ISRAEL
First and second periodic report dated 8 April 1997
First NGO Report
The Israel Women's Network (IWN), established in 1984, is
a non-partisan coalition of Israeli women. Through advocacy,
legal and legislative activity, consciousness-raising, and education,
the IWN seeks to promote women's status in Israel in all fields
of life. IWN prefaced its report with the following comment:
"We understand that a coalition of Palestinian women
who are Israeli citizens have produced a report to CEDAW on
the issue of the status of Palestinian women in Israel. We regret
that our report does not contain enough information on the special
problems faced by Palestinian women. Palestinian women are undoubtedly
the best-equipped to appreciate and understand the unusual and
difficult problems faced by Palestinian women in Israel. We
hope that these two NGO reports, together with the State report,
will help produce a more complete understanding of the different
types of discrimination faced by women in Israel."
[The most recent Israel Government report was not available
while the IWRAW report was being compiled. However, IWRAW has
omitted sections of a general nature in the IWN report, based
on the assumption that similar descriptions will be found in
the Government report. Otherwise, editing has been solely in
the interests of brevity. ed.]
POLICY MEASURES TO ELIMINATE DISCRIMINATION - Convention Article
2
Court Jurisdiction in Claims of Discrimination
Although the Supreme Court in Israel does not have the authority
to overrule legislation not adhering to the principle of equality,
it does have the authority to invalidate discriminatory policies
of the government and other bodies authorised by law. Policies
of discrimination against women in various areas were declared
illegal by the Supreme Court based on the principle of gender
equality. Nonetheless, when the principle of equality came into
conflict with the religious beliefs of some groups, the Supreme
Court gave preference to these groups in an effort to avoid
confrontation with them.
In 1994, for example, the Supreme Court rejected the petition
of a group of Orthodox women who wished to pray together in
a minyan (religious quorum) at the Western Wall (a form of worship
not acceptable to the ultra-Orthodox when practised by women)
and the women were rejected from the area by the Rabbi of the
Wall. The Supreme Court ruled that despite the fundamental changes
in the status of women in this century -- to which women who
observe the Jewish law are also subject -- the Western Wall
is a sensitive area and not the place for these groups to wage
their battles. These women are still not allowed to pray together
as a group at the Wall.
National measures to ensure equal rights for women
No authority in Israel is entrusted with the task of safeguarding
equal rights for women. The current Prime Minister, like those
who preceded him, appointed an Advisor on the Status of Women
within the Office of the Prime Minister. The position of advisor
is not mandated by law, however, and thus rests on the discretion
of the Prime Minister, who could revoke the appointment at any
time. The function of the Advisor to the Prime Minister is not
defined, and the office is allocated a very small budget that
does not allow it to take practical measures to advance the
status of women in Israel. A bill to establish an Authority
for the Status of Women is currently being drafted by the Office
of the Prime Minister, after intensive discussions with, inter
alia, the leading women s organisations.
The dissemination of information about the rights of women
is carried out in Israel primarily by non-governmental organisations.
Women's organisations have initiated activities in a wide range
of areas, including the rights of working women, rights within
the family, the rights of single-parent families, preventing
sexual violence and domestic violence, and others.
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN - Convention Articles 3, 5, 6, 12,
15 and 16
In 1991, the Prevention of Violence Within the Family Law
was enacted. This law allows the court to grant a protection
order against a violent family member. The major difficulty
with this law is that a protection order can be granted for
a maximum of just six months; a woman who suffers at the hands
of a violent husband often needs a protection order for a much
longer period than that.
In an attempt to encourage women who have been the victims
of sexual assault to file charges against their abusers, a new
law was enacted in 1995, on the basis of which the judge in
a sexual assault trial may order that the defendant shall watch
the victim's testimony via a monitor rather than being present
in the courtroom while the victim gives her testimony. Though
the law should have been enforced by 1 January 1997, the court's
administration has not completed the process of providing all
district courts with the requisite equipment. There appears
to be no intention of providing such equipment to the local
courts. This means that only victims of those severe sexual
offences that are dealt with in the district courts will be
able to benefit from this law.
The Israeli legislature tries to fight the high rate of sexual
crimes against women by increasing the maximum sentence the
court can impose upon the defendant. A recent study found that
increasing the maximum sentence did not produce a change in
the average sentence for sexual offences -- presently only a
fifth of the maximum sentence defined by law.
The above-mentioned study also found that when the victim
of violence is a woman, conviction rates are lower and sentences
lighter than when the victim is a man. This is partly a function
of the fact that the relationship between the victim and the
attacker is usually more intimate in cases where women are the
victims -- in ninety percent of cases studied, the woman's attacker
was a family member or a man she already knew -- and judges
tend to hand down lighter sentences in such circumstances. These
findings demonstrate the urgent need to educate judges in Israel
regarding sexual violence against women.
A new bill suggests that the minimum sentence for sexual offences
should be not less than a third of the maximum sentence defined
by the law. A special committee has been established by the
Ministry of Justice to discuss this proposal.
SEX ROLES AND STEREOTYPING - Convention Article 5
There are no government-sponsored initiatives to modify discriminatory
social behaviour of men or women in Israel. Activity is just
beginning in the field of education (more about this in the
discussion about Article 10). One area dominated, in our opinion,
by prejudiced norms and opinions regarding male and female stereotypes
is that of the media. Israeli society as depicted in the news
is a male society -- men run it and express their opinions about
it. Despite the increasing feminization of the media professions,
a male majority continues to report the major news items.
In advertising, negative stereotypes of women abound. Relatively
inexpensive items are advertised by women filmed at home, while
more expensive products are advertised by men at work or outdoors.
A content analysis of advertising reveals that the body of a
woman in commercials is often accompanied by sexual innuendo.
Much advertising carries a diluted form of pornography that
finds its way into the mass media. Turning the woman and her
body into a marketing tool is another step in the process of
creating an inferior image of the role of women in society.
POLITICAL AND PUBLIC LIFE - Convention Article 7
Representation in religious bodies
One area in which women do not have the right to participate
equally in public life is religious affairs, including religious
courts. Israeli law confers sole jurisdiction in matters of
marriage and divorce to the religious courts of the various
denominations, each according to its religious provisions (see
also Article 16 below). The Religious Judges Law (1955) and
the Druze Courts Law (1962) have been interpreted by religious
establishments to mean that only men can serve as judges in
these courts. The situation is similar in the Christian and
the Shari'a courts.
In recent years, changes have taken place in the representation
of women in religious bodies. Following two court decisions
in 1988, women (only a few so far) have become members of the
municipal religious councils and the committees for selection
of the chief rabbis, despite the opposition of the religious
establishment. Even when taking these decisions, which ostensibly
entrench the principle of equality in Israeli jurisprudence,
the court first consulted Jewish religious law to ensure that
there were no religious grounds to prevent the participation
of women in these bodies.
Elective office
[several paragraphs concerning numbers of women holding various
positions, etc., have been deleted, on the assumption that the
Government report will have such information. ed.]
Army Service
Army service is compulsory in Israel for both men and women.
However, the Security Service Law and the derivative army regulations
and orders delineate several significant differences between
the obligations of men and women in matters relating to army
service. As defined by law and military orders, women serve
in the army 21 months and are liable for reserve duty until
age 24, while men are obligated to serve 36 months and be part
of the reserve until age 55. Married women and mothers are exempt
from army service.
Israeli army regulations prohibit women from becoming combat
soldiers as part of their army service. In 1995, the military
rejected Alice Miller's request to apply to become an air force
pilot, arguing that women cannot be part of a combat unit. The
Supreme Court ordered the military to open the pilots course
to qualified women, citing women's right to equal opportunity.
Nonetheless, women are not allowed to serve as fighters in
combat units, so their options for military service are very
limited and do not include the central function of a soldier
-- fighting. In addition, this restriction limits women's opportunity
to advance in the army ranks, since many of the high positions
in the army are dependent on past combat service. Israeli courts
have not yet dealt with the question of women's participation
on the field of battle.
Alice Miller did not pass the Air Force's preliminary tests
for acceptance into the pilots course, but she paved the way
for others. Seven women were accepted in 1996. All dropped out
by now.
Fourteen further women started the second pilots course in
1996, and thirteen are about to start the first course of 1997.
Military service is one of the most significant components
of Israeli society for a number of reasons: the great majority
of Israelis who serve, the lengthy service, the sensitive period
in one's life, and the intensity of the experience. The army
is a key element in Israeli life and army service is considered
a very important element in Israeli socialisation.
The roles of women in the army are dictated by traditional
assumptions of biological difference -- this in an age when
technology has changed the face of warfare, eliminating physical
strength as a major factor in most areas of army activity.
This has impact not only on army service, but also on life
after release from the army. Senior army officers join the political
or economic elite of the country, and thus the discrimination
against women in the army is continued in civilian life. Hence
the army, because of its penetrating and far-reaching influence,
contributes more than any other institution to reinforcing and
perpetuating gender inequality in Israel (see also the example
under Article 8).
PARTICIPATION AT THE INTERNATIONAL LEVEL - Convention Article
8
Women are sparsely represented in Israel's foreign service.
The prevalent view in the Foreign Ministry is that having a
married woman in the position of ambassador is problematic.
Out of the 1,032 workers in the foreign service, 347 are women.
Of the 111 Israeli embassies and consulates abroad, just 9 are
headed by women.
As for UN conferences -- women are often appointed to the
official Israeli delegation after heavy pressure by women's
organisations. The official Israeli reports tend to not give
sufficient attention to issues of concern to women, and there
is usually a need for an NGO document. The Israel Women's Network
issued a shadow report for the Social Summit in Copenhagen (March,
1995) and Habitat II in Istanbul (June, 1996).
In the peace negotiations between Israel and its Arab neighbours,
the Israeli side is generally represented by senior army officers,
senior reserve duty officers, and the top echelon in the civil
service -- three sectors in which female representation is virtually
nil. Hence the number of women representing Israel in the peace
talks is also negligible.
EDUCATION - Convention Article 10
Only half as many girls as boys take the (maximum) five units
of mathematics in the matriculation exams, though their achievements
are equal to or better than those of the boys. Hence girls participate
only marginally in the more prestigious studies, which are a
vital springboard to the better paying professions and entry
into the academic world.
[This section of the IWN report contains a number of comparative
educational statistics which have been deleted on the assumption
that they will be presented in the Israeli Government report.
ed.]
Studies have shown that latent sexist attitudes exist among
teachers and teacher interns of which they themselves may not
be aware. It is claimed, for example, that boys are better at
mathematics, while girls excel at Hebrew and social interaction.
