Domestic violence against women in Israel rises 315% in 2020

The number of cases of domestic violence against women in Israel jumped sharply from 688 in 2019 to 2,853 in 2020, a 315 per cent spike, the Women’s International Zionist Organisation (WIZO) said on Sunday.

Ynet News said WIZO’s annual report collected data from government ministries, the State Comptroller’s office, Israel Police and the Israel Prison Service.

It showed that 26 women were murdered in Israel in 2020, compared to 17 in 2019; 13 at the hands of their partners, compared to five in 2019. Four of the 13 had previously filed complaints with police before they were murdered.

The report also found that 31.2 per cent of the suspected murderers were already known to police.

Domestic violence hotline 118 also experienced a large surge in calls up from 2,286 in 2019 to 5,866 the following year, WIZO found.

“Everywhere you look, it’s as if someone has lit a fire,” Rivka Neumann, director of WIZO’s Division for the Advancement of Women, told the Media Line. “During [COVID-19] lockdowns women and children found themselves stuck inside homes with an abusive person.”

“There was no way for them to go outside and they couldn’t go to school or work,” Neumann said. “This combination of locking people indoors and being [in close proximity] to a violent man resulted in a rise in domestic violence cases.”

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