NO MORE ABUSE
Some 2,000 demonstrators marched to protest violence against women, at an annual rally on Sunday night held in Tel Aviv to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
Participants, wearing pink hats as a symbol of protest against violence against women, marched from Rabin Square to the Cinematheque Plaza where the rally took place.
The hats were in the style of the Pussy hat Project hats that were launched on November 2016 to mark the Women’s March on Washington.
Protesters chanted “We won’t be silent anymore,” “No means no,” and “We are not transparent – women make revolutions.”
Speaking at the rally, Miriam Scheller, director of the Tel Aviv Assistance Center, said: “We call for an end to the reality in which more and more women are raising their voices, but the authorities refuse to listen.”
She said they will continue to fight to change a reality in which nine out of 10 rape cases are closed without an indictment; in which girls who have been assaulted are forced to leave school; and in which sexual offenses are treated as gossip – “a reality in which they talk about security, but that doesn’t include our security. We will continue to work to change the priorities until we put an end to rape culture,” she said.
Event organizers noted than one of the 22 women murdered this year was killed just last week, the same week the coalition voted against a bill to set up a parliamentary committee of inquiry into the phenomenon of murder of women in Israel.
The rejection of the bill was raised during a visit made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, to a battered women’s shelter earlier Sunday. During their meeting, one of the women pointed out that Netanyahu opposed the bill, after he remarked that he hadn’t followed it. Netanyahu responded by saying the bill probably didn’t pass because it was an opposition bill.
Sara Netanyahu subsequently scolded her husband by saying, “This really shouldn’t be a matter of coalition and opposition. This is everyone’s shared issue.”
In a statement released following the meeting, the prime minister said: “When talking with these women I discovered something that amazed me. Woman after woman after woman – I discovered that we are making great efforts, and there will be even greater efforts, to treat these women in the shelters and afterwards... but I discovered that we are doing almost nothing to those who are generating this crime. It’s like dealing with terror, and this is terror for all intents and purposes, but not dealing with the terrorists.”
The event was organized by several women’s organizations including the Tel Aviv Women’s Crisis Support Center; the Israel Women’s Network; the Feminine Spirit; Na’amat and the Women’s Counseling Center; and was supported by the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality.