How activists are confronting contract killings of Israeli Arab women

Another Israeli Arab woman was murdered in Israel Sept. 23. A total of 13 women have been murdered in Israel since the beginning of 2016. Five of those women are Arabs. All five are suspected of being murdered by a relative or a contract killer hired by a family member.

This time, a masked gunman shot Dua'a Abu Sharkh in the head in front of her four children (ages 4-12). Abu Sharkh, a 32-year-old woman separated from her violent husband, saw her children for the first time after many months of struggling with her estranged husband; this time, he allowed her to see her children. The murderer arrived around evening, just when Abu Sharkh was about to part from her children near her husband’s home in Lod. He pushed the children aside and shot Abu Sharkh at close range, despite her pleas for mercy. After the murder, the police detained Abu Sharkh’s three brothers, who were later released on house arrest. Later on, Abu Sharkh’s estranged husband was also detained, as was his son from a former marriage.

Many family members of other murdered women attended Abu Sharkh’s funeral that was held in Lod. They protested together against the phenomenon of murders of women in the Arab sector.

Samah Salaime Egbariya, the director of the Struggle Against Violence in the Arab Society (a project run by the Sikkuy nongovernmental organization), wrote a scathing Facebook post only hours after the murder. The post expressed her disgust over the “dishonoring the family” term that is so common in Arab society, even now. “On this evening I loathe the men in my nation, I’m disgusted over your hollow pride,” she wrote and added, “I’m sick and tired of your helplessness, your violence and your stupid honor. … The day will come when the wind will blow here without bearing the odor of a woman’s blood. Only then will I call myself a free Arab woman, and will be proud of my renewed nation.”