Time to fight domestic violence

A routine of unprecedented domestic violence, but we just move on. How did we reach this terrible situation, and who is responsible for everything that's happening except for us? It appears we crossed all red lines and Israeli society is now obligated to act, and not through a one-time magic solution.

This time we're required to undertake a genuine, serious change: We need to change the legislation so that anyone violating domestic violence laws would be considered a criminal and be held criminally accountable.

We also need to change enforcement policy so that police are obligated to adopt a tough attitude to those offenders. Finally, we need a legal change that sees more severe punishments imposed on criminals.

Something very bad happening in Israel

But not only legislation and enforcement need to be renewed; almost nothing has been done in the realm of education and public relations. We have no memorial day for domestic violence victims; we have no forest named after them, and no monument commemorating them.

On days where a father hurls his children from the balcony or a husband shoots his wife, the school day does not come to a halt in favor of a discussion with the teacher or a special ceremony.

This is not a routine situation, with a dozen women murdered within several months and emergency rooms filled with battered children with burned arms and legs, as a result of being subjected to merciless violence by their parents. And in the midst of this madness, there's nobody who seems to think something very bad is happening in Israel.

A country where social issues do not really exist, but simply happen, is a country whose very existence faces moral uncertainty. The eve of Yom Kippur is the right time for a national self-reflection not only over the military's power but also and particularly over the strength of Israeli society and especially the Israeli family, which constitutes society's natural, basic unit.

Indeed, society as a whole is obligated to provide the family with full, absolute protection, because if the family is sick and violent, so is the entire society.

The state's moral responsibility does not amount to only defending its physical borders. Ensuring that moral boundaries are respected is no less important and possibly more important, as the right to exist stems from there.

The fact that we breach these boundaries greatly weakens us and undermines our national strength more than anything else. A healthy society is not only one that has a national home; 2,000 year of exile showed that we survived without our own home and land.

The genuine health and strength of a society lie in its moral power, mutual respect, and protection of individual rights – all those are learned and implemented within the family; this is where it all starts.

Domestic violence most burning issue

The recent cases of violence are the true expression of the mad anxiety we live in: bi-national partnerships, difficulties faced by immigrants, weapons found in the hands of every family, poverty and oppression. The intolerable ease with which we move on in the face of these issues is what perpetuates them.

It also encourages all systems to continue to neglect their work, as if this malady would pass, and while it's certainly unpleasant it isn't that bad. Did we learn the lesson of the rockets – that is, if we don't take care of things they do not always rust, but to the contrary?

Domestic violence is the most burning social issue, where people are being beaten up and murdered. It's a matter of life and death. I cannot recall a period that was so violent, corrupt, and divided as is the case at the beginning of this New Year.

The State of Israel has ceased to be the state of the people of Israel that is tasked with taking care of their needs, assuming responsibility for its citizens, and fulfilling its moral duty in protecting them, as it is obligated to do through all the international conventions it has signed and particularly the moral commandments.

In a country where war is a festival, the local version of Star Search constitutes an agenda, and new elections are a regular ritual, it appears that nothing can be done. That isn't true: We must start reforming the systems, introduce peace studies at schools, set a memorial day for domestic violence victims, and demand maximal enforcement and punishment when it comes to domestic violence offenders.

Only that way we'll be able to celebrate the coming year with less needless victims and much more joy.

Attorney Irit Rosenblum heads the New Family organization