Israel’s leading report on domestic violence will be discontinued after more than a decade, with researchers and women’s rights advocates warning that the government’s failure to collect and share data has made it impossible to track the scope of the problem.
Experts say that two years of war and prolonged national emergency have created conditions ripe for rising domestic violence — from reservist call-ups and job losses to constant anxiety and widespread access to firearms. Yet, despite growing concern, Israel has no centralized database compiling information on family violence or violence against women.
For over ten years, the Women’s International Zionist Organization (WIZO) has published an annual index aggregating figures from multiple government agencies in an effort to paint a comprehensive picture. This year, the group said, the task had become impossible.
“From a situation where it was ‘a little hard to get data,’ we’ve reached the point where data arrive late — or not at all,” said Rivka Neuman, head of WIZO’s Division for the Advancement of Women. “We face a lack of cooperation and professionalism in data collection. This is happening in Israel — the advanced, digital, cyber nation — and yet there’s still no single system collecting and analyzing this information.”
WIZO researcher Dr. Michal Rom, who edited the report, wrote that the absence of data itself tells a painful story: “It reflects our national priorities. We don’t count the numbers because we don’t count the women.”
According to WIZO, of ten government ministries and agencies approached for data this year, only six responded, and most supplied incomplete or delayed information. The organization decided to discontinue the index, hoping the state would assume responsibility for long-term monitoring.
One recent collaborative effort offered a rare glimpse: a 2023 survey by the Red Lines initiative, conducted with the Welfare Ministry and the Central Bureau of Statistics, found that 10% of Israelis had experienced some form of intimate-partner violence — a figure WIZO said should have prompted a national response.
“This failure isn’t just technical — it’s moral,” Rom wrote. “It shows that domestic violence isn’t treated as a top national priority. Every table and graph in this report represents lives harmed, families broken and public trust eroded.”
WIZO also released a comparative study showing that other countries face similar challenges but manage to collect and publish consistent data. In Canada, for example, a decades-old crime reporting system classifies incidents by type, allowing clear trend analysis. Britain and Australia operate national databases that combine real-time reports with recurring surveys tracking gender-based violence.
“Israel could do the same,” Rom said. “It’s not about technology — it’s about will.”