well as a clear commitment to the direct action. At least NIS 100 million budget must be earmarked to promote the national program to combat violence against women."
On June 1st, the big women's march will be held in Tel Aviv. The parade, organized by twenty feminist organizations, seeks to convey the message that violence against women is unacceptable. Neither the heat nor the virus will stop us.