The scourge of domestic violence

In the past decade, in Israel, approximately 200 women were murdered by their spouses or other close family members. That’s 200 too many.

By JPOST EDITORIAL
AN ACTIVIST holds a banner during a march protesting domestic violence against women, in Beirut on March 8, 2014, International Women’s Day. (photo credit: JAMAL SAIDI/ REUTERS)
AN ACTIVIST holds a banner during a march protesting domestic violence against women, in Beirut on March 8, 2014, International Women’s Day.
(photo credit: JAMAL SAIDI/ REUTERS)
The headlines and the gruesome details are becoming too much to take: women in Israel are being murdered by their husbands, or boyfriends, in increasing numbers and it doesn’t appear as if anybody is doing much to remedy the dreadful situation.
The latest examples on Monday are no more, or less, horrific than the countless cases of domestic violence that preceded them.
In the first, the lifeless body of Najah Mansoor, 35, a mother of four, was found in her Kiryat Haim apartment after she had been stabbed several times. Her husband was arrested.
A few hours later in Beersheba, police found the body of 67-year-old Irina Graribnov after she had apparently been struck over the head. Her spouse was arrested as he stood on the roof of the couple’s apartment building, threatening to kill himself. The remands of the respective murder suspects were extended on Tuesday.
According to Hebrew media reports, the two victims were the 16th and 17th women to be murdered in Israel this year by someone known to them. This compares to 13 women who were killed last year in similar circumstances. In 2018, the statistic stood at an astounding 25.
In the past decade, in Israel, approximately 200 women were murdered by their spouses or other close family members. That’s 200 too many.
Fearing for their safety, many of those women filed complaints with the police before they were murdered. In 2017, the government allocated NIS 50 million for a domestic violence prevention program, but much of that money has not been transferred to the proper places due to frequent changes in government, and because of the unexpected financial burden the coronavirus pandemic has placed on the state’s finances. Indeed, seven months of lockdown or isolated living have significantly increased the pressure-cooker atmosphere some are experiencing.
Police and social services organizations have reported a major rise in domestic violence complaints since the start of the pandemic and it has been blamed for exacerbating tensions as people were confined together by lockdown measures. Na’amat has reported an increase of over 100% of calls to its hotline during April and May, compared to the same period last year.
After a spate of domestic violence events in June, local authority heads across the country wrote a letter to the government demanding that the funds that had been set aside for the domestic violence prevention program be handed over. At that time, the Labor and Social Services Ministry managed to allocate an emergency pot of NIS 20 million to battle domestic violence.
“But to win [the war] we will need to draft the entire government to obtain the necessary resources,” Welfare Minister Itzik Shmuli said at the time.
After Monday’s murders, calls have intensified to fully implement a program to battle domestic violence.
MK Orly Fruman (Yesh Atid-Telem) tweeted: “2 women were added to the statistics today. Women who have paid with their lives for the incompetence of the government in dealing with domestic violence.”
“The implementation of the plan against domestic violence that was approved at the beginning of the year should have happened a long time ago,” she wrote. “Eradication of the phenomenon of violence and murder of women cannot be put off any longer.”
One step that surely could not hurt, and would perhaps do immeasurable good, would be for the government to appoint a new police commander. It has been without a permanent commissioner since December 2018.
Hagit Peer, the chair of Na’amat, added in an N12 interview: “The wave of terrorism against women continues, the writing is on the wall and the government simply does not care. The best evidence for this is the plan to combat domestic violence that was already approved in 2017 by the government and to this day has not been implemented.”
“Around 200,000 women in Israel live with violence – the coronavirus has turned their homes into prisons, the economic and psychological pressures are turning it into a life-threatening situation. We are tired of the lip service from elected officials after every such murder – what are you doing to prevent the next murder?”
That is the question that all of us, not just our elected officials, need to address as we face an epidemic that may be different, but is no less deadly.


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