http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/365048.html

By Gideon Alon and Ruth Sinai, Haaretz Correspondents



Some 40,000 women were treated at the countries'
emergency wards this year as a result of violence
in the home, the Knesset Committee for the
Advancement of Women was told Tuesday.




Health Minister Dan Naveh, who
also heads the ministry's
sub-committee on the
prevention of violence, told
the Knesset panel that "some
40,000 women came to hospital
emergency rooms this year as
a result of domestic
violence, out of which 15,000
women were hospitalized."


The meeting was called Tuesday to mark the
International Day for the Elimination of
Violence against Women.

Naveh also told the committee that emergency
room workers are now told to look for the
reasons for a woman's hospitalization, and that
together with the State Prosecution and the
Public Security Ministry, the Health Ministry
was now implementing a project to identify
women at risk from domestic violence. Doctors
and nurses have been ordered to get to the root
of any bruising or injuries suffered by a
woman.

Some 3,000 women who sought treatment at
hospitals and health maintenance organization
clinics were identified as victims of domestic
violence - double the number identified four
years ago. This improvement in identifying
victims of domestic violence is thanks to the
ministry's project.

This number is still low compared to the number
of women who are believed to be victims of
violence. One of the reasons for this low
number is that the issue is still seen as a
matter for the welfare services and many
doctors still prefer to turn their heads and
ignore possible signs of violence.

State Prosecutor Edna Arbel told the committee,
"It is no secret that the issue of violence on
the whole and against women in particular is a
central issue in our work and we believe that
it must be raised to the top of the agenda,
every day and every hour and not just when a
woman is murdered."

Arbel said that of the 170 murder cases in 2003,
12 women had been murdered by their partners
and two men by their partners. She added that
Israeli society had become violent and cruel.
Arbel welcomed the more severe sentences for
the perpetrators of domestic violence now being
handed down by the courts, which sometimes
reach 28 or 30 years imprisonment.

Figures from the Knesset information center show
that from January to September 2003, over
21,000 people turned to shelters for help, of
which 5,063 were first-time drop-ins. A total
of 90 percent of those seeking help were
women.

Figures from the Prisons Service show that some
570 prisoners are serving time for rape while
some 320 are in for other sex crimes. Police
figures show that 256 cases of rape and sexual
assault were opened last year against a male
partner.

Committee chair MK Gila Gamliel (Likud) said
that the high number of women murdered this
year by their partners should set off warning
bells and steps must be taken to curb such
crimes.

MK Zahava Gal-On (Meretz) said that contrary to
Arbel's claims that harsher sentences are now
being handed down for domestic violence, in
most cases, courts hand down ridiculously light
sentences, such as community service or
suspended sentences. She slammed the courts for
essentially implying that women are their
spouses' property and can be beaten and hurt,
with their spouses facing punishment equal to a
property crime.

The Knesset plenum also held a special session
Tuesday to mark the International Day for the
Elimination of Violence against Women with MKs
condemning both physical and verbal violence
against women. The lawmakers also declared it a
national goal to battle against violence toward
women and domestic violence.

The Knesset called on the courts and education
system to deal with the roots of the problem,
while also demanding additional funds to battle
violence toward women.

According to a survey carried out two years ago,
around 214,000 woman (11.2 percent of the
female population) has suffered physical
violence at the hands of their partners at some
point in their lives. Around 142,000 (or 5.8
percent of women) had suffered physical
violence in the year preceding the survey.