Israel Made Me Beat My Wife, Part 2
August 2, 2012 12:24 by Pesach Benson
Good thing The Guardian published its piece blaming Israel for Palestinian wife-beating yesterday. Had the story waited another day, it would’ve directly competed with an ugly murder demolishing the paper’s it’s-all-Israel’s-fault mentality.
Nancy Zaboun, a 27-year-old Palestinian mother of three was killed by her husband. In Bethlehem’s busy open air market. Eyewitnesses — and there were plenty — were horrified as Shadi Abedallah slashed his wife’s throat.
Associated Press notes plenty of contributing factors. Note the absence of hot-button excuses like “the occupation.”
The case reverberated across Palestinian society because of the brutality of the attack. However, violence against women continues to be tolerated—similar to attitudes in other parts of the Arab world—and women’s rights activists say abusive husbands are rarely punished.
Zaboun was regularly beaten by her husband, 32-year-old Shadi Abedallah, at times so severely that she had to be hospitalized, said Khaula al-Azraq, who runs a West Bank counseling center where Zaboun sought help.
Even so, Abedallah was never arrested. Police only made him sign pledges he would stop hitting his wife . . . .
Women have scored some breakthroughs in traditional Palestinian society in recent years, including gaining a greater role in public life. However, tribal laws still remain strong, and violence against women is generally viewed by police as an internal family matter.
I don’t trust The Guardian to get this story right. I’ll be happier if they just republish AP’s dispatch.
UPDATE: Palestinian women rallied in Bethlehem against the Israeli occupation for tougher PA laws against domestic abuse. Tthis LA Times followup shows how badly The Guardian blew the story.
In just one month, a father allegedly killed his high school daughter in the West Bank town of Tulkarm, another father is accused of beating his daughter to death in the city of Hebron and a third allegedly killed a daughter in the Gaza Strip. All apparently were so-called honor killings;
Arab women protest brutal murder of wife in Bethlehem | Blogs about Israel aggregation
5:48 pm
Aug 02, 2012
[...] Honest Reporting notes that this came only a day after The Guardian published an absurd piece where Israel was blamed for Palestinian men beating their wives. [...]
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jimmy
8:05 pm
Aug 02, 2012
” violence against women continues to be tolerated” Tolerated?? What a lie! The Koran encourages it to keep her in line.
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Iran’s Apologists Will Have a Hard Time Explaining Away Ahmadinejad Speech | Blogs about Israel aggregation
8:21 pm
Aug 02, 2012
[...] 1. A brutal murder in Bethlehem’s open-air market has shocked Palestinians into confronting wife-beating. AP‘s dispatch raises uncomfortable questions for one British paper which only yesterday blamed Israel for the domestic violence. See Israel Made Me Beat My Wife, Part 2. [...]
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Alan
10:21 pm
Aug 02, 2012
if I’m not mistaken, the Guardian piece focused on Gaza and blamed not just the “occupation” but also the blockade. But Bethlehem isn’t in Gaza, and neither are Tulkarm and Hebron.
And of course none of that explains the honor killings that have happened in the U.S., Canada, and western Europe!
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bernard
2:13 pm
Aug 03, 2012
A very, very old lousy antisemitic habit. A couple of thousand of years. It’s always the yew who is guilty or responsible for everything which went wrong. What kinds of idiots are writing for this newspaper? Appears just as hate for all what is yewish. And people pay for such bullshit.
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marttin broschowitz
11:17 pm
Aug 04, 2012
This is unfortunately how too many
religious Moslem men interpret
the requirements of Islam.
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Sylvie Schapira
5:51 pm
Aug 06, 2012
Unfortunately for the Palestinians they cannot stop blaming Israel for every small thing that is wrong in their lives, because otherwise they will have to take responsibility for themselves. This is definitely not allowed in any theocracy/authoritarian state. The Palestinians are well and truly stuck: with their religion of fear and obedience to the Koran and Muhammed’s Sunnah. Stuck with their ignorant, malicious clerics teaching them to hate Israel, the Jews and the West, and stuck with their corrupt leaders who have no intention of peace, steal the millions of dollars that come from the West, and distract everyone with demanding a seat in the UN. Demands are what the Palestinians do best.
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Ron
9:38 pm
Aug 09, 2012
“Last year, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed a decree to put an end to an old law on the books that allowed so-called ‘honor killings.’ ” It’s probably going to take a little longer than a year for Palestinians to catch up and realize the world has changed and so have the laws. Meanwhile, what kind of name is “Nancy”. My sister’s name is Nancy and she is not Palestinian. Sometimes, you really have to think about something, like marriage to a Muslim, and the implications, before you go ahead, open-mindedly, or empty-headedly, or you could could lose your head, starting at the throat, apparently, in the Gaza.
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Kevin
12:06 pm
Sep 22, 2012
This spreads hate. Why should they do that? Spread love instead.
By the way, check out this blog, which spreads love around, and helps others find love as well:
yinyanglove.wordpress.com
Hope you do meet someone on there!
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