Clothing exhibit heading to UN threads together tales of murdered Israeli women

The clothing items of Israeli women murdered by their partners went on display Monday at the lobby of the Tel Aviv municipality building, in an exhibit timed with International Day to End Violence against Women that will soon be on display at the UN Headquarters in New York.

The exhibit, titled “She’s Gone,” comes as Israel marked a year that saw 13 women killed by family members in 2019, including three in the last month. Some 163 women were murdered in the past 14 years, according to Israel’s Channel 12.

The project displays clothes belonging to 11 women murdered by male relatives, including some cases that shocked the country, such as the 1997 case of model and actress Anat Elimelech who was killed by her boyfriend a day after she performed on national TV.

The pink dress Elimelech wore during her performance of the song, “Ballerina,” is on display, along with other pieces of clothing that had been significant to victims from all communities.

The only information given for each woman is her first name, the date of her murder, the murder weapon and the murderer’s sentence.

The exhibit also features an original soundtrack made of lullabies sung by women in 15 languages.

“I was asking myself, what happens with the murdered women’s clothes?” artist Keren Goldstein, who created the project along with her team, told Zman Israel, The Times of Israel’s Hebrew-language sister site. “A piece of clothing tells so much about us. Who are we? What is our taste? How do we choose to present ourselves?

“After a long process of trust-building [with victims’ families], some agreed to donate the clothes, even if it was the last thing left from their daughter or sister.”

Since its creation, the exhibition has been displayed in many institutions nationwide, including government ministries and the President’s Residence in Jerusalem. By the end of the year, it will travel abroad to New York and then Berlin.

It will be on display at the United Nations main headquarters, and is expected to be chosen by the international body’s women’s right agency as one of 2020’s most interesting projects.

“It’s important for this issue to reach as many places around the world as possible because this is an international phenomenon,” Goldstein said.

Israelis also marked the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on Monday with a 13-minute nationwide strike in memory of the 13 Israeli women killed since the start of 2019.

The strike was held at 10 a.m. local time. Many buildings and famous structures around the country were also lit in red on Sunday in honor of the day, including Jerusalem’s Chords Bridge.

The Knesset also held hearings Monday with government agencies and organizations that deal with domestic violence, featuring testimony from victims.

The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2013 to raise awareness of the violence faced by women, especially from family and those close to them.

Violence against women occurs throughout Israeli society, according to Prof. Mally Shechory Bitton. But in traditionalist societies like Israel’s ultra-Orthodox and Arab communities there are often taboos in place against discussing it, experts say.

Last year, 25 women were murdered in such incidents, the highest number in years, prompting a string of protests and urgent calls for authorities to take action against the increasing incidence of violence against women in Israel. Many of those women filed police complaints prior to their deaths out of concern for their safety.

In October, the Welfare Ministry issued a report on intimate partner violence in 2018 that found a surge in the number of reported cases of domestic abuse.

According to the ministry, the number of women calling its abuse hotline rose 160 percent between 2014 and 2018, and more than 6,000 victims of domestic violence received treatment last year. In 2018, 1,219 women called the hotline to report spousal abuse.

According to the ministry report, 163 women have been murdered by their husbands since 2004, including seven in 2018, nine in 2017, 11 in 2016, 12 in 2015 and 10 in both 2013 and 2014. That figure only counts women murdered by their husbands, not women killed by other family members.

A quarter of those killed during that period were new immigrants from the former Soviet Union, 20% were immigrants from Ethiopia, 20% were Arabs and 34% were Jewish women born in Israel.

Agencies contributed to this report.