Preface

In recent years, Israel has held an annual “Herzliya Conference”, in which senior political and military leaders discuss “security and the balance of power”. In January 2006, the Coalition of Women for Peace and Isha L’Isha (Haifa Feminist Center) held its first “alternative Herzliya Conference” under the title “Security – For Whom?”. At this conference, representatives of civil society in Israel raised security issues that were not discussed at the other meeting: economic security, welfare, equality, personal safety, gender protection, and others.

This paper is an attempt to reflect the issues raised at that meeting, and to launch a deeper public discussion about what “security” really means in Israel. It does not seek to give a definitive view, nor does it necessarily reflect the views of the author. The goal of this paper is to capture that moment, and serve as a jumping off point for further discussion. The notion of “human security” is a new one for Israel, and it will take more than one conference to illuminate it.

Among the presenters at the conference:

• Rawya abu-Rabia, attorney, director of Yedid’s Citizens Rights Center in the Bedouin town of Rahat
• Neta Amar, attorney, feminist-social activist, legal consultant to the international court
• Zehava Galon, Knesset Member, Meretz-Yahad, and Chair of the Parliamentary Committee against Trafficking in Women
• Assia Istuchina, news anchor for Israel’s Russian-language TV station (RTVI).
• Abir Kopti, spokeswoman for Mossawa, Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens in Israel
• Adina Marks, Chair, Association for Patients’ Rights
• Tami Molad-Hayu, Labor Party candidate for the Knesset
• Shira Ohayon, educator, co-founder of the Kedma schools, activist in the Democratic Mizrahi Rainbow

This paper is also based on the research and writing of:

• Sarai Aharoni, Ph.D. candidate, Bar-Ilan University, activist in Isha L’Isha
• Dr. Orit Kamir, Law Faculty, Hebrew University, Jerusalem
• Molly Malekar, Director, Bat Shalom of The Jerusalem Link
• Rela Mazali, author, activist, New Profile: Movement for the Civil-ization of Israeli Society
• Dr. Amalia Sa’ar, Anthropology Department, Haifa University, activist in Isha L’Isha
• Dr. Dalia Sachs, Chair, Occupational Therapy Faculty, Haifa University, activist with Isha L’Isha and the Coalition of Women for Peace

We hope that this paper will open a productive and ongoing dialogue within Israeli society, and between representatives of the state and civil society.

Special thanks to: Libi Avikzari; Hedva Eyal (coordinator, Isha L’Isha); Adi Dagan (spokeswoman, Coalition of Women for Peace); Hedva Isachar; and Yana Knopova (coordinator, Coalition of Women for Peace).

Introduction

The term “security” is a concept that organizes the perception of reality in Israeli society. This concept of security, drawing its power from the existential fears of the Jewish people, creates a bias in the Israeli collective consciousness – that the greatest threat to it is an external attack. And yet despite the solid impression created by the aura of national security, most Israelis experience a sense of insecurity that derives from other sources: poverty, unemployment, crime, environmental hazards, as well as economic, gender, and national inequality. These are among the most immediate causes of acute insecurity experienced by most people in Israel.

In this paper, we touch upon some phenomena that are rooted in the obsessive concern with military security in Israel: the lack of safety for women, prostitution, pornography, and trafficking of women; the militarization of Israeli society; inequality for Arab citizens of Israel; and the insecurity derived from the lack of a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Fostering existential fears – that the Jewish collective is threatened –*perpetuates the lack of peace between Israelis and Palestinians.* The repeated recourse to organized power contributes to the state of war, and is reinforced by constant public discourse about the threat. Thus the endless cycle of violence is preserved, producing and disseminating the fear, and blurring the fact that war is actually a political decision of policymakers, not an ineluctable reality forced on us from the outside.

Focusing on security in the narrow sense is bound together with the militarization of the state and society in Israel, reflected particularly in the control of resources by the institutions of security. Militarization is linked to democracy: the degree to which state resources are distributed among diverse groups rather than concentrated in the hands of a few is a measure of the health of democratic processes. Resources control the ability to influence, and therefore the depth of democracy is also reflected in the diversity of and difference among elected representatives with influence. Resources whose distribution depends upon the democratic preservation of fundamental rights include: public monies; environmental resources including land, air, water, and landscape; and also information, which is a vital social and political resource. The ongoing deepening of inequality in the sharing of these resources as a result of militarization and other factors subverts the foundations of democratic rule.

The main victims of inequality in Israel are its Arab citizens, who are perceived as a threat to the security of the state. Although a well functioning democracy is expected to protect its minorities, democracy in Israel is in the service of protecting majority rights and hegemony. As a result of ongoing discrimination and stringent governmental supervision over several aspects of their lives, Arab citizens of Israel suffer from lack of social, economic, and even existential security.

