Reports: Ben Gvir bars police from attending Knesset panel on gender-based violence

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir reportedly barred representatives in his office, the police and the prison service from attending a Knesset committee meeting called to address gender-based violence, amid a surge in femicide cases since the start of the year.

The committee meeting, headed by Yesh Atid lawmaker Meirav Cohen, was convened to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, just a day after a young Arab woman was shot and killed in central Israel, the 45th homicide of a woman this year.

Representatives from security agencies were invited to attend the meeting in the Knesset’s Committee for the Advancement of Women, to respond to data pointing to an uptick in gender-based violence, but none arrived.

Ynet, Kan and Channel 12 all report that the minister forbade police representatives from attending, for unclear reasons. Meanwhile, the Israel Prison Service and members of Ben Gvir’s office declined to attend, citing a religious women’s tour of the Prison Service’s “Misgav” unit, which Ben Gvir formed to handle domestic violence.

Responding to Ben Gvir’s choice to apparently boycott the meeting, Cohen calls the government the “worst government women have had in the country’s history.”

“To forbid police representatives from appearing or participating in a discussion dedicated to the subject? And what’s more, on the date that the world marks the struggle against violence toward women? This isn’t just criminal negligence, it’s simply malice,” she says.

This year has seen 45 women killed in violent incidents so far, an increase from last year’s figure of 42 female homicide victims in total. Of the 45 killed, 32 women have been murdered due to their gender, referred to as femicide, according to the Israel Observatory on Femicide. Last year, 20 femicide cases were recorded by the watchdog group.