Nearly one in five Israeli women were victims of violence or harassment in 2023 according to new data from the Central Bureau for Statistics released yesterday to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. That amounts to 551,000 Israeli women who reported various types of violence throughout the year.
Thirty-two Israeli women were murdered last year in gender-based crimes. More than half the women killed were killed by a family member or romantic partner. Around 121,000 Israeli women, nearly 4% of the adult female population, reported experiencing violence or threats of violence. Only around one-third of those who faced violence or the threat of violence made a report to the police.
More than 5% of Israeli women reported experiencing sexual harassment over 2023. Women between the ages of 20 and 34 were around four times more likely to experience sexual harassment than women above age 35. Around one-quarter of those who were sexually harassed were harassed at work.
The data found that ultra-Orthodox women, religious women, and secular women were equally likely to experience sexual harassment.
Israeli women were more than 50% more likely than Israeli men to report feeling concerned about violence in the area they live, with 15.8% of women expressing concern and only 10.2% of men. Across all age categories, women are more concerned than men about facing violence, and women between the ages of 35 and 44 are 10 percentage points more likely to feel afraid than men in that same age group.
More than one-third of Israeli women said they don’t feel safe walking alone in their neighborhoods at night, compared to less than one-fifth of Israeli men. Women between the ages of 20 and 24 were 25 percentage points more likely to feel unsafe walking alone at night than their male counterparts.
This article was translated from Hebrew by Leah Schwartz.
