ISRAEL

I

Best Wishes For A
Healthy and Happy New Year

Child Protection:
Meeting The Challenge

SHELLEY KLEIMAN

Special to The Jewish News

n the opening day of
the International
Conference on Child
Abuse held in Jerusalem in
November 1991, a 32-year-old
Haifa policeman was charged
with assault after banging
his eight-year-old son's head
, against a wall. Unfortunate-
ly the incident was not mere
• coincidence; such reports in-
creasingly appear in the
Israeli press.
Close to 25,000 children (1.5
percent of the child popula-
tion) are abused in Israel
; every year, according to a re-
cent survey by the American
Joint Distribution Commit-
tee. While every case is
regrettable, Israel's statistics
are far below those of other
developed countries. But fears
of a possible increase have
spurred Israel into legislative
I action. And Israel is, in fact,
now among the most advanc-
ed in the world in terms of
legislation to protect the
child.
The three-day event, the
first of its kind, drew over 250
participants from 14 coun-
tries, many of them leading
• experts in their fields. The
eighty sessions ranged from
the various forms of preven-
c, tion and handling to medical
and legal issues. Dr. Hanita
Zimrin, director of ELI, the
Israel Association for the Pro-
/ tection of Children, is
heartened by a mounting
public awareness of the pro-
blem: "Until recently, child
abuse was greeted in Israel
with outright denial," she
says. "When I raised the topic
( 20 years ago, I was dismissed
as a crazy woman."
This assumption that
Jewish parents don't abuse
their children was so strong
that up until two years ago,
according to Dr. Yitzhak Kad-
man, executive director of the
National Council for the
Child in Israel, "Child abuse
was considered an internal
;---= family matter and not even
classified as a criminal of-
fense." Today, child abuse is a
felony carrying stiffer
sentences when the offender
is the child's primary
caretaker.

-

According to Dr. Kadman,
the turning point occurred in
1989 following the death of
three-year-old Moran
Danamiam from Tiberias,
whose uncle had physically
abused her, eventually caus-
ing her death. The incident

caused a public outcry and
within nine months a series
of changes and amendments
were enacted in the Israeli
law.
The Mandatory Reporting
Law obliges parents and
child-care professionals, as
well as neighbors, to report
even a suspicion of child
abuse either to the police or
a social welfare agent. Says
Dr. Kadman: "It is now a
legal and not simply moral
imperative to report such
cases." Failure to report is a
criminal offense.
According to Miriam Faber,
head of the Social Welfare
Ministry's department of
child protective services, the
number of cases reported over
the past two years has doubl-
ed, and in some areas has in-
creased five-fold. This is in
part due to the tremendous
publicity the law has receiv-
ed. The law, however, has
opened up a Pandora's box, as
teachers, health-care officials
and parents are coming to the
slow realization that child
abuse cannot remain behind
closed doors. In fact, 80 per-
cent of the calls to ELI's
hotline are made by the
perpetrators themselves.

Children under 14 are pro-
tected by Israeli law both
from police interrogation and
from testifying in court. A
closed interview is carried out
by a special youth inter-
rogator, who may even testify
in court on the child's behalf.
Thirty-six years have passed
since this law's enactment,
and according to Tamar
Morag, legal director of the
National Council for the
Child, "In spite of having
undergone a number of
amendments, it remains a
highly original piece of
legislation. Its main innova-
tion is that it excludes
heresay evidence and denies
the right to cross-
examination," says Ms.
Morag, "something which ex-
ists nowhere else."
Other innovations in the
law empower the court to
remove the offender from the
courtroom when a child does
testify in court and order a
violent family member out of
the home, as opposed to the
more common practice of
removing the child from the
threatening environment.
Notes Jerusalem attorney
and pro-child activist Philip
Marcus, "These laws are con-
sidered highly progressive by
legislators and lawyers in
other countries." ❑

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