Child welfare watchdog: Stop making excuses for abusive parents

New figures show that 41,091 children are being supervised after abuse - 83 percent by family members.

By RUTH EGLASH
kadman 224 (photo credit: )
kadman 224
(photo credit: )
We must stop making excuses for parents who murder, abuse or neglect their children, Dr. Yitzhak Kadman, director of the National Council for the Child, said during an emergency hearing of the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women on Wednesday. These people are human beings like anyone else and they have to take responsibility for their own actions, he said. The session was one of two Knesset Committee meetings - the other being a joint session of the Knesset Internal Affairs and Environment Committee and the Rights of the Child - that took place Wednesday to discuss a reported rise in child abuse cases and the recent spate of children murdered by their parents. New figures presented by the National Council for the Child, a non-profit organization that lobbies for children's rights, showed that 41,091 children are currently under the supervision of child welfare protection officers, who are usually only called into action after evidence of severe abuse is found. Eighty-three percent of those cases show abuse from within the family. "It was not the media that killed these children, it was not the medication the mothers were taking, it was not the social services or the police or the community in general," Kadman told the women's committee, which is chaired by Israel Beitenu MK Lia Shemtov. "It was the parents that killed them, and we must stop making excuses for them." "Just because someone has a difficult life, that is not an excuse to kill their child," continued Kadman, criticizing police statistics - also presented in the meeting - which he said downplayed the phenomenon. According to the police, nine murders of children by their parents or siblings have occurred over the past five years, three within the last few months. Kadman argued, however, that the real figures were much higher, roughly five or six a year, but that parents were not always found guilty of the murders after citing outside influences. He urged that the state establish a committee whose job would be to investigate all child deaths in greater depth. In the Internal Affairs and Environment/Rights of the Child Committee meeting, Welfare and Social Services Minister Isaac Herzog echoed Kadman's words, pointing out that the onus was on the parents "who chose to hurt their children." He added, however, that it was still the responsibility of the authorities to do what they could to prevent such crimes against children from taking place. "It is a great disappointment that in a modern society such as ours, these incidents take place," Herzog told those gathered. "In Israeli culture there is an inherent respect for children and family structures. These cases hurt the very fabric of our society." All committee chairpeople - MK Ophir Paz-Pines (Labor), who heads the Internal Affairs and Environment Committee, MK Nadia Hilu (Labor), chair of the Rights of the Child Committee - resolved not to let this issue be quickly forgotten. Shemtov - who asked those present in her meeting to hold a minute's silence for the murdered children - blamed the apathy of the government and society for allowing such horrors to take place. She called on the various government offices - Welfare and Social Services, Education, Health and Housing and Construction, as well as the Israel Police - to coordinate their activities and share information in an effort to reduce child abuse and prevent more murders. Shemtov also said she would request that the treasury reverse a recent decision to cut six percent of the Welfare and Social Services Ministry's budget in 2009. In late July, social workers in Netanya and the National Council of the Child were alerted to the disappearance of Rose Pizem when the girl's great-grandmother reported her missing and that she suspected her son, Ronnie Ron, of murdering the four-year-old. Police are still searching for clues as to what happened to the little girl. A month later, in two separate incidents, two mothers admitted to murdering their four-year-old sons by drowning them. Both women are currently undergoing psychiatric evaluation.