A woman was found dead with signs of foul play in her home in the town center of Pardes Hanna, police said Thursday – the ninth domestic violence death of the year – and women’s groups slammed the government for voting down a law to tag domestic violence abusers. .
According to Hebrew reports, the ex-husband of the 50-year-old woman was detained by police for questioning.
Public broadcaster Kan reported that the woman’s body was found by her 15-year-old daughter.
The identity of the victim was not immediately released.
She was the ninth woman murdered since the beginning of the year, the fifth woman since the beginning of March.
The Israel Women’s Network attacked the government’s decision last week to vote down a law to electronically tag domestic violence offenders again, noting that three women have been murdered by their partners or ex-partners since then.
“Three women have been murdered since that day a week ago when the coalition government voted down the electronic surveillance law and, in one decision, it proved that women’s blood is not worth it. We are not interested in them. Our security is not important to them,” said Hadas Daniely Yelin, head of the organization.
Hagit Pe’er from the women’s group Na’amat noted that the government voted a law that would help fight “terrorism against women”.
“The rejected electronic surveillance law is just one example of a government that is completely ignoring the plight of thousands of women in Israel who are in clear immediate danger,” Pe’er said.
“Women are murdered here every few days and the state doesn’t seem to care,” she said.
The leader of the Opposition party, Merav Michaeli, lamented the suspected murder, saying that the rate of femicide was rising and at the same time, the government was taking steps to harm the rights and safety of women.
“Another woman was killed this morning. Another woman. And another woman. And another woman. And another woman. And another woman. And another woman. And another woman. And another woman – nine women since the beginning of the year,” Michaeli wrote.
“Double the number of any other year in the same period of time. And this government only wants to further damage our personal security. On Saturday night, we go out and demonstrate and protest with all our sales,” she said, referring to the fact that women’s rights – thought to be under further threat from the government’s controversial judicial reform – are now a theme at the protest movement.
A protester supporting women’s rights is dressed in red as a human chain on International Women’s Day, in Tel Aviv on March 8, 2023. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)
Last week at the urging of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, coalition lawmakers voted down a bill that would have mandated an electronic monitoring system to track domestic abusers, drawing the ire of opposition members and others who says the system could help save lives.
The legislation, which would help enforce restraining orders against abusers, fell 54-53 on its preliminary reading in the Knesset, as lawmakers brawled verbally and some were removed from the whole.
Before the vote, members of the opposition cried “shame” on Ben Gvir as he finished a speech urging lawmakers to reject the measure.
The far-right minister has vowed to promote his own version of the legislation, which he claims will go further to balance men’s rights with the needs of vulnerable women.
Itamar Ben Gvir speaking from the Knesset podium on March 22, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Activists have long complained that not enough is done to prevent violence against women in Israel, especially in cases known to the authorities.
According to the Israel Observatory on Femicide, in 2022, “24 women were murdered for being women,” a 50 percent increase over the 16 such murders recorded in 2021. Half of those murders were in the Arab community, which is only 21 .% of the population.
A report released by the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs in November showed that the Ministry received 5,712 complaints about domestic violence between January and October 2022 – a 3.6% increase on the previous year.
Although data on false allegations of domestic violence is scarce, researchers around the world agree that the number of actual assaults far exceeds the number of false claims.
The suspected murder in Pardes Hanna happened just days after 31-year-old Edisi Elbena was stabbed to death in Kiryat Ata by her partner. Neighbors said they heard her being beaten on a daily basis and had called the police in the past.
She was killed three days after 61-year-old Vera Palacinta of Tel Aviv died from head injuries she sustained after being beaten by her partner a few days earlier. Her partner is arrested.
And a week before, Darya Leitel, 31 years old, was found dead in her apartment in Haifa. The woman’s husband, 35, called the police to report that he had murdered his wife, and was placed under arrest.