Even the children themselves (boys and girls) view girls as
inferior to boys in most areas, and the situation worsens as
the children advance in school. The children have clearly internalised
the perceptions of the adult world suffused with stereotypes,
and this is reinforced by teachers' attitudes and the latent
messages they convey. School texts in all subjects are permeated
with stereotypes, from pre-school through twelfth grade.
As of June 1994, a woman heads the office for gender equality
in schools at the Ministry of Education. The ministry adopted
a program developed by the Israel Women's Network, whereby it
undertakes to: review all new and existing curricula; introduce
a mandatory course on gender equality to all teacher training
courses; expand in-service training courses for teachers that
deal with gender equality; conduct courses to train moderators
about educating for gender equality; conduct an experimental
program in gender equality to encompass various schools throughout
Israel; produce a workbook entirely dedicated to educating for
gender equality. An evaluation of the effectiveness of these
programs will be conducted to enable assessment of their impact
on attitude change and to improve future programs.
EMPLOYMENT - Convention Article 11
Retirement Age
Many working women face a severe problem in times of mass
cuts in personnel. Employers use women's privilege to retire
at the age of 60 to discriminate against them. In many cases
of mass cuts, the employer prefers to send the women, and not
the men, to early retirement. This policy leaves many women
between the age of 55 and 60 unemployed, while men this age
are allowed to keep their job. In addition, women receive enlarged
pensions only until they are 60, while men receive the enlarged
pension until they are 65. These days a number of law suits
against such policies -- arguing that they are discriminatory
and against the Equal Retirement Age for Male and Female Employees
Law -- are pending in court.
Rights related to pregnancy and birth
The Employment of Women Law (1954) regulates the rights of
women concerning pregnancy, childbirth, and child care. This
law prohibits the dismissal of an employee who is pregnant if
she has worked at the same workplace for more than six months,
or of a woman on maternity leave, without the express authorisation
of the Minister of Labour and Welfare. One problem with this
law is that it does not prevent pregnant women's working conditions
being changed for the worse. Employers take advantage of this
lacuna, do not fire the pregnant employee, but harm her working
conditions. For example, employers send pregnant women to unpaid
vacation, reduce their working hours, or give them work that
is not part of their usual job.
Another issue is the policy pursued by the supervisor appointed
by the Labour and Welfare Minister who has been granted by law
the power to authorise the dismissal of pregnant employees.
Although the law prohibits authorising a dismissal if it is
related to the pregnancy, the supervisor interpreted the power
vested in him as allowing such a dismissal if the woman cannot
perform her usual job because of her pregnancy. Because of this
policy, employers can and do dismiss pregnant women if their
usual job includes working with dangerous materials or lifting
heavy weights.
A third shortcoming in the Employment of Women Law is that
it does not prevent the dismissal of a woman immediately after
her return from maternity leave, a practice current among employers.
Although these women can sue their employers under the Equal
Opportunity in Employment Law, it would be preferable to extend
the prohibition on dismissing a woman during pregnancy and during
maternity leave to an additional period following her return
from leave.
Child Care
In 1995, the Equal Opportunity in Employment Law was amended
to extend women's rights regarding employment and child care
to cover men too. The law, as amended, states that -- in a workplace
in which women employees have special rights regarding absence
from work due to children's illness; are eligible for a shorter
working day because of parenthood; and have the right to use
the employer's child care facilities or enjoy an employer's
participation in the costs of child care facilities -- male
employees shall enjoy the same rights. This amendment is an
important step in the direction of social recognition of men
s role in their children s upbringing.
However, the law is not without its faults. Thus, it grants
a man the above rights only if the child is in his sole custody
or if his wife is entitled to the same rights in her workplace
but did not take advantage of them. This means, for example,
that if the mother is not entitled to be absent from her workplace
when her child is sick, the father will not be able to take
leave, even if in his workplace women employees are entitled
to be absent when their child is sick. The conditioning of the
father's right upon the mother's is a major obstacle to achieving
sex equality in the workplace regarding child care obligations.
Women in the labour force
In 1995, sixteen percent of the managers in the labour force
were women, which is two percent of all working women. There
has been virtually no progress on this issue, in light of the
fact that the number of women in the work force has doubled
since the 1980s, but the percentage of women managers remains
the same.
Women constituted about sixty percent of the 500,000 employees
in the public sector in Israel in 1995. They are under-represented
at the higher levels and over-represented at the lower levels,
where they constitute about eighty percent of the employees.
In the civil service, women constitute only eight percent of
the employees in the top seven ranks.
Enforcement of labour laws
The authority for enforcing labour laws, including the laws
barring discrimination at work, rests with the Ministry of Labour
and Welfare. In practice, the Ministry does not exercise its
authority regarding the Equal Opportunity in Employment Law,
with the exception of enforcing the laws that prohibit the discriminatory
advertisement of job openings.
In accordance with Article 18 of the Equal Opportunity in
Employment Law, the Minister of Labour and Welfare appointed
monitors to oversee implementation of the provisions of this
law. Each monitor is responsible for enforcing implementation
of the Equal Opportunity in Employment Law in her district,
but they bear a heavy burden: In addition to their monitoring
of the Equal Opportunity Law, these same women supervise the
day-care centres in their districts. Thus very little of their
time is dedicated to overseeing the law. One large obstacle
to the enforcement of laws and recommendations for advancing
women in Israel is the absence or inadequacy of budgets.
According to the Equal Opportunity in Employment Law, the
Minister of Labour and Welfare is authorised to establish a
public council for enforcing the law. Although this council
was theoretically established, it has hardly met and nothing
has been done to enforce the law.
It is rare for a woman to sue her employer based on the Equal
Opportunity in Employment Law, and even more rare for a meaningful
decision to be rendered. Because of the small number of petitions,
the courts in Israel have not yet grappled with the difficult
questions of discrimination in promotion, hiring, wages, or
of sexual harassment at work.
Until recently, the Israeli courts awarded no more than $1,000
in damages to a woman who sued her employer. The sum was awarded
for mental anguish and not compensation for the loss of income
or the monetary damage. The ground stewardesses of El Al Airlines
sued their company for not allowing them to participate in a
course for station managers abroad, a course that is a prerequisite
for promotion to more senior positions in El Al. Only after
twenty years of discrimination, six years in court, and three
complaints filed against the company, the group settled for
compensation in the amount of $300,000.
There are several reasons for the small numbers of women who
file complaints against employers: the difficulty of confronting
one's superior, fear of losing one's job, the limited job market,
psychological barriers for victims of sexual harassment, and
fear of being labelled a troublemaker. Another problem is that
a woman may not identify the discrimination as such, but might
take the blame on herself and her own lack of skill, for example,
for continuously failing to obtain a promotion. Her immediate
environment and society at large are not generally supportive
of a woman who stands up for her rights. There is also no tradition
in Israel of using the courts to fight for social rights (as
distinct from political rights).
Israeli women lack the backing that organisations such as
the Human Rights Commission give to Canadian women. In taking
legal action against discrimination by her employer, several
psychological and financial obstacles stand in her way. Israeli
law was recently changed so that the right to initiate legal
proceedings now belongs not just to the victims of discrimination
or the employees' association at work, but also to organisations
dealing with the rights of women.
Many Israeli employers believe that discrimination against
women will not affect them. Until Israeli courts rule in favour
of women who have been discriminated against and impose heavy
damages against discriminatory employers, women will not be
motivated to initiate legal battles, and employers will continue
to discriminate against them.
HEALTH CARE AND FAMILY PLANNING - Convention Article 12
The new National Health Law which was enacted in 1994 ensures
health insurance to every resident. With small differences,
each insurance plan provides inexpensive or free medical services,
including treatment of pregnant women and childbirth.
The formulation of the law is vague and full of medical terminology.
Apart from the payment arrangements, which are clearly formulated,
all the rest is subject to interpretation. The law also stipulates
that funding for abortion will be given only for medical reasons.
Another provision states that all services provided by one of
the Sick Funds on a specific date (January 1, 1994) will become
part of the health services mandated. Aid to pregnant girls
in distress has been reduced.
Women's health in general is accorded only superficial attention
in the new law. One of the tests for the detection of defects
in the foetus has already been dropped from funding, and there
are now fees for carrying out some tests.
Another paragraph in the law which is worded very generally
has to do with a woman's health at the time of menopause --
about which awareness has grown in recent years. The law grants
every woman the right to hormonal replacement therapy during
menopause. But the law does not cite the right to tests and
treatment for osteoporosis.
Long-term studies among low-income families in Israel indicate
that women suffer more health problems than do men. These studies
reveal the link between the state of their health and the multiplicity
of pregnancies and childbirth.
Although Israeli women of western origin are still the highest
risk group for breast cancer, a sharp increase has been noted
among women of eastern origin (North Africa and Asian). Breast,
uterine, cervical and ovarian cancer comprise about half of
all the new cases of cancer discovered each year.
The emphasis on childbirth in Israel has channelled resources
to technological services which aim to increase fertility. Thus
other services to promote health and increase the quality of
life, such as early detection of breast cancer or treatment
for osteoporosis, are neglected. Israeli women still have limited
access to comprehensive, quality family planning services. Many
continue to rely on unreliable methods of contraception, which
often end in unplanned pregnancies. Significantly, the health
services available under the National Health Law do not include
provision of contraception and women must pay approximately
$100 for the insertion of an IUD.
The emphasis in Israel on primary services and high medical
technology has led to the neglect of preventive and promotive
treatment. These are not routinely encouraged nor covered.
Abortions
Recently a new threat to women's reproductive rights emerged
in the shape of a proposed law initiated by the religious parties
in the Knesset, according to which the definition of a human
being will include a foetus from the moment of conception. If
this law is passed by the Knesset, it might lead to criminal
charges of murder against women who have had an abortion and
against those who performed them.
EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW - Convention Article 15
Men and women have equal standing before the law in Israel.
Israeli secular law also does not distinguish between men and
women in matters related to concluding contracts and administering
property.
The aforesaid is not true of laws applied in the religious
courts of the various denominations. As discussed below (with
regard to Article 16), the religious courts have sole jurisdiction,
in varying areas, over matters of personal status.
The law in religious courts is the law of the religion served
by that court, and religious judges of the various courts distinguish
between men and women in a number of areas.
Jewish and Muslim women, for example, cannot inherit from
their parents. According to the Israeli civil law, a daughter
is entitled to inherit from her parents just like a son. The
religious law will be implemented if all parties involved agree
to turn to the religious court and ask it to rule according
to the religious law. Without such consent, the religious court
must rule according to the civil law. In some cases, women surrender
to pressure from their families and agree to be judged by the
discriminatory religious law.
According to Jewish law, a woman, upon dissolution of her
marriage, is entitled to the amount that had been specified
in her marriage contract and the assets that are registered
in her name. Given that most family and business assets are
usually registered in the name of the husband, this religious
rule harms women.
