Occupied Jerusalem: The coordinator of the Forum of National Institutions of Violence Opposition Against Women, Ahila Shomor was surprised and shocked when she examined the recent statistics on the number of women killed in the Palestinian territories in general and in the Gaza Strip in particular.

“There is a sharp increase in the number of murdered women in the Gaza Strip in particular. There are also unsolved murder crimes which are kept a secret between families,” Shomor told Gulf News.

Cemetery

“During August, six women were killed and that is a very high number with regards to the Palestinian society. Al Mizan Centre for Human Rights in the Gaza Strip revealed, from its latest statistics, that 12 women were killed anonymously, 30 women were victims of domestic violence and 72 received various injuries all in the space of one year,” added Shomor.

The last victims were three women who were killed and buried in pits in a cemetery in the Gaza Strip. Had there been no witnesses, nobody would have known about these women. Al Mizan Centre for Human Rights in the Gaza Strip strongly condemned the surge in crimes, the mystery that surrounds these crimes and the absence of serious investigations to identify the criminals and bring them to court.

Shomor attributes the disturbing increase in the number of violence to many reasons; the most important being the unstable political situation that the Palestinian people live in, as well as the Israeli occupation and the security chaos. During crisis and war, women and children often pay the price.

Shomor emphasised the importance of imposing laws which are completely absent in the Palestinian territories whether in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank. There is a law that punishes those criminals but is not applied and the criminals continue to lead normal lives as though nothing had happened and as if they had not taken an innocent person’s life away.

Absence of law

As for the Human Rights Organisations, the situation in the Palestinian territories is worsening due to the absence of the law and that is what Shomor confirmed when she said: “We have gone back several years and the best example pointing to that is the return of the tribalism phenomenon that replaces law.”

In this atmosphere, law is no longer prescribed and citizens no longer trust the media. In the present, many women have been killed without a chance to defend themselves and the problem remains unsolved.

---