Woman shot dead in Galilee; husband arrested

A woman was shot dead in her car as she drove in the Galilee village of Rameh on Sunday morning, police said. Her husband was arrested as a suspect.

The victim was identified as Lina Ahmad Ismail, 35, a mother of two young children. Activists said it highlighted the growing domestic abuse in Israel’s Arab community.

Ismail had previously complained that her husband was abusive.

Police opened an investigation into the murder, and further details of the case have been placed under a gag order.

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According to a 2016 study conducted by the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, nearly 60 percent of Israeli women have suffered physical, psychological or verbal violence from their partners.

In Israel’s Arab community, however, the number is much higher.

According to activists, more than half of the 167 Israeli women murdered in domestic violence-related killings over the past decade were Arab women, despite the fact that Arabs up less than 20% of the overall population. Last year alone, 16 Israeli Arab women were murdered.

Advocates say the vast majority of the killings are the result of rampant spousal abuse that has been ignored by police in a landscape rife with drugs, crime and poverty.

“If three murders a week don’t light a fire under authorities, then what exactly will?” Joint (Arab) List MK Aida Touma-Sliman asked in a statement.

Touma-Sliman, who chairs the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality, said she would be convening an emergency session of her committee on Thursday in order to address the “systemic failure of law enforcement and welfare authorities in dealing with these cases of murder.”

“In the meeting they will be asked to provide answers,” she added.

AP contributed to this report.