According to the civil law of Israel, upon the dissolution
of marriage, a married woman is entitled to half the property
acquired in the course of the marriage, whether registered in
the name of the woman or the man. The Israeli Supreme Court
ruled that religious courts must follow Israeli civil law in
matters not under their sole jurisdiction. The Supreme Court
issued this ruling in the petition of a woman after the Jewish
Rabbinical Court had abrogated her right to property acquired
during her marriage, even property registered in her name. The
Supreme Court ruled that in this case the Rabbinical Court was
obliged to apply the Equal Rights for Women Law and the rulings
of the Supreme Court, and to rule that half the property acquired
during the marriage belongs to her. The Rabbinical Courts expressed
strong reservations about this ruling and about the mandate
that they must adjudicate according to the general principles
of civil legislation and litigation in Israel.
MARRIAGE AND FAMILY LAW - Convention Article 16
Although the state of Israel declared its reservation about
this article of the Convention, we wish to provide a status
report about it. The most salient feature of the laws of marriage
and divorce in the Israeli judicial system is that issues of
personal status are adjudicated exclusively according to religious
law. With minor exceptions, the Israeli judicial system has
no mechanisms for civil marriage or divorce. Although this constraint
on the freedom of religion and conscience falls on both men
and women, most religious laws are based on a traditional, patriarchal
world model, and therefore the control of religious laws entails
special injury to the status of women. In this religious system,
women are considered unfit for public tasks related to the functioning
of religious courts of law, such as serving as a religious judge
[a dayan in Judaism or a kadi in Islam]; and women's testimony
in a Jewish religious court is not accepted except when there
is a need for declaring a man a missing person.
Among Jews:
Generally, Jewish religious law does not distinguish between
men and women in the right to enter into marriage, so long as
both members of the couple are of the same religion. There are
two exceptions: divorced women and widows are prohibited from
marrying men of the "priestly" class and a widow who has no
children must receive the permission of her late husband's unmarried
brother, if he had one, to marry someone other than himself.
Jewish religious law also does not limit a woman's right to
choose a spouse freely or to enter into marriage based on free
and full consent.
The main form of discrimination against Jewish women relative
to Jewish men concerns rights during the course of marriage
and in the event of its dissolution. A man takes a woman in
marriage as a unilateral action; to dissolve the union, the
man must consent to give the divorce. The divorce will be completed
if the woman agrees to accept it. According to Jewish law, the
woman lives her married life in subordination to the man, benefiting
from the economic and physical security he provides in exchange
for the domestic services that she gives him. Even if this division
of labour does not reflect the life style of many women in Israel,
this grasp of the roles of the marriage partners has an impact
when religious courts adjudicate a dispute between partners
during divorce proceedings.
In divorce, one expression of the double standard to which
men and women are held concerns the attitude to adultery. Monogamy
is an absolute decree on the woman and therefore the repercussions
of any sexual relations outside wedlock are very serious indeed
for a married woman and any children born to her as a result
of a relationship other than with her husband. On the other
hand, Jewish religion is indulgent toward a man having extramarital
sexual relations.
Separation through divorce [a Get] is possible only with the
consent of both parties. This consent, however, is not of equal
weight for men and women. If the man refuses to give his consent,
various forms of pressure will be applied, including the option
of imprisoning him for up to six months. If he persists in his
recalcitrance, however, the woman may not marry another according
to Jewish law. This woman is labelled an aguna [abandoned].
If an aguna bears children to a man who is not her husband,
these children will be classified "bastards" and permitted to
marry only other bastards.
On the other hand, if a woman refuses to consent to a divorce
and does not relent in the face of pressure, the man may be
given permission to remarry even though he is not divorced.
The consent of one hundred rabbis is required for this permission.
Furthermore, if this man does not remarry but does father children
by another woman, these children are considered legitimate.
(Note: If a married woman has sexual relations with a man who
is not her husband and wishes to marry him after her divorce,
Jewish law does not allow it, as she is declared "forbidden
to her husband and to those with whom she had sexual intercourse".
There is no parallel prohibition on the husband in a similar
situation.
A yearly average of ten to fifteen Jewish men receive permission
to marry a second wife. Many more begin the preliminary procedures
for securing such permission, which in itself is a means of
extortion used in divorce battles.
In 1995, a new law was enacted in an attempt to reduce the
number of women who are agunot because their husbands refuse
to give them a get, and to diminish the discriminatory effect
of the religious attitudes towards women and men vis-�-vis the
act of divorce. The new law grants rabbinical courts the right
to impose a wider range of sanction on husbands who refuse to
give a divorce. These sanctions include preventing the recalcitrant
spouse from leaving the country, cancelling his checking account
and driving license, preventing him from holding governmental
office, and more. Because these sanctions are severe, it was
decided that the law be in force for four years, after which
it will be re-examined. (The sanctions can be imposed on women,
but by a more lengthy and complicated procedure).
During a period of a year and a half, fifty decisions were
handed based on the new law. This means that the law can and
is used to help women who suffer from their inability to get
a divorce as easily as a man can.
There is a big disparity between the different rabbinical
courts' implementation of the law. In Haifa, for example, in
the first year and a half after the law was enacted, one forum
of judges handed down eighteen decisions based on the new law,
of which nine ended with the recalcitrant husband giving a divorce
to his wife. In Tel Aviv, on the other hand, one forum of judges
handed down just one decision based on the new law, and this
did not lead to a divorce. There is a pressing need to educate
rabbinical judges on the importance of the law in helping women
escape from an unwanted marriage.
In Israel, when a Jewish couple separates, the division of
property can be adjudicated either in the District Court or
the Rabbinical Court, the venue based on where the petition
was first filed. Since men have an advantage in the division
of property according to Jewish law (and the rabbis invariably
support maximum property awards to them), and since a man's
consent is required for divorce, which opens the door to extortion,
men make haste to file with a Rabbinical Court. If the petition
for divorce is filed together with a property claim, the District
Court has no jurisdiction over it (although the Supreme Court
has ruled that such joint claims must be made in good faith).
The relevant civil law is the Community Property Law that
mandates a presumption of commonality regarding property acquired
from a common effort. (The principle of the presumption of commonality
also applied to couples married before the law took effect.)
Over the years, the list of assets considered common property
grows, and in order to prove that property is not common, the
litigant must bring clear evidence that the property belongs
to him/her alone, as a gift or sole inheritance.
In 1996, a new system of family courts began operating in
Israel. Family Courts are designed as a replacement for the
District and Local Courts that were authorised to rule in family-related
matters. The goal of establishing Family Courts is to centralise
family-related issues to one court, to shorten queues, and to
nominate judges who will be experts in this field. However,
rabbinical courts still have parallel jurisdiction over family
matters related to divorce, and so women are still exposed to
the discriminatory attitudes and decisions of the rabbinical
courts.
[IWN's discussion of Article 16 in relation to Muslims has
been deleted, because in general it repeats what is said in
the NGO report from the Palestinian Working Group below. ed]
Second NGO report: from the Working Group on the Status of
Palestinian Women in Israel
The Working Group on the Status of Women in Israel is a national
network of representatives from Palestinian NGOs and individual
activists. The Working Group formed in June 1996 to prepare
an independent report on the status of Palestinian women for
the CEDAW Committee, after learning that the first Initial report
submitted to CEDAW by the Government of Israel had essentially
neglected to discuss the situation of Palestinian women.
Working Group members worked in sub-committees to draft each
of the sections of their report. Very little research has been
done on Palestinian women in Israel, and thus, the Working Group's
efforts have been a unique, pioneering effort for all of the
contributors. The Working Group on the Status of Palestinian
Women in Israel is comprised of the following members:
The Association of Women Against Violence (WAV) - Aida Toma-Suliman
The Arab Association for Human Rights (HRA) - Mohammed Zeidan,
Hoda Rohana
Al Tufula Pedagogical Centre - Multi Purpose Women's Centre
- Nabila Espanioly, Siham Badarne, Dr. Hala Espanioly Hazzan
Al Siwar - Arab Feminist Movement In Support of Victims of
Sexual Abuse - Iman Kandalaft
The Haifa Crisis Shelter - Hoda Rohana
The Follow-up Committee on Arab Education - Dr. Hala Espanioly
Hazzan, A'reen Usama Howari
The Committee for Educational Guidance for Arab Students -
Advocate Suhad Bishara
Arabiya Mansour, Human Rights Activist
Rina Rosenberg, Human Rights Lawyer, Coordinator and Editor
[The report of the Working Group will be sent in its entirety
directly by the Group to CEDAW sometime in June. IWRAW has reproduced
here a summary of the original report. Sections which repeated
general information from the IWN report were deleted, and some
information which it is assumed will be in the government report
has also been deleted. The Working Group has carefully limited
its discussion to the situation of Palestinian women in Israel
only. ed.]
INTRODUCTION
Palestinian women in Israel - 'Her story'
Palestinian women in Israel today are part of the Palestinian
people who remained in their homeland after the war of 1948.
The role of women within the family and within Palestinian society
has undergone dramatic change from the period of Ottoman rule
(early sixteenth century to 1918) to the present. In the last
three decades, as Arab women elsewhere, Palestinian women in
Israel have moved away from traditionally imposed, passive and
marginal roles into more active roles at all levels of their
society. A review of the historical background is essential
to an understanding of the process of change which Palestinian
women in Israel have experienced over the years.
Ottoman Period (early Sixteenth century - 1918)
During the Ottoman period, Palestinian society was largely
agricultural, and the land was the means of subsistence for
the majority peasant population. In working the land, women
and men together provided an income for the state and the landowning
class, as well as for the hamoula, or extended family. Family
and society was patriarchal and hierarchical. However, within
the extended family the wife of the chief of the hamoula assumed
command over all other women in the family, using the same hierarchical
order employed by men.
Among the landowning class, women were largely segregated
and confined to the domestic sphere. During this period, many
of these women adopted the Ottoman habit of veiling their faces
in an attempt to differentiate themselves from peasant women.1
British Mandate Period (1918-1947)
During this period, political, and economic developments led
to the beginning of a structural change in the family, resulting
in a crisis for the peasant class and the beginning of a transformation
in women's roles. Many landowners sold their land to investors.
Thousands of peasants became landless and were forced to seek
shelter and waged labour in the cities. The beginning of proletarianization
of the peasant class resulted in a decline of traditional relations
within the family. New structures of land ownership and methods
of farming served to strengthen the merchant class. This shift
of power was further accompanied, and influenced to a certain
degree, by an influx of European Jewish settlers who brought
with them industrialised resources and capitalist aspirations.
Agriculture remained the main source of income for ninety percent
of the Palestinian population until 1948.
