Gaza man confesses to strangling sister

[oberliner]

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A man has confessed to strangling his 23-year-old sister to death in Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Friday, police told a rights group.

The woman's body was brought to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the early hours of Friday morning, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights said in a statement.

Police told PCHR the woman's father and two brothers were arrested on suspicion of murder, and one of her brothers confessed to strangling her to protect "family honor."

According to a 2011 survey by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, some 73.6 percent of never-married women in Gaza have been exposed to violence by a family member.

Of these women, 92.4 percent were sexually abused and 71.2 percent were physically abused.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=573576

[Betsy Ross]

1. That pretty much says it all for Gaza. n/t

[Ken Burch]

2. No. That pretty much says it all about the concept of "honor killings"

(a pre-Muslim concept, btw, and one practiced in many countries where other faiths were or are in the majority).

It's horrible that this happened...but it doesn't justify keeping Gaza under siege, because the siege can't ever cause things like this to change.

The Israeli government wouldn't want a liberal, secular Gaza anyway...because that would be a place it couldn't demonize.

[delrem]

3. thank you

twice I started to reply, but was at a loss for words.

[holdencaufield]

4. "because that would be a place it couldn't demonize"

Oh ... the irony.

[Ken Burch]

6. You would only have a point if Israelis were being treated as badly as a group by Palestine

As Palestinians are by the Israeli government.

[holdencaufield]

7. In your way of thinking ...

... are missile attacks on pre-schools considered a term of endearment? Are they just a misunderstood attempt at communications on behalf of the Palestinian people?

But, if you really want to demonize someone who is oppressing the Palestinian people as a group -- look no further than the Palestinian's own leadership.

If Israel mistreats the Palestinians it can be argued that they do so because Palestinian leadership poses an actual threat to Israelis -- but, what excuse does the Palestinian leadership have for oppressing their own people?

[shira]

10. criticism washing? So anything critical of Hamas....

...whitewashes the evil Israel and its majority ethnic population (wink-wink) commits? Is that why you think the OP was posted here?

[Ken Burch]

11. Hamas didn't INVENT honor killings(nor did the Prophet, for the record)

Hamas is a vile organization, but you can't blame THEM for the existence of honor killing

And Israel isn't keeping Gaza under siege to stop those killings. Nor did Israel ever offer sanctuary or Israeli residency to Palestinian women who were trying to escape honor killers, so that country isn't entitled to any sanctimony on this issue at all.

And I haven't heard "pro-Israel" posters calling out Jordan for not banning the practice-nor did they ever call out Egypt under Sadat or Mubarak for not stopping them, which those countries could fairly easily have done.

Honor killings are abhorrent. They have nothing to do with the I/P dispute, however. If they did, the IDF would have stopped the practice during the Occupation(and, as far as I know, they still haven't done that in the West Bank, where in theory they could do so at any time.

The issue of honor killings should not be used for "point-scoring"...it's beyond politics...and it's also totally unrelated to religion. Can we please just do the decent thing and treat this simply as a human rights issue?

[Ken Burch]

5. Honor killings are a horrific thing...there is no excuse for them.

But they are not pertinent to the I/P dispute, because the Israeli government is NOT holding Gaza under siege and the West Bank under military occupation to END honor killings or any other distasteful cultural tradition...and because there is no chance that either the siege NOR the West Bank Occupation can cause such practices to end.

It is cynical to use the suffering caused by honor killings for cheap political points...and it is an insult to the victims of those acts, because using honor killings for "point scoring" on the I/P dispute has never been based on honoring the suffering of those who were killed, nor on any concern or compassion for Palestinian women whatsoever.

[oberliner]

8. "It is cynical to use the suffering caused by honor killings for cheap political points"

Who is doing that?

This was an article in Ma'an News about a serious issue in Gaza, especially in light of International Woman's Day which was this past Friday.

[King_David]

9. It's Palestine , so it's very pertinent

There should be no welcome to any state or territory that accepts honor killing , discrimination against Gays and Women into any community of nations.

[Ken Burch]

12. So there should be no welcome to Egypt or Jordan, either?

Those countries still practice honor killings(neither Sadat nor Mubarak ever tried to stop them, nor has any Hashemite absolute monarch).

And Israel hasn't offered sanctuary, AFAIK, to Palestinian women or other Arab women trying to escape honor violence. And the IDF never tried to stamp out the practice in any of the territories it occupied.

This is about human rights...it has nothing to do with politics or whose side one should be on in the I/P dispute.

And it's already a certainty that maintaining the Occupation will never lead to the abandonment of honor killings...in fact, to my knowledge, Israel has never made abolishing honor killings any part of its terms for ending the West Bank Occupation OR the Siege of Gaza.

If you use the existence of honor killings as an argument for denying Palestinians the right to self-determination, you aren't just punishing the honor killers...you are punishing their potential future victims, keeping those women living at the mercy of a foreign army that isn't doing a thing, and never will do a thing, to protect them from the practice you and I both denounce.

[holdencaufield]

13. I thought as progressives ...

... we are against trying to impose our morals on someone else's culture? After all, all cultures are equally valid.

[cali]

14. YOU don't speak for me, honey. And you don't speak for progressives.

I'm a progressive and I have no problem criticizing human rights abuses wherever they occur and in the context of other cultures.

YOU on the other hand excuse Israeli human rights abuses. Daily.

[holdencaufield]

15. I'm not sure how ...

... blaming the IDF for human rights abuses that happen in Gaza (where there isn't a single IDF soldier) counts as "criticising human rights" but -- as you say -- your words, not mine.

[cali]

16. you are so disingenuous

all it displays is that you cannot discuss anything honestly without showing what you really are.

[holdencaufield]

17. And what is that?

Come on, say it. You know you want to.

[Ken Burch]

18. Nobody every said that applied to killing women, for fuck's sake.

nobody on the Left has ever said that honor killings weren't a massive issue.

My point is, they should be dealt with strictly as a human rights issue, not as "point-scoring". And they shouldn't be used as an argument for which "side" one should be on in the I/P issue, because you're not going to stop honor killings by backing EITHER "side", since neither side is actually trying to stop them(Israel isn't trying to stop these killings either).