Law, Politics, and Violence Against Women: A Case Study of Palestinians in Israel

• Author: Nadera Shalhoub‐Kevorkian
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9930.00071
• Date: 01 April 1999
• Published date: 01 April 1999

Law, Politics, and Violence Against Women:

A Case Study of Palestinians in Israel

NADERA SHALHOUB-KEVORKIAN*

Major controversies regarding the value of legal and policy reforms have

accompanied research on wife battering and social reactions to it. The present

study examines the utility of law enforcement and emphasizes the relationship

between gender, culture, and politics. It points to the difficulties arising from

the shift from private, traditional methods of dealing with violence against women

to a more public approach characterized by intervention of the state and the

criminal justice system. In this connection, it was hypothesized that enforce-

ment of the Israeli Law Against Family Violence among the oppressed and

discriminated Palestinian minority generates new conflicts within the group,

exacerbating control and abuse and re-victimizing women. Social control agents

(formal and informal) who were interviewed about their perceptions and atti-

tudes regarding the applicability of such a law pointed to obstacles created by

sociocultural variables, the political legacy and procedural barriers. An attempt

is made to show that application of the law without prior preparation and under-

standing of its sociocultural and political ramifications may produce adverse

effects at the victim's expense. That is, unless power struggles, cultural pressures,

and political priorities are taken into consideration, criminal strategies that seek

to eliminate abuse may prove to be dangerous.

I. INTRODUCTION

Over the past two decades, criminal justice systems throughout the world

have introduced reforms in policies dealing with wife battering. In the

context of these reforms, violence against women has come to be viewed as

an offense warranting intervention by criminal justice systems. In Israel, this

approach has been adopted only within the past few years, when battering

was officially acknowledged as a public issue requiring an appropriate social

policy rather than as a private problem. In 1991, enactment of the Israeli

Law Against Family Violence led to strong condemnation of wife battering.

Concrete measures were taken to combat violent behavior and to punish

offenders (Makias 1995).

* The author is grateful to Helene Hogri for the editorial assistance, and to Professor Simha

Landau for his insightful comments.

Address correspondence to Dr. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Institute of Criminology,

Faculty of Law and School of Social Work, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. E-mail:

msnadera@pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il.

LAW & POLICY, Vol. 21, No. 2, April 1999 ISSN 0265±8240

#Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK,

and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.

At the same time, a debate regarding the role and function of legal

remedies has ensued in Israel and throughout the world. This can be

attributed to conflicting ideologies regarding the status and role of women,

family issues and interests, and social reactions to wife battering. Within the

context in which women experience violence ± a context defined by gender,

race, class, and national minority ± the dictates of the law itself often render

it difficult to apply and generate resistance to its implementation among

victims and helpers alike (Crenshaw 1996). The controversy over this issue

has become particularly acute in Palestinian-Arab society. Issues regarding

social modes of intervention in cases of violence against women have

become topics of heated debate, pointing to a lack of consensus and

considerable confusion within that society.

Such dilemmas reflect the extent of controversy and ambiguity regarding

the status of women in Palestinian society. Yet, national and cultural

differences and commonalities have rarely been the focus of legislation and

research on violence against women. The present study is based on a com-

prehensive analysis of interviews and group discussions focusing on cultural,

political, institutional, and gender factors affecting practitioners who

provide legal remedies for wife abuse. In this connection, the crucial issue

is that the aforementioned Israeli law is based in principle on implemen-

tation of Western experience, which may challenge the political and cultural

characteristics of Palestinian society in Israel. The present article focuses on

the utility of this legislation by examining how social control agents (formal

and informal) perceive, utilize, and/or resist implementation of the law.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

Governments throughout the world are searching for appropriate solutions

to wife abuse. Studies of transnational government policies indicate that

policymakers are focusing more serious attention on combating gender

warfare (Connors 1994; Schuler 1992; Sorenson 1996). Moreover, cross-

cultural studies reveal that women's suffering from such violence is universal

and stress the need to develop appropriate strategies in this area (Mills 1996;

Schuler 1992; Shalhoub-Kevorkian 1997b).

The battering of women can be considered a global cultural problem

whose roots are ancient and deep (Martin 1976). Historically, wife abuse

was considered a private matter rather than a social problem in need of

public intervention (Fineman & Mykituik 1994). Physical cruelty to a wife

or serf was sanctioned for disciplinary purposes provided it did not lead to

the death of the victim (Davis 1971; Martin 1976). English common law

permitted husbands to ``moderately'' chastise their wives provided they did

not kill them (Blackstone 1987). The law was brought to the American

colonies, and it allowed a husband to chastise his wife provided that the

stick he used was no thicker than a thumb (rule of thumb). The subjection of

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#Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999