War on men
War on meniStock

Family Movement Chairman Gil Ronen was expelled today from a Committee for the Advancement of the Status of Women hearing chaired by MK Aida Touma Sliman (Joint Arab List), after MK Merav Ben-Ari (Kulanu) interrupted Ronen, shouting "every week a woman is murdered here."

Sliman deprived Ronen of the floor, and when he replied that the committee had "declared war on the male gender," she ordered the Knesset Guard to expel him.

Aida Touma Sliman
Aida Touma Slimanצילום: Flash 90

The meeting was intended to discuss data presented to MK Nachman Shai (Zionist Union) showing about 70% of investigations against men accused of domestic violence are closed without trial.

Police and prosecution representatives explained the reasons for closing or not closing a case are professional and based on preponderance of evidence, witnesses, etc. The Committee Chair did not accept the statements and claimed a decline in the domestic violence prosecution rate, warning that if the trend continues, women might be afraid to complain.

Ronen was recognized and said that he accepts the domestic violence issue's importance and agrees that physical injury is usually more severe when a man raises a hand on a woman than in opposite cases. However, he noted, studies presented in Knesset by senior researchers show that women are no less violent than men in conjugal relationships, including severe violence and attempted murder.

Ronen also mentioned the Kohelet Forum study from 2016 revealing that among women's complaints against men, the percentage of false complaints is in the double digits".

Merav Ben Ari
Merav Ben AriFlash 90

Ronen said the Committee and authorities had slid into demonization of the male gender and that the Committee should not apply political pressure on police investigators committed to doing their work professionally.

At this point MK Merav Ben-Ari interrupted Ronen by shouting, causing pandemonium in the committee chamber. MK Yehuda Glick (Likud) called to allow Ronen to conclude his speech and respect his right to expression, as Ben-Ari persisted, claiming women never murder men.

Ben-Ari and Sliman claimed that since the beginning of the year, 13 women had been murdered. Ronen countered that this number includes women not murdered in the framework of a man/woman relationship, such as women murdered by male and female relatives, and others.

סערה בוועדה
סערה בוועדהצילום: תומר '.

MK Sliman took advantage of the uproar to deprive Ronen of the right to speak. Ronen then protested the Committee had declared war on the male gender, whereupon he was ushered from the committee room. After Ronen's expulsion, Sliman confessed to the assembly that she also knew of cases in which women murdered men.

"The events in the committee and MK Ben-Ari's wild behavior only illustrate my statement that women also know how to act violently," Ronen said after the incident. "No Knesset committee may pressure investigators in a way that will cause them to prosecute innocent people, and a committee that does so loses its legitimacy."

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