Militarization, which is a process of male domination, provides support for the patriarchal structure of the state. The situation of women becomes particularly bad during periods when state violence rises. We are currently witness to a decline in the economic situation of women and an increase in sexual violence.

The state’s shirking of responsibility for gender security reflects disregard for the rights of women in Israel. Legislation is not progressive, enforcement is inadequate, and court decisions are disgraceful. Indeed, women’s rights are not viewed as human rights by either the authorities or the public.

Among the worst manifestations of this are prostitution and trafficking in women. As with currency, the existential security of women brought to Israel for the sole purpose of trafficking in their bodies has undergone devaluation, and the state institutions provide no remedy.

In summary, the disproportionate allocation of national resources may provide security in the narrow sense, while diminishing it in every other domain.

The Absence of Security: A Feminist Perspective

The impact of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on women

Women are more vulnerable to the indirect impact of the conflict because they are weaker economically and more exposed to gender violence. Research conducted by Isha L’Isha in 2004-05 among 552 Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel revealed that:

• The economic situation of approximately 40% of the women worsened since the start of the second Intifada. Economic recession has a greater effect on women for several reasons: Their income is lower, the level of unemployment is higher, and childcare makes it difficult for them to be absorbed into the workforce. Women head most single-parent families, and women are the primary consumers of welfare services and social security allowances.
• Poverty increases exposure to political violence. The poor lack the means to “buy” security – their own car (to avoid bus bombings), residence in secure places (to avoid burglaries) – and are more vulnerable to early death (men of marginalized groups are over-represented in those injured and killed). Poor areas (such as Sderot or Kiryat Shmona, inhabited primarily by non-European Jews) are more exposed to terrorism.
• This study also found a 57% increase between 2000 and 2003 in requests for protection orders to prevent domestic violence. In 2003, 2.3 times the number of cases were opened about spouses suspected of assaulting their wives in comparison with 1999. This rise overlaps the intense period of the second Intifada.
• Since the start of the intifada in September 2000, 18 women were murdered by men using weapons that were licensed. This includes weapons belonging to policemen, military men, or men employed as security guards. In late 2003, 340,000 licensed weapons were in the hands of people employed by security firms. The number of requests for gun permits doubled between 2001 and 2002. 75% of security guards belong to disadvantaged groups and are employed with poor working conditions, which contribute to violent behavior.

The absence of gender security

Women comprise more than half the population. They are entitled to all forms of security provided to every citizen, but they also require additional security because of attacks on them for being women. Gender violence is violence against women because they are women (and includes violence that is not sexual). In practice, the right to gender protection is neither recognized in social norms nor enshrined in law.

Social norms: Most assaults on the personal security of women – incest, beatings, murder, sexual harassment, threats of harassment, or trafficking for prostitution – are carried out by men who are well known to the women. One out of every six women and girls in Israel is a victim of incest. Hence, the security needs of women relate above all to relationships with men who are traditionally perceived to be charged with their security and welfare.

Legislation: Israeli law does not provide gender protection. The penal code that deals with sexual coercion, for example, includes outdated, confusing, and contradictory regulations, formulated by expressions no longer in use and whose damage overrides their effectiveness. (For example, the legal term in Hebrew for sexual intercourse is “be’ilah”, which is drawn from the word “ba’alut”, meaning “ownership”; this harks back to the ancient patriarchal approach in which penetration of the woman’s body bestows ownership on the man.) This law does not define the critical concepts it uses, such as “agreement”, which differentiates between permissible and prohibited sexual contact, and thus obstructs the prosecution and conviction of rapists more than any country in the world in which such laws exist.

The absence of a general policy to protect the personal security of women, as women, constitutes a breach of the state’s responsibility toward them. The state must give priority to gender security, formulate policies, and allocate the resources needed to implement this policy.

Prostitution, pornography, and trafficking in women

Prostitution and pornography are forms of sexual violence that undermine the sovereignty of women over their bodies and their security. Prostitution is not true free choice, but the result of terrible life circumstances. Most prostitutes suffered from early sexual abuse and are raped again and again during the course of their work. (Prostitutes are the group that suffers the highest incidence of rape.) Post-traumatic stress disorder is also particularly frequent among prostitutes.

Legitimizing prostitution and the purchase of sex services, particularly the institutionalization of prostitution, can lead to: - Women in distress turning to prostitution for existential and financial security; - The state playing the role of pimp because it takes a share of the earnings of prostitution.

In Israel today, most women engaged in prostitution have been the victims of sex trafficking. They are smuggled into Israel, beaten, raped, and forced to provide sex services. Estimates are that sex trafficking in Israel is a billion dollar business. Trafficking in women is another form of trading in human beings, such as migrant workers without rights and the sale of organs for transplant.

Trading in some women harms the gender security of all women, since the legitimization of trafficking women turns women – every woman – into objects. This is reinforced by the advertising image of women as sex objects and commodities.

