Thousands of Israelis attended a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Monday night to protest violence against women. The demonstration was organized by a coalition of women’s groups including NIF grantee the Israel Women’s Network (IWN).

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis and the widespread lockdown in March, there has been a spike in domestic violence, with eight Israeli women murdered. Eleven women and a baby have been murdered in Israel since the start of 2020.

The organizers said, “When we talk in the present crisis about people sheltering safely at home, we must remember that there are women who are not safe at home. The virus called ‘violence against women’ has solutions that the government holds. We demand what we deserve and we demand our safety.”

The protestors gathered in Charles Clore Park on Tel Aviv’s beachfront and demanded that the $71 million that government promised to devote to combating violence against women – all the way back in 2017, and which still has not been spent – be immediately transferred to the relevant authorities.

The protestors’ message was clear: future murders of women are not inevitable and can be prevented.

Shira Vishnyak, whose younger sister Maya Vishnyak, 22, was strangled in Ramat Gan last month, allegedly by her partner, told the rally, “I don’t want any other sister to have to bury her 21-year-old sister. I don’t want such a thing to happen again. I appeal to you, members of the Knesset, and demand that you make the prevention of the next murder your top of priority. There are solutions, and they are in your hands. We have no more time to waste.