These social and political changes motivated urban Palestinian
women, especially of upper and middle classes, to take action.2
For the first time, Palestinian women engaged in social activism,
organising charitable societies in the major cities of Haifa,
Akka, Jaffa, Nablus and Jerusalem,3
mainly during the years 1904-1916. After years of activism they
gathered in October 1929 in Jerusalem for the first Palestinian
women's conference.4
Palestinian women were also affected by the education boom
in the Arab world during the late nineteenth century. Educational
institutions for Palestinian girls were founded later. In 1924,
for example, Nabiha Nasser, a leading women's rights activist,
founded the Birzeit school, later to become Birzeit College,
and in 1976, Birzeit University. Though the demand for girls
education was increasing as Palestinians began to realise the
important role education could play in helping them survive
fast-changing circumstances, by the end of the British mandate,
only one-third of Palestinian children were in school, one-fifth
of whom were girls.5
Israeli military rule over the Palestinian community in Israel
(1948-1966)
The increasing participation of Palestinian women in the public
sphere stopped short as a result of the 1948 war, especially
among those who remained within the new State of Israel. The
war nearly destroyed Palestinian society. More than 480 (out
of 573) Palestinian villages were totally destroyed. Of the
Palestinian population, seventy-five percent or 750,000 people
became refugees in neighbouring Arab countries. Only 150,000
Palestinians were able to stay within the new State of Israel,
and of those who did, 40,000 found themselves internally displaced.6
Coupled with the Israeli government's policy of massive land
expropriation,7 the effects
of the war made it impossible to reclaim agriculture as a mainstay
of Palestinian life. Palestinians experienced a further phase
of proletarianization, impoverishment and underdevelopment.8
They became a minority dependent on the Jewish-dominated economy.
Moreover, Israel introduced a sophisticated system of hegemony
which included control and manipulation aimed at undermining
the integrity of Palestinian national existence within the newly
established state.9
Palestinians in Israel were isolated from other Arabs and
segregated from Jews by military laws10
which controlled their daily lives. According to these laws,
for example, Palestinians could not leave their villages for
work, school or for any other reason without a permit from the
military authorities. While the Israeli government granted citizenship
to Palestinians in Israel, it did not recognise them as a national
group; instead it called them Minorities, Israeli Arabs, and
Non-Jews, but never Palestinians.
Subordination to Israeli Jewish institutions, exposure to
the behaviours of westernised Jewish women, all intensified
the threat to Palestinian male identity.11
Having lost control over their land and status, the Palestinian
man remained in control of only one domain: his family, his
wife and his children. In particular, the concept of Ard (honour)
acquired new importance in light of men's fears and their sense
of powerlessness.
The heritage of the past became the most salient source from
which Palestinians in Israel could derive pleasure as a community
and on which they could depend for protection and preservation
of their identity. Centuries-old patriarchal tradition in this
period gained considerable importance.12
Since Palestinian women were forced to stay at home because
of military orders as well as restrictions placed on them by
the men in their families, they were no longer able to support
their families as producers, and thus lost status. Relegated
to the private sphere and to domestic roles, Palestinian women
assumed the role of preservers of culture. They were expected
to maintain the continuity of Palestinian values, and to pass
on traditions which reproduced their own subordinate status.13
While some positive changes took place in this period -- the
Israeli Compulsory Education Law increased the rate of school
attendance in the Palestinian community for boys and girls,14
and increased the demand for Palestinian teachers, creating
opportunities for women to work -- on the whole, women's political
and social status did not improve. On the contrary, no Palestinian
women's organisation was established during this period except
for the Democratic Women's Movement, a mixed Arab and Jewish
women's organisation. While the economic recession (1965-1967)
forced Palestinian women back into the work force, they served
mostly as unskilled labourers.
The Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Golan
Heights and its immediate aftermath (1967-1975)
The Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Syrian
Golan Heights after the 1967 War came as a terrible shock to
Palestinians who had lived for years under the illusion that
the Arab countries would eventually liberate them. The 1967
war destroyed this illusion, as well as that of a united Arab
front bound by Egypt's Gamal Abdul-Nassar.
After 1967, demand for Israeli products increased employment
opportunities for men and women. This process led to increased
awareness of discrimination among Palestinian women in Israel,
which, in turn, sparked increased political activism as they
entered the labour market and the educational system. Palestinian
women joined with men in intensifying demands for full national
and civil rights and for recognition as a national minority.15
Most important, the Israeli occupation of 1967 dramatically
stimulated the process of re-Palestinianization. News from the
Arab world made its way into Israel, despite Israeli censorship.
Meetings between Palestinians from Israel and from the Occupied
Territories marked the political renewal of Palestinians in
Israel. This renewed sense of national identity was reflected
in widespread public political activity in which women were
important participants.
Palestinians in Israel became more realistic as they became
more politicised after 1967. They realised that they would have
to find resources within themselves and began to create their
own political programme. While some women continued their century
old tradition of charitable organisations, others created new,
highly political women's organisations affiliated with existing
political groups. From 1969-1972, the number of female Palestinian
students enrolled in Israeli universities more than doubled
(from 141 to 305), while enrolment of male Palestinian students
increased by only twenty-five percent (from 450 to 565).16
For the first time, women became involved in Arab Student Unions,
known for their high level of political activism, and women
voted for and were elected representatives and executives in
these unions.
However, despite greater participation during these years
in the labour market, education, and social and political organisations,
the status of Palestinian women remained low.
Palestinian Women taking matters into their own hands (1975-1987)
Women had become more active, not only in family decision-making,
but also in public life.17
In the 1986-1987 academic year, women constituted approximately
forty-eight percent of all Palestinian students studying at
Haifa University. They constituted nearly twenty-two percent
of all Palestinians who had earned a first degree, and over
thirty-two percent of all Palestinian academics in Israel.18
However, in comparison to women in the Occupied Territories,
the achievements of Palestinian women in Israel seemed weak.
In 1986, Palestinian women in higher education comprised only
twenty percent of the Palestinian students in Israel;19
while women had reached forty percent among students in the
Occupied Territories.20
This disparity, together with the fact that they were the lowest
paid workers in the Israeli labour force,21
raised awareness of their oppression, and this became a prime
factor in their mobilisation.
Women shifted their strategy from demonstrations to positive
action. They organised committees to develop local services,
especially in areas which were neglected by Israeli authorities,
such as pre-school education, and developed support systems
for women. Many of these committees have become important in
creating an infrastructure of professional support for empowering
women.
Like the rest of the Palestinian community in Israel, women
faced a fundamental conflict between their civil identity as
citizens of the State of Israel and their national identity
as part of the Palestinian people. To date, this conflict remains
crucial for many Palestinians in Israel, and individuals differ
in the ways they attempt to resolve it. For those who see themselves
sharing the same national identity and the same fate as the
Palestinians of the Occupied Territories, the solution is to
eliminate any differences between the two populations by establishing
a Palestinian state. For those who see themselves as citizens
of Israel, the solution is to eliminate differences between
themselves and the Jewish population, and to strive for equality.
The largest group of Palestinians in Israel attempts to solve
the dilemma by asserting both that they are an integral part
of the Palestinian people, and that they are unique because
of historical circumstances. Their solution distinguishes between
their civil identity as Israeli citizens and their national
identity as Palestinians. As Israeli citizens, they demand their
rights as a national minority, and they strive for Israel to
become a state of all its citizens and not, as today, a self-defined
Jewish state.
The Intifada (1987-1993)
[two paragraphs on the Intifada have been deleted from the
original text in order to stay strictly within the topic. ed.]
While the direct effects of the Israeli military occupation
and the Palestinian intifada on Palestinian women in Israel
need to be studied more thoroughly, some consequences are already
evident. First, the Occupation and the intifada have re-oriented
Palestinians in Israel in national solidarity with Palestinians
in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Second, Palestinian women in
Israel expressed frustration at their helplessness, as there
were very limited ways in which they could support their sisters.
Finally, contact with activists from the Occupied Territories,
with Israeli Jewish feminists, and with repressive Israeli political
tactics has awakened in them a consciousness of the gender inequities
within their own society. These responses, including responses
to escalating conservatism and Islamic fundamentalism within
Palestinian society, crystallised around the intifada.. New
organisations, such as rape crisis centres and campaigns against
violence against women, were created mainly by young educated
Palestinian women who are establishing a feminist perspective.
However, these women's organisations are still struggling toward
self-definition, and feminist consciousness among Palestinian
women in Israel remains diverse.
Post-Intifada, Peace Process (1993 - 1996)
The effect of the so-called peace process upon Palestinians
in Israel, including women, is still too close to fully analyse.
However, it is very clear that women's activities are increasingly
concentrating on women's issues, in particular on support systems
for women in distress, such as victims of physical and sexual
violence. In addition, Palestinian women in Israel are also
becoming increasingly involved in political parties, raising
new demands to be part of the decision-making process. This
was evident in the last election in May 1996. Recently, and
for the first time, women were elected to share in the decision-making
processes of the Follow-up Committee on Arab Education, a national
NGO working towards the development of Palestinian education
in Israel.22
However, the Islamic fundamentalist movement threatens many
achievements of Palestinian women over the years. At the same
time, The Working Group believes that this challenges women
who recognise this threat to actively take part in controlling
their own lives.
POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AND PUBLIC LIFE - Convention Article
7
The right to vote.
In the last national election in May 1996, approximately the
same percentage of Palestinian women as men voted for Prime
Minister and for the Knesset (the legislature).
The right to vote is not dependent on any property or literacy
requirement, however, all voters must possess basic reading
skills in order to cast their ballot. This necessity poses serious
obstacles for rural and elderly Palestinian women, approximately
fifteen percent of whom are illiterate.23
Elective office
Since the establishment of the State, no Palestinian woman
has been elected to the Knesset or has served as a Minister.
[the paragraphs detailing numbers of Palestinian women holding
local elective offices up to and including the present have
been deleted in the interests of brevity.]
Obstacles to political participation and participation in
public life
A patriarchal society with clear peasant roots, decision-making
and political representation among Palestinians is clearly a
male prerogative. In particular, the elder men of the family
hold the right of representation for the family as a whole.
Qualities of leadership are viewed as male attributes and are
contrary to what the society expects from women. Palestinian
women are educated to concentrate on domestic rather than public
issues, and to conform rather than oppose. Women's perception
of themselves and their abilities is also an obstacle to their
participation in politics and public life.
Furthermore, the gendered division of labour is very rigid
within Palestinian society in Israel. Despite the fact that
increasing numbers of Palestinian women are working outside
their homes, the main responsibility for household tasks remains
with them. This double work week, which Palestinian women share
with other women in the world, is another obstacle to participation
in political activities. Finally, the lack of support systems
for Palestinian women who wish to enter political life, and
the limited political opportunities for the Palestinian community
in general, further act as obstacles to political participation.