Pornography is also an assault on the sovereignty of women. Pornography usually portrays the humiliation or hurting of women and women as passive victims, often subject to contempt and violence. Israeli legislation forbids humiliating and hurtful pornography, but this is not enforced. In the case against the Playboy TV channel, for example, the court ruled that freedom of expression justifies the continued broadcast of this channel.

Militarization of society in Israel

Militarization is the amplification of the military and the deepening of its influence on state and society, while entrenching the ideology that underpins it. Jewish society in Israel views military response to political conflict as logical and reasonable. Although it perceives war to be difficult and painful, it is regarded as an inevitable reality, not the product of decision. Militarization in Israel affects many areas:

• Political leadership: Retired military men are consistently over-represented among the political leadership in Israel on both a local and national level.
• Government spending: In 2004, 27% of the state budget went to ‘security’. A similar amount, 29.5%, was allocated that year to all the social systems combined: education, higher education, health, housing, welfare, employment, and immigrant absorption. In the Knesset, there is almost no deliberation about the security allocation and no supervision of this ministry’s decisions. Foreign aid from the U.S., most of it earmarked for weapons, constitutes some 6% of the total state activities budget.
• Lands: Approximately half of all the land within Israel (excluding the occupied territories) is allocated for military use: army bases, firing ranges, weapons manufacture, etc.
• Environmental responsibility: On sites used by the military and other security forces, there is ongoing pollution of the groundwater, utilization of asbestos, etc. Environmental laws and regulations are not enforced on these bodies.
• Accessibility of information: Elected officials are not provided with the information that would enable them to conduct a serious discussion about the security allocations or engage in meaningful supervision of it, nor are citizens.
• A patriarchal school system, in which many of the principals are retired army officers. As social gaps widen, core militaristic values are used to achieve social cohesion (lessons about military exploits, school trips to military museums and battle sites, staffing of schools with army officers, etc.).

Thus militarization deepens in Israel, entrenching the rule of military men over other groups: women, the poor, Arabs, Russians, Ethiopians, the disabled, and others. Bolstering the military comes at the expense of resources and political representation that are withheld from the general public, and thus marginalizes groups that the army is supposed to provide with security.

Inequality for Arab citizens of Israel

The narrow security discourse views Arab citizens of Israel as a threat to state security. Demonizing Arab citizens diminishes the security of a minority that the state is mandated to protect:

• Ongoing budgetary discrimination: In recent years, the state budget earmarked for the Arab population has not exceeded 5%, although Arab citizens constitute 19% of the population of Israel and their needs are actually greater: The Arab sector is short some 1,800 classrooms, twice as many Arab students drop out of school as Jewish students, Arab towns top the lists of poverty, unemployment, and infant mortality, and half the Arab households in Israel fall below the poverty line. Discriminatory budgetary policy only deepens the gaps in education, welfare, health, employment, and standard of living.
• Arab women pay the highest price: Approximately 80% are unemployed, although half of these wish to enter the labor force.
• Over 75,000 Arab citizens of Israel live in unrecognized villages in the Negev region, their basic security needs unmet – no water, electricity, educational or health institutions. A special police unit was established for purposes of demolishing these “illegal” homes, without dialogue or planning alternatives, terrorizing all the residents.
• Throughout the Arab sector , 40,000 housing units are earmarked for demolition.
• Not one of those who shot and killed 12 Arab citizens in October 2000, injuring hundreds more, was ever put on trial. Since then, an additional 17 Arab citizens were killed by security forces [1]

For Arab citizens of Israel, real security is survival, equal citizenship, and an equitable distribution of resources. Ironically, in Israel where elected officials frequently speak out aggressively against the Arab minority, a body called the “National Security Council” stands behind a plan for land grab and evacuating Arabs in the Negev (the Bedouin), demolition of their homes, and forced resettlement.

As long as all citizens of Israel do not enjoy real security, we will all continue to live in fear.

Lack of security and just peace between Israelis and Palestinians

“Peace and security” are what the governments of Israel have been promising for generations, while our Palestinian partners inform us that “There is no peace without justice”. Are these two parallel lines never to meet? No one can deny that it is Israel’s right to live in security from war and acts of terrorism. But the fear of war and terrorism is exploited by Israeli governments and the army to exalt military security above all other needs. As a result, citizens of Israel pay an enormous economic and social price for maintaining the apparatus of security. And despite this, their security has declined.

In recent years, the Israeli public has begun to understand the limitations of power and that the IDF and the separation barrier address terrorism in only a limited way, and are certainly not capable of stifling the Palestinian aspiration for national liberation. The Israeli public is beginning to understand that military might alone does not provide security, but that true security can only be the product of a peace that both sides are satisfied with.

