Israel is poised to dramatically backslide on women’s rights if the government fails to pass several key pieces of legislation, rights groups have warned.
With all eyes on the controversial judicial reforms that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition is hoping to advance in the coming weeks and which are currently under negotiation, a number of other important bills relating to women’s issues have fallen by the wayside.
Among them is a bill that would have enabled the courts to use electronic tags to monitor domestic violence offenders. The legislation was rejected by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation last month, with far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir vowing to bring it back to the table when a new version that addresses false accusations against men is written.
Tamar Schwartz is CEO of Ruach Nashit, or Women's Spirit, an NGO that helps women survivors of violence and that works with Israeli lawmakers from all sides of the political spectrum.
“We do believe that when it comes to violence and preventing violence there is no Right or Left because you can find victims of domestic violence among left-wing and right-wing voters. There are hardly any female Knesset members or female ministers in the coalition. All in all, ensuring women’s equality is not important for this government.”
Tamar Schwartz
“We do believe that when it comes to violence and preventing violence there is no Right or Left because you can find victims of domestic violence among left-wing and right-wing voters,” Schwartz told The Media Line. “There are hardly any female Knesset members or female ministers in the coalition. All in all, ensuring women’s equality is not important for this government.”
How is Israel in danger of backsliding on women's rights?
For the past eight years, Women’s Spirit has lobbied for legislation – that has yet to pass – which would prevent economic violence against women. Economic violence is defined as any act or behavior that causes economic harm to a person, such as property damage or restricting access to bank funds or other resources.
Speaking in Geneva at a Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on Monday, Schwartz noted that the agreements signed between Netanyahu and his coalition partners include a promise not to join the Istanbul Convention, which features economic abuse as a form of gender-based violence. She recommended that the Israeli government pass “a law that acknowledges and prevents economic abuse, and assists its survivors/victims.”
The UPR is a process that involves a review of the human rights records of all member states of the United Nations. The stated goal is to brief permanent delegations on human rights situations in various countries.
Schwartz believes that the Israeli government has yet to address issues relating to women’s rights because it is solely focused on trying to pass its sweeping judicial reforms.
“I think that the government is in survival mode and doesn’t care about women,” she said, adding that these three laws – protecting women against economic abuse, signing on to the Istanbul Convention, and permitting courts to electronically monitor domestic violence offenders – need to be passed as soon as possible in order to protect women.
The three pieces of legislation are “very simple” and require little funding, Schwartz added.
The Istanbul Convention, a human rights treaty that aims to combat violence against women, has already been signed by dozens of countries around the world, including Turkey, Germany and the United Kingdom.
“Why won’t the [Israeli government] agree to it? It’s so basic,” Schwartz said. “It obligates a country to fight violence against women. I can’t understand it.”
Other rights groups also criticized the government for failing to properly protect women from violence.
Irit Rosenblum is the founder and executive director of the New Family Organization, which advocates for equal family rights for those who do not meet traditional religious definitions of families.
Rosenblum told The Media Line that the postponement of the electronic tracking law was all a matter of ego for Ben-Gvir.
“This is a war of power,” Rosenblum said. “As long as they’re on the stage they don’t want anyone to interrupt them. It’s irrational not to pass this law.”
Nevertheless, she believes that ultimately Ben-Gvir will pass his own version of the legislation at a later date in order to receive all the credit for it.
What is of greater concern, Rosenblum said, is how the government aims to expand the power of the state-run rabbinical court system. In a preliminary vote held in late February, the parliament voted 58-43 to advance legislation that would grant rabbinic courts the authority to oversee civil cases.
Currently, rabbinical courts can only handle marriage and divorce proceedings for Jewish Israelis, in addition to conversions and, on occasion, issues relating to inheritances.
The current bill on the table, which has yet to be signed into law, is backed by Shas and United Torah Judaism (UTJ), the two ultra-Orthodox parties in Netanyahu’s coalition. It would enable the rabbinical courts to adjudicate in other civil matters.
“Those courts are Torah courts and the laws are the laws of Moses,” Rosenblum explained. “These are ancient laws that all discriminate against women. These courts have no female judges or even female clerks, so how can they judge [fairly]? I can’t express how broad the discrimination is that we’re facing. We’re going back to medieval or even more ancient times.”