End digital violence against Palestinian women

Dear friends,  

Thank you for supporting our project to end digital violence against Palestinian women in Israel. While often, we focus on achievements and activities, today we want to start by introducing the people behind the project, namely, our new Project Coordinator Jumana Ashqar, who took over the role as Coordinator of Kayan’s Support and Emergency Hotline in October 2024 from Yara Daw. Jumana is a social activist, a Cognitive Behavioral Therapist and specialist in psychological rehabilitation. As a certified group facilitator and counselor in individual and family sexuality, as well as text-based therapy, Jumana was the perfect match for this position. Since she started at Kayan, she was busy with supporting women at the hotline and spreading information and awareness about women’s rights, for example, the right to be protected from online sexual harassment, about which she talks in schools, centers for girls at risks and various other centers. We welcome Jumana to our team and wish her lots of success in her work!  

Our projectstarted in early 2023 with the aim to protect Palestinian women and girls in Israel from digital violence, especially sexual violence like blackmailing, harassment, and hate speech. It took a new turn after October 7th, 2023, with massive attacks on thefreedom of expression for Palestinian women and men in Israel in the context of Israel’s war on Gaza. We received hundreds of calls fromwomen and men who requested and received our help and advice in safeguarding themselves from sexual blackmail at their workplaces or dismissal from their jobs for posts they published on social media. 

We succeeded in raising awareness for labor rights and the violation of the law by the employers which affected the employees and their ability to legally protect themselves and their rights. One success of our work was a sharp decline in the number of victims of such persecutions. The avalanche of calls from the first days of the war has trickled down to only a few. Thanks to Kayan’s information campaign, people have learned what their rights areif they are called to a disciplinary hearing, and also learned to protect their posts and identity online, which is an achievement but also leaves a bitter note because it means that many refrain from expressing their views openly and tend to censor themselves in light of the consequences. 

Still, new cases are being brought to our attention even 18 months after the war. Old posts from the first days of the war or even years back are still being dug up by those who want to hurt and harass Palestinian citizens of Israel for personal and political motives, and new posts of those who decided not to keep silent are being discovered by malevolent employers, colleagues, students etc. An example is an employee at the East Jerusalem Welfare Department who sought help from our hotline after being called to a disciplinary hearing from her workplace. She had commented on the arrest of the owners of Jerusalem’s Educational Bookshop, their placing under house arrest for one week, and the confiscation of dozens of their books, initially for "inciting and supporting terrorism". “Who is the real terrorist?”, she asked in response. She received a warning. 

She was “luckier” than the hundreds of individuals who were dismissed from their workplaces since the beginning of the war. Bringing justice to them is another major concern of Kayan. Therefore, we recently submitted to court three cases of unlawful dismissal from workplaces, involving employees at a municipality, a state hospital and a private employer, who were dismissed on the basis of various social media posts which expressed sympathy with the victims in Gaza and opposition to the Israeli conduct in the war. In all cases, legal claims for a declaration of the illegality of the dismissals have been filed by an expert human rights lawyer who supports Kayan’s work on a freelance basis. We want to get either the court through a verdict, or the employers through a settlement, to declare that the dismissalswere unlawful, for two reasons: First, because of the right for equality and the right to non-discrimination, as statements against the war are not being used as a reason for dismissal for Israeli Jews, but only against Palestinians. And second, because of the right to freedom of expression which should be protected; employers should not have the right to silence people.Declaring the dismissals illegal is important so that theplaintiffswill not face difficulties when seeking employment in the future, and not only them.  

If we succeed, we will finally bring justice to hundreds of illegally dismissed women and men for whose illegal dismissals these cases will serve as a precedent. This will have a major impact on their lives, giving them new opportunities and a better future. While we are confident of our chances of success, we know that a long struggle in court lies ahead of us. To stand in solidarity with those whose lives have been majorly upset because they exercised their right to freedom of expression is important. Yet it is also costly. Without you, our donors, we could not fight this legal battle. We are so glad to have you on our team. Thank you for your support! 

Nisreen Tabari, 

Director, Kayan – Feminist Organization 

Links:

• Israeli Police Raid Two Palestinian Bookshops in East Jerusalem