The Israeli government has not taken any measures to support
Palestinian women's representation in elected or appointed positions.
The Knesset Sub-Committee on Women and some local authorities
have encouraged local councils to establish women's councils
in Palestinian villages. In the case of Palestinian women (and
men) who hold government jobs, government policy has actually
served as a limitation on women's political participation. Numerous
Palestinian women who have retained temporary or permanent government
positions report that the authorities exert various means of
control to prevent them from engaging in political activities,
including visits to their homes and family members to inform
them that the woman's continuation of these activities will
threaten her job. Palestinian women and men must undergo a security
test in order to apply for a government job. This practice also
serves to constrain involvement in public life.
International representation and participation
No Palestinian woman in Israel has been appointed to a diplomatic
or to any other international post. No direct or indirect measures
have been taken by the governments of Israel to ensure opportunities
for Palestinian women to represent Israel at the international
level. During the Labour government (1992-96) some Palestinian
women sat the examination for a position with the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs. None of these women were offered a position.
A few Palestinian women also submitted their resumes for consideration
for an ambassadorial position..
Participation in non-governmental organisations
Palestinians in Israel formed NGOs mainly in the 1980s and
1990s to address various issues of concern to the community.
Many of these NGOs are now directed by Palestinian women,24
and deal with issues such as early childhood education, higher
education for women, violence against women, personal status
laws and other issues. The number of these NGOs is increasing,
and their roles are expanding. They play a very important role
in building support systems for women, and at the same time
creating spaces for women in public and political life.
Palestinian women in Israel were and continue to be actively
involved in peace organisations. Today, some women are members
of the "Jerusalem Link," an organisation with branches in East
and West Jerusalem which mobilises Palestinian and Jewish women
to contribute in various ways to the peace process, runs leadership
seminars, and helps women to run for elective office. Palestinian
women in these organisations have had the opportunity to prove
themselves in leadership positions, to participate in decision-making,
and to attend and present papers in national and international
conferences.
EDUCATION - Convention Article 10
In Israel today, there are two segregated education systems:
one for the Palestinian minority and the other for the Jewish
majority. The Palestinian education system operates under the
complete control of the Ministry of Education, which is run
by and dominated by Jews.
While a separate 'Department for Education and Culture For
Arabs' within the Ministry was formally dismantled in 1987,
as part of a plan of dividing authority by region, in practice
this distinct sphere concerning the education of Palestinian
students still exists. A Head of the education system for Palestinian
students, and regional directors, continue to deal with Palestinian
schools differently than Jewish schools.
The Palestinian education system has no autonomy. The Ministry
of Education defines the educational goals and the curriculum,
appoints the officials, inspectors and teachers and allocates
budgets, with complete discretion. In general, Palestinian schools
receive less funding and maintain poorer facilities overall
than their Jewish counterparts.
Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, successive
governments have done nothing through the education system to
promote, enhance or strengthen the feeling of a collective Palestinian
identity among the Arab citizens of the State. To the contrary,
the education system in Israel emphasises the "values of Jewish
culture" and "love of the homeland and loyalty to the State
and Jewish People," which are defined as objectives in the State
Education Law (1953). The Netanyahu government, in line with
these objectives, has formulated education guidelines and implemented
policies designed to entrench these values. The 'Education'
section of the government's policy guidelines states that "education
will be grounded in the eternal values of the Jewish tradition,
Zionist and Jewish consciousness, and universal values. The
Book of the Books, the Bible, the Hebrew language, and the history
of the Jewish people are the foundation stones of our national
identity, and will take their rightful place in the education
of the young generation.25
In line with these guidelines, the Education Minister formed
an "Administration for Values Education" team to promote civic
responsibility and commitment to the state.26
Discrimination against girls and women in Education
As emphasised in the introductory section, Palestinian women
in Israel face three levels of discrimination: as members of
the Palestinian minority, as women in Israel, and as women within
Palestinian society in Israel.
1. Tracking
The Palestinian and Jewish education systems are composed
of distinct 'tracks,' which determine students' courses of academic
or vocational training at the secondary level, and later, at
the college or university levels. In the Palestinian schools
in Israel, there are nineteen technological tracks, as compared
with more than ninety in the Jewish schools.27
In addition, students are led to various tracks according to
stereotyped gender divisions. For example, female students find
themselves directed to such fields as fashion, secretarial work,
housekeeping and child day-care. Male students are most often
directed to such fields as electronics, mechanics and carpentry.
Both Jewish and Palestinian students are led to stereotypical
gendered tracks; however, there are more options for Jewish
girls than Palestinian girls.
All secondary students must take the "Bagrut' (or matriculation)
exam in seven subjects in order to graduate. Arab students must
choose seven subjects from thirteen, whereas Jewish students
have twenty options. In 1996, twenty-three percent of all Arab
students passed the Bagrut (only 5.9 percent of Arab students
from the Negev succeeded) as compared with forty-five percent
of Jewish students.28
Arab schools also offer fewer units of study for the Bagrut
than their Jewish counterparts, placing Arab students at a disadvantage
for university acceptance.
2. Career and Vocational Guidance and other Student Support
Services
Only twenty-five percent of Palestinian schools, as compared
with seventy-five percent of Jewish schools, benefit from career
and vocational guidance services. Moreover, due to the low number
of technological and other professional tracks in Palestinian
schools, the opportunity for comprehensive career and higher
educational guidance remains limited. The absence of career
counselling centres, provided within the Jewish community for
Jewish students, further limits Palestinian students' freedom
of choice and opportunity, mainly concerning those who wish
to enrol in universities.
As for psychological counselling available in schools, only
thirty-two percent of Palestinian schools receive this benefit,
whereas these services are available in eighty-one percent of
Jewish schools. Only seven percent of Palestinian schools, as
compared with fifty-eight percent of Jewish schools, benefit
from both career guidance and psychological services.
3. Curriculum
In general, government Palestinian schools teach boys and
girls together. The Islamic movement, which controls the municipality
in Um El Fahem (an Arab city in the Triangle region), has succeeded
in securing optional separate classes for boys and girls in
the local public high school. No statistics or studies are yet
available which would reveal the effects of this separation.
Overall, the curriculum in most Palestinian schools reflects
the ideology of the State. Palestinian students learn more about
Jewish and Zionist history, literature and culture, and very
little about their Palestinian identity and heritage.
The texts used in Palestinian schools perpetuate gender stereotypes.
For example, in primary school readers, a mother is shown as
a homemaker and a father is shown as a carpenter. A mother who
is portrayed working outside the home is usually a nurse or
a secretary. For Jewish schools, the Ministry of Education has
begun to remove gender-stereotyped texts, and to develop materials
and curriculum that promote gender equality in education. These
new texts and materials have not yet been introduced in Palestinian
schools. The Ministry of Education offers no explanation for
why gender-sensitive texts have not been introduced in Palestinian
schools; there is simply no plan. There is a Department for
Equality between the Sexes in the Ministry; however, no Arab
educators work in this department. [The gender programme referred
to here may be what the IWN report refers to in its Education
section on IWRAW page 12 ed.]
In specific areas, such as sports, due to the shortage of
gymnasiums in Palestinian schools, the boys play football in
the school yard while the girls sit on the sidelines. Most sports
for boys are limited to football, because this sport does not
require much equipment or a professional coach.
4. Frameworks and infrastructure
Palestinian schools suffer from a shortage of qualified teachers,
particularly in the southern Negev region. In 1995-96, the average
number of pupils per teacher stood at 24.1 in Arab schools,
and 12.4 in Jewish schools.29
Inferior buildings and insufficient facilities are also common.
Moreover, within the existing facilities, in sixty-six percent
of Palestinian schools there are no counsellor's rooms; in forty-one
percent no rooms for nurses; in eighty percent no gymnasiums;
in thirty-three percent no laboratories; and in thirty-seven
percent no room for libraries.
Large numbers of Palestinian children with special needs do
not have suitable schools or classes to meet those needs. Hundreds
of students with special needs do not attend school at all.30
5. Dropping out
According to the State Comptroller's Report (1996), nearly
nine percent of Arab students between the ages of 15 - 16 dropped
out of school, as compared with less than half that percentage
for Jewish students of the same age group. Among older students,
aged 16 - 17, nearly forty percent of Arab students dropped
out, as compared with nine percent for Jewish students. The
Comptroller's Report did not provide disaggregated statistics
for Arab girls and Jewish girls. The FUCAE estimates that the
drop-out rate for Arab girls and boys is approximately equal.
Numerous programmes to promote excellence and prevent dropping
out, implemented in Jewish schools, are not provided in Palestinian
schools.
6. Illiteracy and levels of education
13.6 percent of Palestinian women over the age of fifteen,
as compared with 4.3 percent of Jewish women in Israel had no
schooling or were functionally illiterate. For close to forty-four
percent of Palestinian women, primary school is the highest
level of education obtained, exceeding the percentages in this
category of any other group. Palestinian women who have attained
only a fourth grade education are double the percentage of Palestinian
men, and more than triple the percentage of Jewish women. At
the same time, only thirteen percent of Palestinian women attain
some schooling beyond the twelfth grade, the lowest percentage
of any group.
7. University enrolment and studies; Teacher training colleges
Generally, Palestinian students do not benefit from grants
and other forms of support for higher education, as do their
Jewish counterparts who receive assistance from the Ministry
of Education, Ministry of Welfare and The Jewish Agency.31
These tuition grants or subsidies for accommodation are awarded
almost exclusively to students who complete army service. Over
ninety percent of Palestinian students do not serve in the army,
pursuant to Israeli regulations.
The lack of grants and awards significantly affects the ability
of Palestinian students to attend university in Israel. No special
funds provide grants especially for Palestinian women. Namat,
a department of the Histadrut, provides some small grants to
Jewish women for particular fields of study, but few awards
to Arab women. Only 3.2 percent of Palestinian women complete
university in Israel, as compared with 13.6 percent of Jewish
women.32
In universities, most Palestinian women study in the humanities
and social sciences: social work, sociology, psychology and
education. In teacher training colleges, more than ninety-five
percent of the enrolled students are women.
8. Adult Education
There are very few education/vocational training classes for
Palestinian adults in Israel. The educational framework is stereotypical
-- Palestinian women are offered courses such as sewing, cooking,
handicrafts, and child care.
9. The teaching profession and other positions in education.33
In recent years, the teaching profession has become largely
a women's profession, in both the Jewish and the Palestinian
communities in Israel. However, women teachers remain clustered
at the primary school level. Nearly fifty-four percent of Palestinian
women teachers are currently appointed to teach primary school.
No Palestinian women hold positions of professor or lecturer
at a university in Israel. A handful teach at colleges.
