Published: 24 June 2022
Last updated: 5 March 2024
SHAHIRA FAKHER works with Arab women escaping family violence. She tells ELANA SZTOKMAN police and courts often don't help
Shahira Fakher had only been married for four years when she realised she needed to get out of the marriage. The 40-year-old, who holds two advanced degrees, speaks four languages, and had been supporting herself for years, was facing emotional, financial, and physical violence from her husband.
But, paradoxically, Shahira says that the experience was a blessing for her. “It helped me understand the experiences of women in my community who are facing violence and come to me for help.”
As the Executive Director of the NGO Arous Elbahar – literally “The Bride of the Sea”, an old nickname for the neighborhood of Jaffa in southern Tel Aviv – Shahira serves the needs of women in her community who are trying to escape violence and abuse.
During Covid lockdowns, when Shahira was forced to take an unpaid leave for six months, she never stopped working because the number of women turning to the organisation for help doubled.
Although Palestinians are only 20% of Israel’s population, 58% of all murdered women are Palestinian-Israeli, 73% of whom had previously filed complaints with the police.
Gender-based violence is a growing concern in Israel, especially in the Arab community. Four women have been murdered in the past week alone: Samar Kalasani, Sapir Nahum. Johara Hanifas, and an unidentified woman from Petah Tikva). A fifth woman, - Sabra El Rafi'a from Tel Sheva, has been missing for two weeks.
In 2021, 21 women in Israel were murdered by intimate partners or family members. So far in 2022, 11 women have been killed, five of whom were Arab.
Women in the Arab community are at greater risk. Police are less likely to act on Arab cases and sentences are lower. Research conducted by WIZO and the Arab organisation Masarab Altopola for the Treatment of Women and Children shows indictment rates of 94.3% in cases where Jewish women were murdered and only 56% with Arab women. Conviction rates were 75% to 34 and sentences were three times as long when Jewish women were murdered.
