MK Touma-Sliman: Lock up men who threaten violence against women

Chairwoman of the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality MK Aida Touma-Sliman is calling on the police and State Attorney’s Office to arrest and indict men who threaten violence against women.

Her comments follow a spate of murders in the last two months committed by men against women, as well as a highly contentious court decision that ordered a threatened woman to enter a women’s shelter against her will. The ruling by the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court was overturned yesterday following an appeal by the woman in question, referred to as “Yud” to protect her identity.

Speaking to the Times of Israel, Touma-Sliman points out that Israel’s criminal code provides for a punishment of up to three years’ incarceration for making threats of various kinds, including threatening physical harm to someone.

“We need a change of attitude by the police and the State Attorney’s Office,” says Touma-Sliman.

“It is the freedom of the men [making such threats] that should be restricted,” the MK asserts.

She adds that the police were failing in their duty to protect threatened women and more broadly failing to impose law and order in the Arab sector.