Men continue to dominate senior administrative decision-making
and management positions, as well as higher education level
appointments. Only five Palestinian women hold the position
of principal in private Palestinian secondary schools; none
hold this position in the government schools. Only seven Palestinian
women hold the position of supervisor, six of whom work in the
field of early childhood education and one of whom works in
the field of special education. Only two hold professional positions
in the curricula department for Palestinian schools in the Ministry
of Education. No Palestinian women hold senior administrative
positions in the education departments of the Palestinian municipalities
and local councils; women work in these bodies only in a secretarial
capacity.
EMPLOYMENT - Convention Article 11
According to official statistics, in 1994 approximately 253,000
Palestinian women in Israel were of working age, but only seventeen
percent were working outside the home. However, much of Palestinian
women's work is unreported and undocumented, such as farm work,
office and house cleaning and childcare. Most of these women
work for low wages and without benefits of any kind, and many
work in oppressive conditions.
The Ministry of Labour in Israel provides professional training
courses for special groups such as the unemployed and soldiers.
Different courses are offered for the Jewish and the Palestinian
communities, and for men and women. Although about eighty-three
percent of Palestinian women are not employed and thus eligible
to enrol in training courses, very limited opportunities are
available to them. There are thirty-eight courses offered in
the Galilee in the north, two in the Negev in the south, and
two in the Triangle region in the centre of the country for
Palestinian women. In the Galilee, the courses include: caregiving
in nurseries, helping the elderly, sewing, gardening, dental
assistance, data entry, cosmetics, and basic accounting. In
the Negev and in the Triangle, caregiving in nurseries and sewing
are the only courses offered. (This information was provided
by the Office of the Ministry of Labour in a letter dated 23
February, 1995, which was sent to Ms. Nabila Espanioly, Director
of the Al Tufula Centre, an Arab NGO in Israel which focuses
on early childhood education and women's empowerment.) Ms. Espanioly
requested that the Ministry provide more professional training
courses for Palestinian women. The Ministry responded by outlining
the courses mentioned above, and stated that no additional courses
were necessary, as the Ministry already provided sufficient
professional training opportunities for Palestinian women.
Most Palestinian women work in predominately low-paid "female
positions" such as office work, nursing, primary school teaching,
social work and assembly line factory work, particularly textile
manufacturing. As wages, job responsibilities and educational
qualifications increase, the percentage of Palestinian women
in these positions diminishes. Palestinian women in Israel earn
only fifty percent of what Jewish women earn, and Jewish women
earn only seventy percent of what Jewish men earn.
The following table illustrates the percentage of Palestinian
women engaged in particular fields of work in 1981 and 1994.34
[*as odd as this set of figures seems, this is the way it appears
in the report of the Office of the Prime Minister, according
to the Working Group editor. ed.]
In agriculture, one explanation for the increase is the growth
of Israel's export market. Although only seven percent of the
Palestinians in Israel work in agriculture, eighty percent are
women.
Arab women textile workers in Israel
Israel's growing textile industry, over the last two decades,
opened more than one hundred small workshops and a few factories
in many Arab villages. The exclusively male managers of these
small enterprises usually act as sub-contractors to the big
factories primarily located in the major cities or abroad, and
they employ thousands of young Arab women. Recent newspaper
accounts say that Arab women constitute approximately thirty-three
percent of the entire workforce.
Conditions in these workshops are oppressive: the majority
have no heating or air-conditioning, many workers are crowded
into small spaces, and extra hours are often mandated by employers,
often with no overtime compensation. Some Palestinian women
have been working under these conditions for fifteen to twenty
years, earning less than the minimum wage.
During the last three years, many of these workshops closed
down or drastically cut their staff. Ha'aretz, the leading Hebrew
newspaper, reported in October 1996 that fifty-nine small sewing
factories have closed since January 1996, thirty-one textile
factories have closed entirely, and others have cut their workforce.
Al Sahar, an Arabic newspaper, reported in September 1996 that
150 workshops operating in the Arab villages had closed, leaving
thousands of unemployed Arab women. Both the Hebrew and Arabic
press in Israel are replete with articles and reports about
the textile crisis. The attraction of low-paid workers, which
brought Jewish investors to the Arab villages two decades ago,
is now taking them to Jordan and Egypt, where women earn considerably
less than Palestinian women in Israel.
On the national political level:
As mentioned in the introduction, before the establishment
of the State of Israel, Palestinian women were primarily engaged
in family-based agricultural work, and they had status as productive
members of the family. Today, Palestinian women's economic power
has drastically decreased, and very limited alternatives have
been created by the government or by the Palestinian community
in the villages, towns and cities.
As a result of discriminatory policies adopted through the
years by the Israeli government, limited work opportunities
are available to the Palestinian community as a whole. There
is little industrialisation and inadequate infrastructure in
the Palestinian villages and towns. The Israeli government has
put substantial resources into industrialisation projects near
some villages and towns, but most of these areas have predominately
Jewish populations. There has been a continuous rise in unemployment
in Palestinian community in Israel, and its members are clustered
in the lowest status, lowest paid jobs.
Palestinian women are the first to be affected by unemployment
and are the poorest group within the community. Those who can
leave their villages to enter vocational training programmes,
colleges and universities, usually find it difficult to continue
their studies for financial, cultural or social reasons. The
majority of job training centres hold traditional courses for
Palestinian women in sewing, hairdressing and handicrafts, but
not technical or other more lucrative occupational skills. The
only possibilities for relevant/professional training are with
NGOs.
The limited availability of childcare facilities in Palestinian
villages forces women to limit their working hours outside the
home. Palestinian villages in general have been unable to develop
services for working women, primarily because of their limited
budgets from the various government ministries. The Palestinian
local councils and municipalities receive one-third of what
is allotted to their Jewish counterparts.
Gender stereotyping within the Palestinian community in Israel
Palestinian society in Israel considers women's basic role
to be childrearing and managing household affairs. Women are
expected to give priority to these roles if a conflict develops
between work and family. Palestinian women believe that their
work outside the home must not be at the expense of their family.
A corollary of this is the widely held belief among Palestinian
women that men's advancement is primary, and in cases of conflict,
women must relinquish their own prospects outside the home so
that their men may advance. Many Palestinian women work outside
the home solely to help raise the economic situation of their
families, not for personal ambition or career advancement. Palestinian
women are raised to follow and to depend on men. This leads
many of them to underestimate their abilities and to lack self-confidence.
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN - Convention Articles 3, 5, 6, 12,
15 and 16
A Palestinian woman in Israel against whom violence has been
committed and who seeks help must face societal norms which
legitimise violence; an often unsupportive official system of
police officers, judges, and social service workers; her own
internal feelings of guilt, shame and blame; and her economic
and social dependency. Until approximately ten years ago, violence
against women was considered a taboo subject in Israel, something
that had to be dealt with exclusively within the domestic sphere.
Only recently, women's organisations and women's rights activists
have succeeded in opening the issue for public discussion and
in creating new support systems for women.
Honour killing
Every year Palestinian women and girls in Israel are murdered
by their family members for a perceived violation of the code
of "family honour." In the last seven years, women's organisations
have documented fifty-two honour killings. 35
This number does not reflect the full extent of the problem,
as many women are missing and their fate is unknown.
Judicial proceedings are often influenced by the fact that
Palestinian society condones honour killing for purposes of
protecting family honour. Most judges and the police still regard
these acts as the private concern of the family and as a phenomenon
that stems from the social norms and values of traditional Palestinian
society, thus concluding that their judgements must be culturally
sensitive. For this reason, many judges accept the argument
that the murderer lost control of himself in a moment of temporary
insanity. These judges view the murderer himself as a victim
of the same values and norms which perpetuate honour killing.
This is also apparent in the manner in which the state prosecutor
charges the accused. Rather than pursuing a charge of pre-meditated
murder, the accused is charged with the lesser crime of manslaughter.
Likewise, the Israeli police often mishandle cases of Palestinian
females whose lives are endangered by their families. Women
who file complaints with the police are not taken seriously,
and their problems are often ignored. Frequently, they are returned
home because of the widely accepted belief that the place of
a Palestinian women is in her home.
Physical Violence
Women's organisations and other researchers estimate that
the instances of domestic violence in the Palestinian community
do not deviate significantly from the estimates for the country
as a whole. Recently, Dr. Mohammed al Haj Yehiye36conducted
research on domestic violence in the Palestinian community,
and found that twenty-five percent of Palestinian women are
abused at least one time per year; fifty percent are abused
at least once during their married life; and .5 percent are
abused on a weekly basis. An additional study, commissioned
by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and conducted in
co-ordination with thirty-nine welfare offices in the north
of Israel, found that in every fourth family, there is chronic
physical violence against women and/or children.37
In June 1991, the Knesset, passed The Prevention of Domestic
Violence Act (PDVA). This law regulates restraining orders and
the procedures and penalties for their violation. The law, however,
does not adequately safeguard battered women in general, and
battered Palestinian women in particular.
In the Palestinian community in Israel, extended families
typically reside in the same multi-level homes or in close proximity.
Young couples generally live above the home of the male's parents,
and very close to his other male relatives. The most commonly
issued restraining order requires the violent husband merely
to stay away from the house, and is insufficient if the woman
continues to live in the home, as she is surrounded by her husband's
family, who often continue to threaten or abuse her. Moreover,
the husband's family usually give him a place to live which
is very close to his wife. For these reasons, many Palestinian
women do not feel that the PDVA effectively protects them.
Also, many police officers do not serve the restraining order
directly on the violent spouse, but give it to the woman to
give to her husband. This practice further endangers the woman
and can prevent her from utilising the order.
Despite the new law, light sentences are handed down, including
fines or community service. These punishments are not significant
deterrents against abuse.
Sexual Abuse
In all of Israel, only two rape crisis centres serve the Palestinian
community: one in Haifa and one in Nazareth. Statistics compiled
by these centres show that most assaults reported by Palestinian
females are incest or rape by an acquaintance. It is important
to note that the statistics on rape in the Palestinian community
in Israel are based solely on the reports received by the Haifa
and Nazareth rape crisis centres, which together total nearly
250 women per year. The Haifa Rape Crisis Centre, which serves
both the Jewish and Palestinian communities, reports that approximately
twenty percent of all calls per year are from Palestinian women.
An unknown number of women choose to keep rape and sexual abuse
secret rather than expose themselves to the judgement of their
families, neighbours, and community.
Statistics from the two crisis centres indicate that only
about twenty percent of all female victims of sexual violence
file complaints with the police, and that the majority of these
complaints never go to trial because the cases are closed for
lack of evidence. Many victims of sexual violence do not immediately
report the crime, further complicating the process of collecting
evidence and bringing the case to court.