The ongoing preference for wielding power over the alternatives for conflict resolution contributes to the endless warfare. This endless cycle of violence sows fear and spreads it, while obfuscating the fact that waging war is actually a political decision, not an ineluctable reality. Is there no other way to resolve conflict?

Until now we have failed in our efforts to achieve a permanent settlement because – in our desire to achieve security – we have forgotten that true security must provide survival with dignity to everyone. Peace, security and justice are bound up with each other: So long as the Palestinians are living under oppression, we will not know peace and security. It is not possible to force a solution on the Palestinians; their freedom and independence are not a good-will gesture, but a right enshrined in international law, exactly like the right of Israel to exist.

It is not possible to achieve peace and security if the process itself is not healthy. Israeli women are almost entirely absent from the efforts at reconciliation, despite UN Security Council resolution 1325 and Israel’s amendment to the Equality for Women Law – ‘Appropriate representation in public committees and national policymaking bodies’. A true process for achieving peace, security, and justice must include the diversity of groups in society, who must be partners to ensure its success.

Key Recommendations

Protecting women from disproportionate vulnerability to the effects of the conflict and violence:

• Public discussion must be encouraged about the proliferation of “light” weapons in Israel, as well as…

1. Legislation to prohibit the carrying of weapons by civilians and stricter control over permits to carry a gun.
2. Implementation of the Prevention of Violence in the Family Law, as amended in November 2000, including informing the police and the Interior Ministry about every Protection Order issued and procedures for removing weapons from those against whom an order was issued.
3. Funding for shelters and halfway homes for women exposed to violence in the family.

Gender security

• Passage of the Prevention of Sexual Coercion Law, which seeks to protect women and men from coercive sex in order to ensure their dignity, freedom, privacy, and equality. This law systematically lists the forms of behavior that constitute sexual coercion and defines terms such as “agreement”. The law asserts that one cannot force oneself on another.

Prostitution, pornography and trafficking in women

• Women who are trafficked must be treated like victims of a crime and not like criminals.
• Punishments for procurers must be increased.
• The approach of criminalizing the clients of prostitution should be internalized, including trying and punishing them.
• The law prohibiting humiliating and harmful pornography must be returned to the Knesset for amendment so that the courts will not be able to dismiss it in favor of the right to freedom of expression.

Militarization

• The Security Service Law should be revoked. Today, compulsory military service is performed in full by only 50% of each induction cycle, and only arbitrarily and selectively.
• A law should be passed that mandates a significant cooling off period for senior officers between army service and entry into politics.
• A system should be put in place that will enable full Knesset supervision of all security expenditures.
• Israel should work toward eliminating military aid from the United States within a period of several years.
• Laws must be enforced for all security-related institutions, including the Freedom of Information Law, the State Archive Law, and anti-pollution laws. The Israeli Military Industries must not be privatized until they thoroughly address the sources of pollution in their plants.
• The education system must be de-militarized, including the cancellation of curriculum developed by the army and elimination of army programs from high schools.

Equality for Israel’s Arab citizens

• The Arab community in Israel must be recognized as a national collective and ensured collective rights.
• True, full and unconditional equality must be ensured for all Arab citizens of Israel.
• Racism and incitement must be eradicated, and elected officials who incite to hatred and racism must be punished.
• Dialogue must be instituted between government officials and representatives of the Arab public – the Monitoring Committee and the Council of Unrecognized Villages.
• The state budget must be allocated in accordance with the needs of the population and in order to correct previous inequality.

True and just peace to ensure the security of Israelis and Palestinians

• Recognition of the cultural, religious, and political rights of the Palestinians in Jerusalem.
• Involving women in reconciliation and negotiation processes.
• Return to the Green Line.
• Evacuation of settlements.
• Acknowledging the Palestinian cultural, religious and political rights in Jerusalem.
• Acknowledgement of the nakba, the Palestinian national disaster in 1948, and of Israel’s role in this tragedy.
• Recognition of the right of refugees, not as a good-will gesture, but in terms of justice and righting historical wrongs. Working together to find practical solutions for rehabilitation of the refugees.
• Drawing a political border that is agreed by both sides.

Summary

We contend that security is a concept that must include all aspects of human existence: gender security, economic security, security on the streets, security from racism, security from discrimination of all types, a healthy environment, and a secure education for the next generation. This human security ensures not only survival, but a life with dignity and the capacity for development and self-realization.

In this paper, we reviewed some of the areas in which security is lacking in Israel, and made several recommendations in selected areas.

Because of the limited scope of this paper, we could not address the broad range of subjects that comprise security from our point of view. We limited ourselves to recommendations in areas that we directly addressed in this conference. The list should not be seen as exhaustive.

We have no doubt that true human security requires a different kind of thinking in all areas of life: economics, education, health, work, welfare, planning, and development. The involvement of all groups in society in policymaking will ensure that the broad range of issues that are important to the security of all these groups will be taken into account.