Koty's Sharebook 

Domestic economic abuse, exists all over the world.


Israel is a contry where at the Parlament, by the hebrew name the Knesset, there are two types of law that have been accepted: the religious law and the secular law. In Israel, there isn't a clear differentiation between religious law and secular law!

Now, because of the above thing, there are officially two type of 'courts' also. The religious courts and the secular courts. The religious courts, besides working with the secular law, they work with religious law also, that 'do not help to the women'. On the contrary, works against the women! At the Knesset you can find members who has been elected by Israely citizens, thus there are parlament members from all of the religions.

Thus if the law will be accepted it will be used by all 'types' of courts. By the secular courts and by the religious cours. Here we are talking about all the religions that have official courts in Israel.

At the following rows I am going to publish some of the results of a survey that has been made by "Dachaf" Research Institute, that the manager of it Dr Mina Tzemach. This survey has been made at 8 December 2008 for the Organization "Maka Mezalzelet "

The basic questions were formulated by Natasha Aubulsky and Dr. Koty Lapid [October 2008]
The questions of the basic questions based on the "Framework for domestic economic abuse. "  Working Paper, by Dr. Koty Lapid, May 2008

The interviews were conducted on 8 December 2008.
At the time the survey took place there have been 2.23 million women over the age 18 lived in Israel.

From this survey we can see clearly the existence of phenomenon of domestic economic abuse.
Among the conclusions of this survey we can find:

6% of the persons who have been asked do not spend money on their personal needs at all. As we see it, 6 % of these women can represent a population that is going through domestic economic abuse. It can be also that these women do not spend money on their personal needs because of their personal habit or existence of shortage of money supply for the family of the person who has been asked this question.

9% of the persons who has been asked answered that they do spend money from time to time.

We learned, that they receive the money for their needs from their spouse or from their parents.
We suppose that we got this results because these women are totally dependent on their mate or on their parents for their personal expenses.

46% of the persons who have been asked do not have money for unexpected expenses. This part of the polulation indicates the existence of domestic economic abuse. Meaning, the woman and children in a crisis time may be at risk, with no possibility for minimal protection.


19% of the persons who have been asked told that they get money for unexpected expenses from their spouse. This result can indicate that 19% of women can still count on their spouse for unexpected expenses! This could indicate also a situation of domestic economic violence - when the spouse has created a situation of dependency for money. The result also can indicate that these women do not handle all their own financial problems.


6% of the women that have been asked answered that their spouse is the only person who makes  the economic decision for the family. For us this is one the of important question in this survey!  For us, this answer indicates that in a situation when the spouse is the only person who makes the family decision their is a warning sign that may indicate domestic economic abuse. 

68 percent of the women have been surveyed, have no savings or investments of their own. That can indicate to a situation where the women and children in crisis may be at risk and for no option for minimal protection.

According to the result of this survey we can say that 4% of the women who have been asked know cirtainly that there are assets that exist in their family, that are registered in the name of the husband only. For us that means that is about 4% of the women have no part in the family asset, that is owned by their spouse.

Also you can find an entry on Wikipedia in Hebrew 'about domestic economic abuse'. The address of the entry is:

 http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%90%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%AA_%D7%9B%D7%9C%D7%9B%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%AA_%D7%91%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%A4%D7%97%D7%94

Thus our organization "Maka Mezalzelet" worked together with PM Orit Zuaretz, to device a secular law, that help victims of domestic economic abuse. Now, that law is at the Knesset, and we, the organization "Maka Mezalzelet" promote it's acceptance.