Special Knesset event marks International Women’s Day

Stormy committee session ends prematurely over funding fight against domestic violence short

The Knesset on Tuesday held a special conference to mark International Women’s Day, under the title “Women’s Contributions in the Swords of Iron War.”

Knesset Speaker MK Amir Ohana (Likud) said at the conference, held under the auspices of the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality, that he expects the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to convene and determine “immediately and unequivocally” that Hamas is a terrorist organization, based on a UN report published on Monday that found “convincing information” that Hamas had committed sexual violence against Israeli women during the October 7 massacre and its aftermath.

Committee chairwoman MK Pnina Tamano-Shata (National Unity) said that, after October 7, International Women’s Day would never be the same.

“It shocked our world forever, rocked the foundations of our secure existence in our country,” she said, adding that “the pictures of mothers shielding infants and children with guns pointed at them, is a memory that will never fade.”

Mia Regev, who was taken captive by Hamas on October 7 and released later in a hostage trade, played a recording of a telephone conversation with her father as she was being taken captive. Regev said that she “knew what it was like to be a woman there,” where “at any moment they can come and murder your soul, [which is] more terrifying than death itself,” and called for their release before it was “too late.”

Earlier on Tuesday, a separate debate was held in the Knesset National Security Committee over the National Security Ministry’s decision to sever ties with the Michal Sela Forum, a forum that fights against domestic violence. Knesset members from the opposition claimed that the decision to sever ties was a political decision after the Forum argued that National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s policy of increasing gun distribution could lead to increased domestic violence.

Committee chairman MK Zvika Fogel and MK Limor Son-Harmelech, both from Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) Party, defended the decision, and Fogel cut the meeting short following incessant shouting and disruptions.

Committee member MK Merav Ben-Ari (Yesh Atid) accused Harmelech of falsely accusing the Forum of “caring only for a small number of women” and of overspending on public relations and “populist acts.” Ben-Ari also accused Ben-Gvir aide David Bavli of speaking in a “derogatory and disgraceful manner,” and criticized Fogel for cutting the discussion short “without giving a proper response to the distress and danger.”

Fogel later wrote on social media, “I will not give a hand to disgracing the Knesset and turning an important discussion on preventing domestic violence in general and against women in particular into a Turkish film.”