Honor Related Violence (Israel)

Statistics on Honor Related Violence and Killings

Last year, eight women were victims in Israel's Arab community of 1.4 million people, women's groups said.

`Honor' killings norm for one clan
Diaa Hadid, Associated Press, July 8, 2007

Miriam Abu-Dahal, stabbed 29 times, May 2006

A 26-year-old resident of Ramle was indicted in the Tel Aviv District Court on Wednesday on charges of murdering his 24-year-old sister Miriam by stabbing her 29 times.

Basel Abu-Dahal was caught on tape by security cameras at a parking lot of Bank Hapoalim in Ramle two weeks ago. In the footage, he is seen stabbing his sister while passers-by witness the act and do nothing. He is then seen calmly walking away carrying the knife (see images).

According to the indictment, Abu-Dahal, a former felon, stabbed his sister with a 23-centimeter knife. In his interrogation, he admitted to the stabbing, claiming he perpetrated the crime because of what he claimed was the improper way in which his sister had raised her daughter.

A passerby found Miriam and alerted the paramedics who were unable to resuscitate her. Abu-Dahal was apprehended nearby with blood stains on his clothes after citizens called the police saying they saw a man chase a woman with a knife.

In his interrogation, Abu-Dahal said he had committed the act because of "honor," stressing that he was "willing to do the time for the sake of honor."

Ramle: 'Honor killing' caught on tape
Jerusalem Post, June 7, 2006

Hamda Abu Ghanem, shot to death, July 2007

Hamda Abu Ghanem feared for her life, but there was no one to protect her. Shortly after returning home from a battered women's shelter, she was shot to death while she slept -- the ninth woman in her clan killed for allegedly dishonoring the family.

The 19-year-old's crime: speaking to a man in secret.

Now, Hamda's sisters are in hiding, the chief witness to the slaying is missing and Arab women in this central Israeli town live in fear -- caught between an unforgiving tradition that allows little contact between the sexes, a community afflicted by violence and drugs, and little government intervention.

Several of Hamda's relatives and friends took the rare step of speaking to a reporter about the terrifying world in which they live -- a world in which a woman's life can be taken with impunity by a male relative.

Her grieving mother adds a silent testimony -- wounds she has inflicted on her own flesh to mirror the places she says her own son's bullets pierced Hamda.

`Honor' killings norm for one clan
Diaa Hadid, Associated Press, July 8, 2007

18-year-old girl, shot, January 30, 2011

Another case of "family honor" in the Bedouin sector – police arrested Sunday a 21-year-old resident of Rahat on suspicion that he tried to murder his 18-year-old sister.

According to suspicions, he shot her because she uploaded pictures of herself on Facebook, supposedly harming her family's honor.
. . .
During his interrogation, the brother said he found out his sister posted pictures onto the social network, in which she is posing with men and wearing revealing clothes.

The suspect added that because his sister "violated the family's honor," he decided to take revenge and illegally got hold of a weapon.

According to suspicions, an argument erupted between the two siblings, after which the brother shot his sister and fled the scene.

Bedouin man shoots sister over Facebook pics
Ilana Curiel, Ynet News, January 30, 2011

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