"I feel boxed-in; if I don't get what I deserve, I will kill her and the child." This is what a man repeatedly said before he followed through on his threats and fatally stabbed his wife at home. Their 10-year-old boy witnessed the event.
The woman was subject to emotional and economic abuse and feared calling the police, and this week the legal process ended at the Supreme Court, when the man's appeal of his sentence was denied. The case ended with a 10-year-old boy who lost his mother and who will be traumatized for the rest of his life. Unfortunately, this is not a one-off case. So far in 2018, 24 women and girls have lost their lives because of domestic violence.
Such murders are usually the culmination of a period during which the women are subject to physical, psychological and economic abuse. Their killing is the most obvious example of gender inequality; it is the way some men react to the loss of control over women.
In fact, in 2018, more people have been killed by domestic violence than by terrorism. Some are going to blame law enforcement for not doing its job; others say there is a need for harsher sentencing and laws. There are those who believe that the ongoing conflict with the Arabs has prevented real gender equality; others claim that the convoluted divorce laws in Israel are to blame, and yet others say that it is a matter of investing more public resources. It seems that everyone is right.
The killing of women is a social phenomenon and the first step in dealing with it is recognizing its existence and understanding its entirety.
Cabinet Resolution 2331 from December 2014 stipulated that personal safety is part and parcel of gender equality and called on government agencies to implement this. But the 250 million shekels ($67,000,000) that were promised were never actually transferred.
A lot of people talk about the need to bolster Israel's national strength. Undermining the personal safety of women is a critical blow in this strength. Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan's decision to make it easier for people to obtain a firearm license only shows that he has not fully understood what women's personal safety means. It also shows that he does not have a policy to secure the personal safety of women and children in Israel.
As a former judge, I know what the laws can and can't do; when it comes to such a complex situation, they can only do so much. It is incumbent upon the various agencies to become more professional and collaborate. We also need more preventive measures and efforts to detect problems early on, as well as gender education that begins during early childhood. But above all, we need more resources, without which there will be no change.
Tuesday's women's strike in Israel calls for an end to violence, to terrorism. The murdering of women is not a predestined fate.
