Demonstration in Lod
Two week ago the ninth murder since the beginning of the year in Lod of Abir Abu- Katifan taking the lives of the women in the name of honor killing.
On 22nd of October, a delegation of Women Against Violence and other women’s association together in a demonstration in Lod, demanding to stop the murders.
Since January 2010 three Arab women have been killed in the city of
Last Friday hundreds of people joined the citizens of Lod in a protest march, demanding the end of violence and murders, and a more focused strategic plan by the police force in order to collect evidences and blame the responsible.
The police suspects the murders as “honor killing”, therefore last week they arrested the husband and some relatives of Abir Abu-Katifan, who has been shot dead in her car, but then released them due to lack of evidences.
The Arab citizens of Lod believe that these kind of police operations aim to divert the attention of the audience from the real issue. Most of the murders of this year are still unsolved, but the police forces are not working to solve the situation seriously.
We, in behalf of Women Against Violence, would like to stress out that even if these murders would deal with “honor killing”, this is the result of the living condition of the Arab population all around the country. In fact, the lack of resources in the educational system and in the raising awareness let the women as the weakest component of the society, and let the community totally link with traditional and paternalistic beliefs, that compromise the process of gender equality.
During their speeches, the representatives of the local authorities expressed their disapproval for the deteriorating condition of the schools and the absent of places for the youth such as community centers or simply a soccer field or similar. They also arose their voices against the politics of the government that doesn’t invest money in order to improve the social and urban condition of Lod, rather it funds the houses’ demolition, or the construction of new buildings for Israelis.
The huge presence of women and children at the demonstration shows that this issue has reached the entire Arab community, and above all that the new generations want and deserve better living and human conditions.
In these days the fear is spreading among the women, they don’t feel free to get out or to mourn their fellows because they are afraid to get killed as well. We firmly want to express our worries for the deterioration of the living conditions in Lod, and we want to defend our right to live without fears.
The demonstrators were demanding also to quit with the illegal circulation of weapons within the Arab population. If the police and the government will not intervene, the situation would go worse and worse and the use of weapon would become the only solution to the disputes.
As result, the day after the demonstration, the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz published an article on the lack of social workers speaking Arabic in Lod (only two of 50). Even if the majority of the Arabs in Lod can speak Hebrew, most of them don’t feel comfortable in telling their own problems, in particular if they refer to familiar issues or domestic violence. Until now the press referred to Lod only when it comes to crimes in general, but this article, published in Ha’aretz, could represent the beginning of self-awareness within the country about the lack of welfare program for Palestinians in
We, as Women Against Violence, would like to give our condolences to the family of the women that had been killed and we join in their struggle for justice and safety.