Happy International Women’s Day?!

Friday, March 8, in case you were unaware, is International Women’s Day. The day even has an annual theme, set by the UN. This year’s is “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress.”

Let’s see where we stand: Ben Gvir’s “Jewish Power” party decided this week to cut off government support for the Michal Sela Forum, which works to find solutions to end gender-based violence. It is named for a young woman who was murdered by her husband – a free-spirited, Jewish secular woman who was a mother, daughter and wife.

Michal Sela and her friends were likely not Ben Gvir supporters, but the Forum is quite clearly non-partisan. It has one goal, and one goal only: to ensure women’s safety. “We don’t have to fund every organization that asks for money,” mumbled Jewish Power MP Limor Son Har-Hamelech, hinting at financial mismanagement. It is a bit suspicious, though, that the Forum was one of the organizations proposing electronic ankle bracelets for abusive men, meant to provide an early warning to the women they are accused of mistreating. Ben-Gvir put a hard stop to that initiative, putting the theoretical rights of violent men over those of threatened women.

So, not only are we not investing in certain women, we are slowing progress when it comes to finding ways to protect women from abuse.

In further progress – or backsliding if you like – on the issue of sexual abuse is the report that has finally been released, five months into the war, compiled by Pramila Patten, the UN special representative on sexual violence in conflict. Patten found clear evidence of horrific sexual abuse and rape, including evidence that rape is probably ongoing for female hostages still being held.

When those sexual abuse victims finally return home, will Israel have the resources to help them heal, or will our right-wing ministers have managed to cut off funding to the very organizations that can offer them the proper support?

Let’s be clear: Rape during wartime is particularly horrendous, not only because the rapist is an enemy, but because the rape is perpetrated on the woman’s body as an act of war, of hatred and of conquest. It is meant to degrade not just the woman, but her entire identity. And for that, this crime deserves to be exposed, whether it takes place in Gaza, Ukraine or Congo. It is also true that the rapists will never be identified, arrested or tried, which is why the armed forces that enable the rapes must bear the accusation.

And yet, I have to ask: When those sexual abuse victims finally return home, will Israel have the resources to help them heal, or will our right-wing ministers have managed to cut off funding to the very organizations that can offer them the proper support? Or do our ministers mean to imply that sexual abuse is acceptable within the borders of Israel, yet the fitting subject for international outcry when perpetrated by an enemy soldier?

I talk about both these two topics in the same breath, because they both go to the heart of the current government coalition and its discriminatory actions.

Zoom out from the Michal Sela Forum and the extraordinary work they have done in a short time. You might have already noted this is not a government that cares about its citizens. For example, Ben-Gvir side-kick Smotrich decided, as Treasury Minister, to keep back funding that is owed to Arab cities. Displaced residents of southern cities are moving back, despite the dangers, because their government stopped their aid, while those displaced from the North do not even have a return home date in their foreseeable future. The families of the those who died in an entirely preventable crush on Mt. Meron three years ago were disheartened to hear that when the findings of the investigation were finally revealed, those named in the report took no responsibility and rushed to smear the committee members and downplay the accusations.

So it should be no surprise that Ben-Gvir is letting us women know we are not worth the small amount of funding it would take to help prevent gender-based violence.

Zoom out from the horror of the rapes, and you will find a PR campaign. Israel has suggested UN downplayed the issue and delayed the report; the Hamas has claimed the report is skewed against them. The shock of the massacre is fading in light of the images of destruction in Gaza and the inconceivable numbers of deaths there. Hostage negotiations are treading water. But rape? That is skewed in our favor in the victim sweepstakes. As world opinion seesaws between support for Israel and opposition to the war, we can wave the report on sexual abuse in their faces and demand a response.

No one is really investing in women here, and the only progress we are making, at present, is to advance the war machine

We can discuss the details of rape – the more awful, the better for us – when it is, excuse the expression, Arab men with darker skin raping our “white” women. Rape at home, in contrast, is meant to be discussed in whispers, covered up and ignored.

Released hostages publicly discuss the sexual abuse as a way to put pressure on the country to work harder to release the hostages. Their courage and determination is 100% admirable, but there is an element of sensationalism and one of exploitation in the way they are covered in the media. No one is really investing in women here, and the only progress we are making, at present, is to advance the war machine.

Before the war, our country had one of the largest wage gaps in the OECD. We were in the process of handing more authority over women’s lives to the patriarchal rabbinical courts. We are, even as women are still held hostage in Gaza, fighting on the front lines and struggling on the home front, continuing to erode their status in the country.

Happy International Women’s Day.