Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman directed Tuesday that the plan to combat violence against women and domestic violence, approved by the government in 2017 but never fully funded, receive funding to the tune of NIS 55 million.
The funding will go towards a number of services including creating two new shelters for women and girls, creating five centers for the treatment of violent men and hiring 144 additional social workers who work in the field of domestic violence.
Some 90 new positions will be created for social workers who work in local municipalities’ domestic violence centers, while 54 positions will be created for social workers who work in police stations and give assistance to those who come to file a complaint.
The funding will also go to various resources for handling domestic violence in minority communities in Israel and to reinforcing police and Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services Ministry hotlines. There will also be a flexible budget set aside for community treatment for victims of domestic violence.
The announcement comes just after the comptroller’s report on municipalities, released late last month, showed an 800% increase in the number of complaints made to Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services Ministry domestic violence hotlines and a 160% increase in the murder of women by their partners from 2019 to 2020. There was also a 22% increase in the number of domestic violence cases opened by police.
The interministerial plan to combat violence against women was approved by Israel’s government in July 2017 – designating a budget of NIS 250m. which would be distributed over five years – but the budget was never implemented in full, and the vast majority of the funds was not transferred.
Another flaw in prior distribution of the funding was that the funding that was provided was given directly to the relevant ministries rather than through the Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services Ministry, meaning there was no interministerial coordination as planned, according to a June 2020 report by The Israel Women’s Network, Women Against Violence and the AL-Tufula Center.
MKs from the coalition and opposition held an urgent discussion Tuesday morning and called on the government to fund the plan. MK Merav Ben-Ari and MK Keren Barak, who convened the meeting, also called on Israel to sign the Istanbul Convention, a treaty from the Council of Europe against violence against women.
“After years of a public struggle that has mostly been ignored, we are happy that the topic of violence against women is getting support from the Finance Ministry,” said Anita Friedman, chairperson of the Women’s International Zionist Organization.
“That being said, the importance that the government attributes to the topic will be measured in actions, in implementing the plan and in funding it in full with NIS 250m. from the country’s budget,” Friedman said.