Gender Equality Israel Project #58727

End digital violence against Palestinian women

by Kayan - Feminist Organization

End digital violence against Palestinian women

Project Report | Jun 10, 2024
Cyberviolence in the Light of War

By Nisreen Tabari | Director

Warning of hackers opening fake Facebook accounts

Dear friends,

Thank you for supporting our project to end digital violence against Palestinian women. A year has passed since you received our last update. In the last eight months, we witnessed unprecedented violence against the Palestinian people in Gaza. In Israel, we saw serious digital violence against women and girls for social media activity against the war. With your help, Kayan was able to support those affected, and to train women how to secure their online presence.

Since the start of the war, Israel has prohibited and persecuted online protests and statements against the war and even expressions of sympathy with the victims in Gaza. In addition to the authorities, public morale and individual people took an active role in online incitement against such protesters and opponents to the war, and even against those who did not speak out online in favor of the war. They were punished, threatened, and harassed. Cyberviolence reached very alarming points such as posting people’s pictures, names, ID numbers, children’s names and ages, and home addresses on social media and chat groups containing thousands of participants.

Women were targeted in different ways than men, for example by threats that sensitive private information would be published if they don’t publicly support Israel. This is very effective, serious and potentially life-threatening in the context of our society, and this context is being exploited for political maneuvers, a well-known tool by Israel for controlling the Palestinian people.

Since October, Kayan’s hotline handled 25 cases regarding cyberviolence in relation to the war. The hotline was open around the clock, seven days a week. It provided support and emergency services that addressed women’s needs related to digital violence, including providing legal consultation to ensure understanding of legal rights; providing emotional support; and providing understanding of social context and security issues.

Another important field of work was digital awareness training. As early as October 22nd, we organized the webinar “Freedom of Expression in the Light of War”, facilitated by a programming and information security engineer who answered the most pressing questions and concerns raised by the persecution and harassment on social media, and explained how women can protect themselves online. 162.000 people watched the recording of the Webinar on Facebook.

With your help, we will continue to prevent digital violence, cyberbullying and online harassment, educate women and girls about their rights and methods of protection, and provide legal and psychological support forthe victims.

We are so glad to have you on our team!

Nisreen Tabari,

Director, Kayan – Feminist Organization

Seminar: Freedom of Expression in the Light of War

Links:

Webinar "Freedom of Expression in the Light of War" October 2023

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Jun 12, 2023
End digital violence against Palestinian women

By Leandra Hettenbach-Said | Development Coordinator

Our poster for International Women's Day

Dear friends,

We want to thank you for continuing to support Kayan - Feminist Organization and to update you about the work we have been doing to support ending violence against Palestinian women in Israel.

Kayan's support hotline: We are continuing to support women victims of online SGBV through our support hotline. Each women receives emotional support, and consultation on steps to take to change her situation, such as doctor’s visits, filing police reports, taking legal steps and more. We offer to accompany them to appointments and make sure to follow up with them.

The hotline grew and became very successful during the last months and it included a lot of stories and cases from Haifa. The hotline was available for phone calls and WhatsApp messages on all days of the week. It proved effective and strengthened the justification for the need for such a service.

During the last three months, Kayan received approximately 78 calls:

- General violence: 33
- Economic violence: 2
- Workplace violations: 1
- Sexual harassment: 13
- Personal cases: 13
- Humanitarian support: 6
- General support: 10

It is noteworthy to emphasize that there has been a discernible increase in the number of cases related to digital violence in recent times. As such, it has become imperative for Kayan to address this issue proactively. To this end, Kayan and its staff have engaged in extensive discussions aimed at incorporating digital violence into the organization's discourse. Consequently, a program is being developed to equip volunteers with the necessary knowledge and skills to effectively address digital violence. This proactive approach will enable Kayan to stay ahead of the curve in combating gender-based violence in all its forms, including digital violence. To provide effective advice and support for victims of gender-based violence, once a week we hold a training with hotline volunteers. Our last session was about presenting feminist thought realistically, focusing on its close ties to social justice and the importance of bringing about change toward a safer and more just society. The group tried to objectively examine how stereotypes affect them personally, and how their personal views and ideas affect relationships and judgments.

Workshops with youth: The last three months were determined by the execution of intensive workshop on sexual- and gender-based violence (SGBV) with a particular focus on online SGBV. Through 10 workshops and lectures to youth in several localities, we shed light on the prevalence of violence and crime in our society, and how it relates to violence against women. We spoke about the influence of education and masculinity on societal violence, and identified ways to recognize violence against women and how to address it. Through our work with youth, we aim to provide spaces for young people to discuss issues that affect their lives and raise thorny issues to discuss them without fear. We learn from their experiences and listen to their ideas and critiques to improve our society. At the end of the workshops, students were able to recognize the link between general societal violence and violence against women in the digital space.

"After the lecture, I began to see different types of discrimination that we are exposed to as girls throughout our lives. However, we were not aware of that before.” (student workshop participant).

We thank you for your support and partnership in ending digital violence against Palestinian women and gitls in Israel, and we are very grateful for the ongoing friendship. With your support, grassroots change is possible.

Gratefully,

The Kayan team

Links:

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