Honor Killings In Palestine

Last Saturday 16 May 2009, Halimeh Ahmad Al-Sheikh from Qalqilyah was found dead near the Atara checkpoint north of Ramallah. She was the mother of 7 children, aged 30. Medical sources 2009_03_06-485said that the Palestinian Red Crescent found the body after they received information. They found the corpse of Halimeh with many stab wounds in the back and dumped about 400 meters from the Atara checkpoint on the road to the Nabi Musa village. The body had been dumped 4 years before, it had been partially eaten by wild animal.

Two months ago the body of another woman was found in Ramallah. In March 2009 three women were found killed in Gaza. There is an increasing number of murders of women in Palestine. In 2009, so far 11 women have been killed, but this is not the real number of “honor killings”, because many women are murdered and the families declare their death as a “normal” after they invent cover stories to simulate or justify a normal death. They are all victims of the weak laws inherited from Jordan and implemented in Palestine, which guarantee impunity to men who murder their female relatives. Last year women organizations held a meeting with President Abbas about this horrific situation, and they asked him to declare a strong law against the criminal “honor killing”. Apparently, nothing has happened since.
What the Palestinian Attorney General say about the increase number of honor killings and the murders of women in Palestine? Is this the right time to deal with this issue as a crime with premeditation and declare powerful laws which deter the perpetrators of these crimes?

Palestinian Attorney General Ahmad Mghanni: I can’t describe the honor killing as an organized crime. The prosecutors are dealing with this crime as a premeditation crime, but the punishment laws related to this crime and still implemented in Palestine are the Jordanian laws, which give lenient sentences to the criminals. In the new Penal Code which the Palestinian Legislative Council is supposed to adopt, and which was drawn up by the Palestinian Authority, there is severe punishment for honor killers, and we hope that this law applies.

When, perhaps in the year 5000?

9 comments to Honor Killings In Palestine

  • “Killer hurts the killer, not the killed.” Quote of the Indian mystic Nisargadatta (1897-1981). Also according to Martinus (1890-1981),
    a Danish philospher and world-teacher, man will, on the long run, reap what they sow – we’re still half animal/half human “sphinx-beings” (www.martinus.nu). But gradually, through suffering (self-inflicted, see quote), humaneness and neighbourly love will grow, and outgrow any fanaticism, be it religious or political.

  • Seatco

    This is why I merely blink and yawn when I hear sad stories about how the Israelis bomb and kill Palestinian women. Really it is. I say to myself when I see such bomb dead – “well at least those women don’t have to worry about their children or husbands killing them. You see, I view such nations or people as not deserving of women AT ALL. Since the Arabs treat their women as near WORTHLESS, I tend to see them – their men – as worthless too.

  • Robert Short

    ‘Honor killers” should be hunted down & ruthlessly killed! No ifs & buts! They are garbage & should not be allowed life. It would stop this very quickly if their lives would be the price of “honor”! It really tells you the truth about a society & religion that condones this.

  • Bill Green

    Zio Ganda.
    These women were Kidnapped by Israeli IDF, Raped and then reported as an ‘honor killing’
    Shalom

  • Huggles

    I wonder what the murder rate is in Palestine in comparison to say a a comparable population in the US or Israel? I suspect it is a lot less despite the daily brutality meted out up on the Palestinian people by the Israeli Occupation forces and marauding settlers.

    Nevertheless a murder is a murder, only in some parts of the world murderers conduct themselves according to some ignorant and twisted idea of honour while in other countries murderers of women are fired up with pornography enhanced misogyny.

  • norman

    “They are all victims of the weak laws inherited from Jordan and implemented in Palestine’

    It’s a tragedy. But don’t say the custom is from Jordan, it’s ARABIC, inplemented by the Arabs, after they conquered the Middle East. Jordan is only part of the conquest, from Morocco to Indonesia.

  • mr seatco, honor killings exist in all societies. its your prejudice and racism talking presently. perhaps we can have some details about this form of behaviour prior to the gods chosen coming to bring civilization to the palestinians with bombs, murder and killings ad nauseum over 60 years. do the devils in israel help, prevent or condone such crimes by their policies in gaza and west bank?

  • Linda Turner

    Interesting all the lies we are hearing about women in the middle east. I guess say whatever to get the American women who don’t know better on board your agenda.

  • Turk

    Compare the stats with Juedeo Christian countries like USA and UK. You will find that more women get murdered by their partners in these Christian secular countries but they donr call it honour killings! They call it DV or domestic violence or abuse etc.

    And we dont even know the background to these womes deaths – who really killed them or why.

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