ByEVE YOUNG

A woman, who was staying in a shelter for abused women with her children at the request of police and welfare officials, was given a "Michal Sela dog," enabling her to return to her home with her children, the Michal Sela forum announced last month.

The pup - named Rich - is a defense dog, and will protect the woman and her children, meaning the woman can return not only to her home, but to the business she founded and was kept from while in the shelter, the forum reported.

The woman requested the dog from the forum a number of months ago, and donations to the forum's defense dog project made it possible for her to receive one at the end of June.
 

An Israeli NGO, the Michal Sela Forum, was created in memory of Michal Sela, who was allegedly murdered by her husband in October 2019. The charges against her husband describe him as stabbing her repeatedly in their home in Motza outside Jerusalem and staying next to her body for about 17 hours with their infant daughter in the house, before taking the baby girl to a neighbor and asking for help.

Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman directed last week that the plan to combat violence against women and domestic violence, approved by the government in 2017 but never fully funded, receive funding to the tune of NIS 55 million.

The funding will go towards a number of services including creating two new shelters for women and girls, creating five centers for the treatment of violent men and hiring 144 additional social workers who work in the field of domestic violence.

The announcement came just after the comptroller’s report on municipalities, released late last month, showed an 800% increase in the number of complaints made to Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services Ministry domestic violence hotlines and a 160% increase in the murder of women by their partners from 2019 to 2020. There was also a 22% increase in the number of domestic violence cases opened by police.
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.