Murder of mother sparks soul searching over status of Palestinian women in Israel

Palestinian citizens of Israel are calling for more police and social services in their neglected neighbourhoods following the death of 32-year-old Duaa Abu-Sharkh.

Majeda Abu-Sharkh left, holds a picture of her murdered daughter as she poses for a photograph with her niece Alaa Khalili in Lod, central Israel. Dan Balilty/AP Photo

LOD // After years of abuse and death threats, Duaa Abu-Sharkh had finally divorced her husband, even agreeing to give up custody of her four young children and family property to escape his violent grip.

Then, one night in late September, as the 32-year-old mother was dropping off her children after a rare visit, a masked gunman dragged her from her car and shot her in the head before their eyes.

Her killing is the latest in a string of murders of Palestinian women living in Israel that are believed to have been carried out by relatives. But after years of silence, the recent murder has sparked soul searching in the community and unprecedented demonstrations against the mistreatment of women.

Palestinian activists say the vast majority of the killings are the result of rampant spousal abuse that has been ignored by Israeli police.

Traumatised by the recent death of Abu-Sharkh and other women in their communities, Palestinians, who are deeply suspicious of the Israeli authorities, are now calling for more police and social services in their neglected neighbourhoods.

Although Palestinian women make up just a fifth of the population in Israel, they represent half of the women killed there each year.

And half of those women are killed in the Palestinian neighbourhoods of Ramle and Lod, cities just outside of Tel Aviv where several large clans involved in organised crime have made weapons easily accessible and allowed violence, particularly toward women, to go unchecked for years.

“Women in Arab society have a lower status. So, when there is violence, who pays the price? Women,” said Samah Salaime, a social worker who founded the Arab Women in the Centre organisation to aid victims in the Lod area.

She said Israeli authorities treat the oppression of women as a value in Arab society: “They deal with us as if the blood of the Arab woman is cheaper.”

But things are starting to change.

Abu-Sharkh’s killing, and that of another divorced mother of four in Jaffa a month later, spurred a series of street protests that drew hundreds of women and men, both Palestinians and Jewish Israelis. A parliamentary committee heard testimony from Palestinian women and the national police chief said the level of violence was “unacceptable,” and vowed to battle it.

Palestinian citizens of Israel are generally poorer than their Jewish counterparts and suffer from discrimination and substandard public services. They often accuse the police of being indifferent to Palestinian crime, so long as Jews are not harmed.

Earlier this year, after a deadly shooting in Tel Aviv and a subsequent week-long manhunt for the Palestinian shooter, Israel launched a campaign to collect illegal arms in Palestinian towns. Later, it promoted a Palestinian police officer to deputy commissioner, making him the highest-ranking Muslim to ever serve in the Israeli police force, and putting him in charge of the new law and order drive in Palestinian communities.

The Israeli police force is currently recruiting an additional 1,500 Palestinian officers and holding outreach programmes to strengthen its ties to the Palestinian community.

Palestinian politician Aida Touma-Sliman, who heads the Israeli parliamentary committee on the status of women and gender equality, said that wasn’t enough. She noted that 15 women have been killed in the Ramle-Lod area in the past year, with only three men charged.

“What kind of message is given to the population and what kind of message is given to the perpetrators?” she asked. “You can kill and you will still go on free. And for the women it is a clear message from the police that nobody can protect you.”

In Abu-Sharkh’s case, the writing was on the wall. Her ex-husband, who had links to local criminal gangs, would beat her regularly, once breaking her arm and nose, and strangle her until she turned blue, said her mother, Majeda Abu-Sharkh. When they complained to police, the ex-husband threatened to kill Abu-Sharkh and gunmen opened fire at her family’s home.

Police briefly detained him after her killing but released him for lack of evidence.

“If it was a Jewish woman, the police would have found her killer in two hours,” Majeda Abu-Sharkh said, clutching pictures of her dead daughter. “Thank God, it is all over with now. She has gone to God and it is better for her there. She is resting.”

* Associated Press