Over fifty percent of the Palestinian women who turn to the
Haifa Rape Crisis Centre for assistance do so as much as one
year after the actual assault. The majority of Palestinians
who turn to the Haifa Rape Crisis Centre are young, unmarried
women who kept the violence to themselves for a long time. In
general, these women do not share their stories with their family
members, and are extremely concerned that their confidentiality
be respected. Many Palestinian women do not know that rape crisis
centres exist, or that they can receive confidential support
and assistance in Arabic. Also, many Palestinian women are not
free to use the telephone without the supervision or presence
of their family members. Additionally, many women are not aware
that sexual violence is against the law.
When a Palestinian woman is a victim of a sexual offence,
there is the additional problem of language. When there is no
translation of the proceedings, the woman often loses confidence
and cannot adequately testify. In many instances, the prosecutor
does not adequately prepare the woman for the proceedings, and
the court does not supply translation when necessary.38
Problems with how the police handle cases of violence against
women.
The lack of guidelines on how to deal with cases of physical
or sexual violence against women leaves the handling of these
cases up to the discretion of individual police officers, station
chiefs, and investigating officers. These law enforcement officers
often do not undergo any gender-sensitive training, and are
inadequately prepared. Many police officers try to persuade
women to reconcile with their spouses, rather than registering
or investigating their complaints. Cases are also often closed
because of lack of "public interest," or cancelled solely on
the basis of a telephone conversation with the woman complainant.
Medical examinations are not always carried out, despite the
fact that the results may prove to be vital evidence of a sexual
assault. Moreover, complaints are not immediately investigated,
and oftentimes a long period lapses before an investigator is
even assigned to the case.
Recently, women's organisations have begun to implement training
workshops to raise the level of awareness among police officers
who work in the Palestinian community, and to train them for
work with women victims of sexual and physical violence. These
training sessions are implemented at the initiative and the
expense of the women's organisations, and are not mandatory
for the police officers.
There are now two Arab women police investigators, one in
Nazareth and one in Upper Galilee. In all other police stations
that serve the Palestinian community, women victims of sexual
violence are interrogated by male police officers who may be
a relative of the victim or even the offender. In instances
where the police officer knows either or both the victim and
the offender.
Government policy on issues of violence against women
Violence against Palestinian women is considered rare and
a specific problem of the Palestinian community in Israel. The
Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, which is responsible
for assistance to women victims of violence, is poorly funded
and inadequately staffed. Further, there is a large discrepancy
in the resources allocated to the Jewish community and to the
Palestinian community, with the latter critically under-staffed
and under-funded. The Israeli government runs two domestic violence
prevention centres in the Palestinian community in Israel -
one in Nazareth and one in Tirah - which serve the entire population.
These centres provide treatment and counselling for couples
who have physically violent and abusive relationships, and are
staffed by Palestinian social workers.
The Role of NGOs
One long-term shelter serves battered Palestinian women, out
of 10 existing shelters in Israel. Founded in 1993, this shelter,
with bed space for twelve women and twenty children, is located
in a Palestinian village in the Galilee, in the north of the
country, and is run by Women Against Violence (WAV), a Palestinian
NGO. The only other facility with a Palestinian social worker
is the short term Haifa Women's Crisis Shelter, founded in 1995.
Approximately twenty-five percent of requests for shelter from
Palestinian women are denied for lack of space.
Shelters in Israel are chronically under-staffed and cannot
meet all of the needs of the women whom they serve. There are
three emergency hotlines in the Palestinian community, all of
which are run by voluntary organisations and are supported largely
by the contributions of overseas donors, with some support from
the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.
HEALTH CARE AND FAMILY PLANNING - Convention Article 12
The Compulsory National Health Insurance Law, which took effect
in January 1995, assures the provision of primary health care
services, and declares egalitarian health services as a guiding
principle. According to the Law, each citizen is guaranteed
health insurance, and has the right to equal and adequate health
services. The Law mandates that the Minister of Health form
a health council to define the parameters of health services
for all citizens "within reasonable distance, within reasonable
time, and of reasonable quality." The Minister appointed only
one Palestinian man and no Palestinian women to the forty-six
member council.
Accessibility of health services to Palestinian women
To some extent, the new law has increased the availability
of health services to Palestinian women in Israel. However,
great disparities still exist in the availability of health
services, despite Israel's limited geographic size, between
the Palestinian and Jewish communities. In 1985, Dr. Hatim Kanaaneh,
former Director of The Galilee Society, the Arab National Society
for Health Research and Services, conducted a study comparing
the curative and preventative health services available in eight
Palestinian localities with those available in eight Jewish
areas. His research showed that Palestinian communities received
approximately half the services of those offered in the Jewish
localities.39 The Ministry
of Health likewise acknowledged a gap of some thirty to forty
percent in the level of available health services for Palestinian
and Jewish communities in Israel for 1992.40
A more recent study found that no gynaecological services
were available in a large number of Palestinian villages and
towns in Israel, and forty-two percent of Palestinian women
are forced to travel to other localities to obtain these services.41
Ultrasound examinations and neonatal screening tests for pregnant
women are usually performed in hospitals located in large cities,
relatively far from Palestinian localities. It is even more
difficult for Palestinian women to obtain papsmears, mammographies,
and similar examinations. Emergency services, such as ambulances,
are available in roughly one-quarter of Palestinian localities.42
As mentioned in the Education section, many Palestinian schools
lack basic health services: forty-two percent do not have nurses,
sixty-seven percent do not have mental health services, and
ninety-three percent do not provide health education classes.43
This particularly affects Palestinian girls, in the short term,
as they lack sufficient preventative care, and in the long term,
when they become responsible for their families' health care
needs. Health service centres for teen-agers are not available
in the Palestinian communities in Israel.44
[Detailed information provided under Article 11 in the complete
Working Group report has been considerably abbreviated. ed.]
Primary Health Services in the Unrecognised Arab Villages
45
Nowhere is the inequity between Arabs and Jews in Israel more
obvious than in the case of the unrecognised Arab villages.
Some of these villages existed prior to 1948, while others were
formed by Arabs displaced by the war after 1948. These communities
are populated mostly by Bedouin, and most estimates place the
number of inhabitants of these areas between 40,000 to 60,000.
The unrecognised villages were declared illegal by the National
Planning and Building Law (1965) when the land on which they
sit was re-zoned as non-residential and ownership was claimed
by the State. The villages are thus afforded no official status:
they are excluded from government maps, they neither have local
councils nor belong to other local governing bodies, and they
receive no government services. The government refuses to allow
any infrastructure development and thus prohibits the building
and repairing of homes, and the construction of paved roads
or proper sewage facilities. The Israeli authorities use a combination
of house demolitions, land confiscations, denial of services
and other restrictions to dislodge residents from the villages.
Official government policy is to re-locate residents to other
localities in order to use the land for the creation and expansion
of Jewish cities and towns.
The withholding of basic services has severely affected the
health of all the residents of these areas.46
Only a handful of NGO-operated mobile health clinics operate.
Four primary health care clinics, which had been established
by The Galilee Society, were transferred to the Ministry of
Health on the condition that the Ministry would operate them
on a permanent basis. In January 1995, one of the four facilities,
located in the village of Arab Na'im (population 450), was closed
down by the Ministry of Health. The Ministry of the Interior
denied the facility the necessary permit to place a caravan
or any other permanent or mobile structure on the land to house
the clinic.
As a result of the lack of health services, two-thirds of
Bedouin women do not receive any prenatal care. The majority
of the Bedouin are compelled to travel a long distance in order
to receive medical attention. These women, especially, lack
education about matters of family planning. The infant mortality
rate among the Bedouin population is twenty-three per 1000 live
births. The neonatal mortality rate in this community is 2.3
times higher than that in the Jewish community, and the post-neonatal
mortality rate is 4.6 times higher. Many medical problems, such
as bladder infections, miscarriages, and skin diseases can be
traced back to the difficult living conditions in the villages
and the lack of health services.47
Four clinics established by The Galilee Society, The Arab
National Society for Health Research and Services, were transferred
to the Ministry of Health on the condition that the Ministry
would operate them on a permanent basis. In January 1995, one
of the four facilities, located in the village of Arab Na'im
(population 450), was closed down by the Ministry of Health.
The Ministry of Interior denied the facility the necessary permit
to place a caravan or any other permanent or mobile structure
on the land to house the clinic.
In general, low rates of prenatal care and immunisation of
children, high rates of infant mortality, and many other medical
problems traceable to the poor living conditions in the unrecognised
villages characterise women's health in these areas.
MARRIAGE AND FAMILY LAW - Convention Article 16
According to Article 51(a) of the British Mandatory Law of
1922, which is still applicable, all recognised religious communities
in Israel have their own religious legal courts: the Rabbinical
courts for the Jews, and the Muslim, Christian and Druze courts
for the Arabs. An individual's religious affiliation determines
which court has jurisdiction over her/his personal status and
family law matters. The British Mandatory Law and subsequent
more recent laws enacted by the Knesset determine the jurisdiction
of these courts.
The newer Israeli laws vest concurrent or parallel authority
in the civil courts -- for Jews and Druze -- on issues of child
custody, inheritance, property rights, and for Christians on
child custody and support. Thus, Jewish and Druze women, and
Christians on limited issues, have the option to choose the
civil or religious courts on these particular personal status
matters. The Muslim religious courts retain exclusive jurisdiction
over all personal status matters, and thus Arab Moslem women
do not have the option to choose civil courts on these particular
issues.
Issues of marriage and divorce -- for all religious groups
-- continue to be exclusively within the jurisdiction of the
religious courts. Couples cannot get married in civil court
in Israel; only religious marriages are permitted. Couples that
do not want a religious marriage, or 'mixed couples' (couples
of two different religions) must marry outside of the country,
and then they may register as a married couple upon their return
to Israel. If a civilly married couple wishes to get divorced,
they must apply to the President of the Supreme Court for a
decision as to which court governs their divorce, as the jurisdiction
of the religious courts in personal status and family laws issues
requires, as an indispensable condition, that both parties belong
to the same religion served by that court. This procedure is
very costly and time-consuming.
The exclusive jurisdiction of the Arab Moslem, Christian and
Druze religious courts (MCD) strengthens the importance of these
courts, and demands maximum efficiency in work and fairness.
Two main problems of the religious courts with jurisdiction
over the Arab religious communities include:
- Lack of government funding. The Ministry of Religion supervises
and allocates funds to all of the religious courts, and maintains
a special department in charge of each religious community.
The Ministry of Religion does not divide its budget proportionally
between each religious community. Because of the small amount
that is allocated to the Arab MCD religious communities, the
MCD courts lack facilities, personnel and equipment. For regional
Sharia courts function only part-time.
