Social workers go on strike to protest violence against them

Three brothers arrived at a social worker’s home on Saturday and attacked her family with clubs, metal bars and stones. The woman had helped remove the men’s sister from their family home following multiple instances of domestic violence.

The brothers planned to attack the social worker, who had placed their sister in an emergency shelter, but when she wasn’t home, they proceeded to violently assault members of her family, sending three of them to the hospital. Her husband’s hand was broken.

In light of Saturday’s incident and the steep rise in violence against social workers in recent years, employees of the nation’s welfare bureaus will go on strike Monday in order to attend a special session with the Knesset’s welfare committee to address the dangers now inherent in their profession.

According to data presented to the Knesset by Haifa University at the end of last year, a social worker is violently attacked every 1.5 days on average in Israel. According to researchers, the actual rate is much higher, since an estimated 50% of incidents go unreported. The data showed that between 2010 and 2011, instances of physical violence against social workers had risen by approximately 40%.