Gun Free Kitchen Tables--Preventing Gun Violence In Israel
by Rela Mazali, author and Israeli peace activist
There is a widely accepted “truism” about gun control in Israel: Israel isn’t the US. Gun licensing laws and their enforcement here are stricter by far than those of the States. They rule out the kind of virtually unchecked small arms proliferation that has plagued the US.
Yet many foreign visitors to Israel are shocked by the quantities of arms they encounter here. While it’s indeed the case that Israel’s gun licensing laws, and some of its practices, are considerably stricter than those in much of the US, Jewish Israelis’ complacency about entrenched militarization causes the virtual invisibility of unconcealed guns to Israeli Jewish eyes. Guns are perceived by many of the Jewish majority as benign, protective, there solely for “our security” — and not a risk.
More recently, the NCJW Women’s Forum has added an important supplementary component, and its head, Professor Daphne Hacker from the Faculty of Law, also spoke with us. The Forum meets on Fridays when hundreds of women come to the campus to listen and learn about a range of topics concerning women’s issues. Four students from the program joined us to discuss their own research and interests. Yifat, one of the students, came to the program after working as a lawyer because she wanted to better understand the issues facing her women clients. Professor Naveh closed the meeting and discussion with a D’var Torah about Purim and Queen Vashti’s role in the Purim story – “she stood up to the King and said no!”
We began the day meeting with Dr. Dalia Fadila, a Muslim educator whom I had gotten to know in New York City when we co-sponsored a program with the Inter-Agency Taskforce on Arab Issues..jpg)
As NCJW’s director in Israel, I have been in touch with all of our grantees, partners, scholarship recipients, and friends. One particular grantee, the EDEN School for Teenage Girls at Risk on Kibbutz Carmia, is at direct risk as they are one mile from the Gaza border. Since Hamas is attacking with sequential missile attacks and with more frequency than ever before (150 or more missiles a day for the last eight days) there are new home front command guidelines regarding a protective stay of 10 minutes after each of the many siren alarms. Consequently, the girls and the staff find themselves for long periods of time during each day and night crowded in small protective shelters, with standing room only. The girls are under a great deal of stress and are very anxious. They are starting to regress emotionally and behaviorally, and they will need more therapeutic time and attention. We at NCJW have been successful in raising thousands of dollars from our members and donors who understood the urgent need and responded — and we thank you all. All the funds will be sent to Israel to help respond to these urgent appeals.
Whether this bill will actually help or harm women has now become the most contentious issue within ICAR, the International Coalition for Agunot Rights – a coalition of 27 women’s organizations, including NCJW. This bill was introduced with the best intentions; however, it was revised and compromised so much that it now gives the rabbinical courts more – not less -power over the divorce proceedings at the expense of the woman involved and it has fragmented women’s coalitions on this issue. For more than a century now, NCJW’s stand on agunot rights has been for fair and equal treatment of both sides, based on the belief that marriage is an equal partnership, and that women should have the same rights as men during a divorce.
Meeting the Hon. Tzipi Livni.jpg)
But this mission was different. 
in Israel — of all places — there would be religious tolerance and freedom. Sadly, this is not the case. We met at the entrance to the women’s section of the wall and assembled at the rear, far away from where women were praying. It was a beautiful and joyous service. Several women looked at us incredulously, some shaking their heads in disgust. One woman begged that we not desecrate this holy place with our voices and implored the guard to silence us. Especially poignant for me was the presence of a few young girls in our group, the eldest of whom was celebrating a bat mitzvah. I couldn’t help wondering what they must be thinking, but fortunately, they seemed unfazed. My sense is that they were well prepared for these events.