- No Arab women judges. The Muslim, Christian and Druze courts
do not allow Arab women to serve as judges. Each of these
religious communities accepts only male judges. Thus, the
whole legal religious system of power, which has the exclusive
authority to decide personal status issues, does not recognise
women as worthy to serve as judges. The Ministry of Religion
appoints religious court judges.
The jurisdiction of Religious Courts
Religious courts generally decide cases according to religious
laws, which in many instances discriminate against women and
afford them an inferior status. The Knesset may and does pass
legislation concerning personal status that is binding on religious
courts, but enforcement has been weak. Particular areas of concern
to Palestinian women include:
- Polygamy: the Women's Equal Rights Law (1951) declares that
women and men are equal. However, an exception to the Law,
in Article 5, provides that the law does not apply to matters
relating to the prohibition and the permission of marriage
and divorce. Thus, a law which ostensible promotes equality,
permits the maintenance and application of religious laws
which discriminate against women on these issues. Attempts
to solve this problem by making polygamy a criminal offence
have not helped and have proven to be ineffective, as enforcement
is weak. Article 176 of the Penal Law (1977) prohibits polygamy.
It provides that "a married man who marries another woman,
and a married woman who marries another man, should be sentenced
to five years in jail." According to the law, polygamous marriage
contravenes a woman's right to equality with men, and can
serious emotional and financial consequences for her dependants.
The 1977 Penal Law directly contradicts Shari'a law. According
to the Shari'a, men are allowed to have four wives. The
Ministry of Interior repeatedly ignores the official marriage
registers which show marriages to a second, third or fourth
wife, fostering a 'conspiracy of silence' surrounding the
issue of polygamy. However, it is possible to track these
marriages; for example, when a new wife gives birth to a
child in hospital the vital information, including the identity
of the father, is passed along to the Ministry of the Interior.
The failure of the system to track these men causes women
to lose faith in the system and to remain silent.
- Forced marriages: The right to choose when and whom to marry
is still not protected by Israeli law. In practice, particularly
in the Moslem community, and especially among the Bedouin,
young women are sold in marriage to older men by their fathers
or other male relatives. Families often decide who a daughter
will marry from the day of her birth. In some cases, women
do not sign their own marriage contracts. The Ministry of
the Interior has the ability to track these cases.
- Divorce: according to the concept of Ela'sma under Shari'a
law, the husband has the power to decide if and when to divorce
his wife or wives, but the wife or wives have this right in
only very limited and rarely used ways. If a divorced couple
wish to re-marry, the wife must marry another man and divorce
him before the couple can remarry. The Shari'a courts in Israel
today uphold practices such as these. Similarly, once an Arab
woman is divorced, the Interior Ministry refuses to register
her children on her passport, or issue a passport to the children,
without the signature of her former husband. The Interior
Ministry does allow Jewish divorced women to register their
children without the consent of her former spouse.
- Child custody: according to Israeli law, all courts that
have jurisdiction to decide child custody matters, civil or
religious, must determine according to two main principles
-- the best interests of the child, and the equal right of
the two parents to obtain custody. In order to determine the
best interests of a child, civil court judges order a report
prepared by a social worker which details the particular facts
and circumstances regarding the welfare of the child. Civil
court judges usually determine the cases according to the
recommendations provided by the social workers, unless there
are unusual circumstances. Religious court judges, are not
required to obtain a social worker's report, and in general,
rarely request them. In the few cases in which such a report
is ordered, the judges do not take it into account in their
decision. The problem is most severe in Moslem religious courts.
(Civil courts have parallel jurisdiction with Christian and
Druze courts on the issue of child custody.) Moslem religious
courts usually award custody of children up to six years old
to the mother, and then automatically move the children to
the father when they reach the age of seven. Where Moslem
parents have a child outside of marriage, the civil court
has jurisdiction in the matter of child custody, as Islamic
law does not recognise this union.
- Marital property: according to Israeli civil law, property
gained during marriage is owned equally by both partners.
However, many Moslem marriage contracts contain a provision
that in the case of divorce, the couple agrees that religious
law solely governs, and that the joint property law does not
apply. A recent Supreme Court decision ruled that this provision
does not cancel a woman's right to sue for community property.
Many women do not know about this decision and thus do not
exercise their right.
- Child marriages: According to the Age of Marriage Law (1950),
marriage is permitted for young women and men at age seventeen
in Israel. However, this law is not effectively enforced.
Endnotes:
1 N. Abdo, Family, Women and Social Change
in the Middle East: The Palestinian Case (Canadian Scholars Press,
1987). back 2
M. Rishmawi, The legal status of Palestinian women in the occupied
territories, in N. Toubia, ed. Women of the Arab World (Zed
Books, 1988), pp. 79-92. back
3 Encyclopedia Palestina, Special Studies:
Volume III and IV (Encyclopedia Palestina Corporation, 1990).
back
4 R. Giacaman and M. Odeh, "Palestinian
Women's Movement in the Israeli Occupied West Bank and Gaza
Strip," in N. Toubia, ed. Women of the Arab World (Zed Books,
1988), pp. 57-68; F. Fawzia, Palestine, in R. Morgan, ed. Sisterhood
is Global: The International Womens Movement Anthology (Anchor
Books, 1984), pp. 536-539; and M. Rishmawi. back
5 K. Warnock, Land Before Honour: Palestinian
Women in the Occupied Territories (Monthly Review Press, 1990).
back
6 The preceding figures were compiled
from various sources including E. Said, The Question of Palestine
(Vintage Books, 1992). back
7 S. Jirys, The Arabs in Israel (Monthly
Review, 1976). back
8 N. Abdo. back
9 I. Lustick, Arabs in the Jewish State:
Israels Control of a National Minority (Texas University Press,
1980). back
10 Y. Peled, Ethnic democracy and
the legal construction of citizenship: Arab citizens of the
Jewish state, American Political Science Review, 86, 2: pp.
432-443. back
11 M. Mari and S. Mari, The role of
women as change agents in Arab society in Israel, in M. Safir,
M. Mednick, D. Izraeli and J. Bernard, eds., Womens World: From
the New Scholarship (Praeger, 1985), pp. 251-259 (in Hebrew).
back
12 N. Abdo. back
13 F. Shaloufeh Khazan, Change and
mate selection among Palestinian women in Israel, in B. Swirski
and M. Safir, eds., Calling the Equality Bluff: Women in Israel
(Pergamon Press, 1991), pp. 82-89. back
14 E. Yisraeli, Adult education in
the Arab Druze sector, Studies in Education, 25: pp. 139-154
(in Hebrew). back
15 M. Mari and S. Mari. back
16 Id. back
17 E. Touma, Liberation of Arab women
not sexual crisis, Haifa Al-Jadeed, 12 December 1981 (in Arabic).
back
18 M. Al-Haj, ed. Problems of employment
for Arab academics in Israel, Middle East Studies, 8 (1988),
The Jewish-Arab Center University of Haifa. back
19 The Statistical Yearbook for Israel,
Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), 1989, Jerusalem. back
20 CBS 1982 & 1985. back
21 CBS 1992. Palestinian women in
Israel earn only 60% of what Jewish women in Israel earn. Jewish
women earn only 70% of Jewish mens income. back
22 Dr. Hala Hazzan, a member of The
Working Group on the Status of Palestinian Women, which prepared
this report, is a women who was elected in 1995 as Chairperson
of The Follow-up Committee on Arab Education, a senior decision-making
position. back
23 A. Farris, "The Status of Arab
Women in the Job Market in Israel," Office of the Prime Minister,
May 1996 (in Hebrew). Only eleven percent of all Palestinian
women in Israel complete more than thirteen years of study.
back
24 These include Women Against Violence
(WAV), Al-Tufula Centre, The Haifa Rape Crisis Center, The Follow-up
Committee on Arab Education, The Follow-up Committee on Social
Issues, The Committee for Educational Guidance for Arab Students,
Al-Fanar, The Movement of Democratic Women, Al-Sindiana, and
The Akka Women's Association-Pedagogical Center. back
25 See Jerusalem Post, 18 June, 1996
and Ha'aret, 17 June, 1996. See also David Rudge, "Israeli Arabs
Concerned Over New Government's Minority Guidelines," Jerusalem
Post, 20 June, 1996. back
26 See Zevulun Hammer (the current
Minister of Education), "Project Perspective," Jerusalem Post,
17 November, 1996. back
27 As cited in an unpublished paper
presented by the Fund for Promoting Technological Education
in the Arab Community in Israel to the 'Equality Conference'
held in Nazareth in December 1996. back
28 Ha'aretz, 14 April, 1997, citing
statistics released by the Ministry of Education. back
29 The Statistical Yearbook of Israel,
Central Bureau of Statistics, 1996, Tables 22.9,22.15. back
30 Figures cited by Ha'aretz, 11 April,
1997 from statistics compiled by Bizchut, an Israeli NGO concerned
with disability rights. back
31 Report of The Committee for Educational
Guidance for Arab Students, 1996. back
32 CBS 1996, Table 22.1 back
33 Statistics appearing in this section
were compiled from CBS 1995. back
34 Office of the Prime Minister's
Report, p. 44. back
35 This number is based on reports
documented in the Israeli press, and the work of 'Albadeel'
(The Alternative), a coalition of organizations and individuals
which was established following the murder of Ichlas Qanaan,
from the village Rameh in 1994. 'Albadeel' monitors trials and
legal decisions regarding the murder of women in the name of
"family honour." Additional statistics have not been compiled.
back
36 Dr. al Haj Yehiye, a Professor
of Social Work, formerly with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
conducted a survey based on a limited number of women and reached
these stated conclusions. back
37 Data for this study was compiled
from welfare offices in both the Jewish and Palestinian communities.
back
38 This information comes from the
Courtwatch Project of the Haifa Women's Coalition for 1993-94.
back
39 As reported in Equality Information
Report, Avda Center, Tel-Aviv (1992). back
40 Ibid. back
41 "Health Services in the Arab Community
in Israel," 'The Galilee Society', The Arab National Society
for Health Research and Services (1995) (unpublished report).
back
42 Id. back
43 Id. back
44 Id. back
45 The information contained in this
section is also found in "Housing for All? Implementation of
the Right to Adequate Housing for the Arab Palestinian Minority
in Israel," A Report for the UN Committee on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights on the Implementation of Article 11.1 of
the United Nations CESCR, written and published by The Arab
Coordinating Committee on Housing Rights, Israel (ACCHRI), April
1996, pp. 67-68. This report is available from The Arab Association
for Human Rights (HRA), Nazareth, Israel. back
46 To date, no study exists which
particularly focuses on the health care of and other health-related
issues concerning Palestinian women in the unrecognized villages
in Israel. back
47 Report of the Association for Support
and Defense of Bedouin Rights in Israel, 1995. back
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