Meiser Ottman, 27, from Haifa, who was murdered in front of her children, is the latest on a wretched list of eight women in the Arab sector murdered since the beginning of 2021. Only last month Goumana Keisi was murdered in front of her year-old son by her brother, who did not like the fact that she was speaking to a man on the phone. He used a pot to beat her on the head and strangled her to death with a shoelace. These were only two instances in a long list of horrifying cases of femicide in the Arab sector.
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WIZO Director Anita Friedman said after the shocking murder in Haifa that "The murder of Meiser Ottman is a clear example of the direct link between the government's activity and policies and the difficult situation of hundreds of thousands of women in Israel who are trapped in a cycle of violence."
Naamat chairwoman Hagit Peer also sent out a heated text message attacking the government for failure to do anything to address violence against women.
The criticism is justified: a large part of the budget allocated to fight violence against women was never transferred to the relevant institutions, and the court system repeatedly lets the men who perpetrate it off with a slap on the wrist.
But the message sent out by the women's organizations are notably missing one thing: any criticism of the culture of violence against women in the Arab sector. Women's organizations and feminists fighting for justice stick their heads in the sand when it comes to the crimes against Arab women: polygyny, honor killings, domestic violence, and the rest of the evils that are rife in the sector. When it happens among Arabs, it seems almost "legitimate." We've gotten used to it – that's how it is with them. If a Jewish mother of four would be shot to death in front of her children in broad daylight, it would be the main story on the news broadcast. In the Arab sector? We'll make due with a picture of the deceased and a few quotes from her neighbors.
And if anything is said, the blame is directed at the government. The perpetrators of the violence, the background to it, the cultural or religious base from which it springs – all of which are seriously discussed when it comes to violence in the Jewish sector – are suddenly of no interest to anyone when it occurs among Arabs.
The same wilful blindness is seen regarding other sectors of Israeli society, too. The problem of sexual harassment of women in south Tel Aviv is a good example. Even when foreign workers from Thailand complained about harassment and sexual assault by illegal migrants, left-wing feminists were mum. The battle to grant citizenship to the infiltrators is more important to them than the battle for the safety and security of women in the city's south. Some populations are allowed to get away with it.
If Jewish rioters throw a Molotov cocktail at the home of an Arab family in Jaffa, it's the lead item on the news. When all of a sudden, we find out that it was actually an Arab – we try to be tolerant and move on. That's how it is there. It's called the racism of low expectations, and the longer we let it pass in silence, the more Arab women will be killed by their spouses and relatives.
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