There are those who accuse the women's lobby of making "political capital" on the backs of the murdered women and of falsely accusing the government. This is what Yaron Doron argued in this column.
As the spokesperson for the Women's Lobby in Israel, I am the one who issues the "harsh" statements to the media about the murder of women, and unfortunately in recent months I have been forced to formulate more of them, scope that I never imagined we would reach in 2023. Sixteen women have been murdered in Israel since the beginning of the year – twice as many as during the same period last year.
Doron wrote about the murder of the late Baraa Masarwa: "Without examining the details of the difficult case, they [the women's organizations] accused the government of murder." Baraa was murdered by her husband, along with her children, Amir and Adam. We read a lot about the case, as we read and check every case that comes to us. The Women's Caucus maintains an updated and organized murder page, with details about each woman murdered. We are the only ones who conduct orderly monitoring. No government agency carries out such surveillance on its own.
We read that her partner was not known to the authorities. We read about the family's astonishment and the amazement of Mayor Taybeh, who said that the family was "respectable and wealthy." We read that there were no red flags, and that the terrible murder happened the day after the family returned from vacation. And with all the information we have, we still point the finger at the government.
The state is to blame for the fact that many women live under violence and are not known to the authorities – not the women who did not go to complain, not the family who did not see signs. Alongside severe punishment and rehabilitation systems for violent men, the state is responsible for providing women living in the cycle of violence with an envelope that will enable them to get out of it.
Today a woman knows that if she files a complaint against her partner, there is no one to protect her. At best, she'll get a protection order, an empty piece of paper to take home and write a grocery list on. This page cannot alert her that she is in danger. So why should a woman go and complain if she knows that after the complaint she is left alone in the battle?
It is the government that repeatedly decides to deny women this protective envelope. Two months ago, it brought down the Electronic Monitoring Law, which was intended to allow the use of a bracelet that monitors the location of men and women and warns of a threat. This is a life-saving law that will encourage women to turn to the authorities and allow them to escape the cycle of violence.
"The time has come for women's organizations to respect the murdered women and not try to rake in political capital on them," it said. The time has come for the government to respect the murdered and do everything in its power to prevent the next murder. After all, it pledged to bring personal security to every citizen of the country. Hundreds of thousands of women live under violence, and most of them dare not go to the authorities. They keep the suffering they experience to themselves, living alone in a harsh reality.
Instead of criticizing the women's organizations, which work day and night to bring relief to these women, I suggest you visit a shelter for women and children and hear how difficult it is to complain today, how scary it is to wake up every morning knowing that it might be your last day, and how no one in the government is listening to you.
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