The evil Israel causes Arab men to beat their wives

Writing about how the UN falsely demonizes Israel is easy. The UN's lies about Israel are so obviously false and so ubiquitous that researching a lie is an uncomplicated, simple task.

Take the most recent UN demonization of Israel ("UN-accredited NGO tells UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) that Israel to blame for Palestinian honor killings", humanrightsvoices, June 19, 2017). In this instance, a UN-accredited NGO named, International Organization for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (EAFORD), has reported to the UNHRC that Israel is responsible for the 'entrenched patriarchy within Palestinian society,' and is responsible as well for Palestinian men killing Palestinian women in so-called "honor killings" (ibid).  

As you may know, an 'honor killing' occurs in certain cultures (including the Palestinian culture) when--typically--a girl or woman is murdered by her family when that family comes to believe she has 'brought dishonor on the family'. It occurs mostly in patriarchal societies where the activities of girls and women are closely, sometimes obsessively  monitored (J Douglas Dalley, Raghu N Singh, "Honor killing", sociology, britannica, August 3, 2016). These killings are prompted mostly by accusations of some form of sexual immorality (ibid). 

You should note that "openly conversing with men not related" to the family is often included in that 'sexual immorality' definition (ibid).

For this particular demonization of Israel, the NGO above stated that "Israel's occupation and protracted human rights violations have entrenched patriarchy within Palestinian society and increased intra-societal and family violence against" women (humanrightsvoices, ibid). In other words, the Palestinian Authority is a patriarchal society (characterized by male domination which, in the Middle East, often leads to wife-abuse); but it is Israel's occupation that's responsible for all Palestinian wife-abuse (ibid).

The argument is that Israel's so-called 'occupation' increases poverty, perilous living conditions, and social tensions (ibid). This evil 'occupation' undermines "the Palestinian male traditional gender identity and authority as well as personal dignity". This undermining effect causes the Palestinian male to enforce his masculine authority over women(ibid). 

This mumbo-jumbo means that the Israeli 'occupation' encourages or provokes Palestinian men to ratchet up their control over the women in their life. Why? Because, in order to respond to the Israeli 'occupation', Palestinian men find it necessary to fortify the "patriarchal gender contract" (ibid), which is just another way of saying, the men, their dignity wounded by Israel, beat their wives to feel better. 

This report suggests these men must beat their wives in order to cope with the so-called 'occupation'. So when Palestinian men beat their wives, who's fault is it? Israel.

This  UN report offered no proof of this logic. It offered no studies or statistics to support the claims it makes against Israel. The report studied no other possible causes for wife beating--not culture, religion, or how boys are raised to behave as adults.

But this Palestinian wife-beating isn't just a 'Palestinian' issue. It's a Middle East Arab-Muslim epidemic issue. 

Consider:

-In Turkey, more than 80 percent of women experience abuse within marriage ("86% of Turkish women suffer domestic abuse", arutzsheva, 01/04/16). 

-In Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, domestic abuse against women has gotten so bad, women have begun campaigns to end wife-abuse (Zvi Bar'el, "Arab women breaking silence on domestic violence", haaretz, December 1. 2015). 

-In Egypt and Tunisia, wife-abuse affects more than 40% of married women. For this reason, women have succeeded in getting the issue onto the national political agenda (ibid).

Wife abuse is in fact widespread in the Arab Middle East (Unaiza Niaz, Sehar-un-nisa Hassan and Qudsia Tariq, "Situational analysis of intimate partner violence interventions in South Asian and Middle Eastern countries", Partner Abuse, volume 8, Number 1, 2017, domesticviolenceintervention.net , 2017). The Palestinian Territories are one of the places in the Middle East with a significant domestic violence problem (ibid, p. 55).

Israel's so-called 'occupation' is not identified in any of these non-UN reports as being a motivating factor for wife abuse in the Arab Muslim world. What is cited as probable motivators for this violence against women is local culture, social pressures and Islamic practice (ibid).

Palestinian lies about Israel are so obvious and transparent--and occasionally so outrageous--that little work is required to ferret out the truth. That's the case with this wife-beating accusation. 

The truth is, Palestinian women live in a wife-beating culture where religious leaders openly speak of wife-beating as part of marriage. Apparently, Palestinian leaders see no reason to speak of their culture's wife-abuse--unless, that is, it can be used to attack Israel.

Unfortunately, blaming Israel does nothing to help Palestinian women. But it seems to do wonders for the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), which loves bashing Israel with every lie it can invent.

I have a suspicion about the UNHRC. I suspect that, one day, the truth will destroy it.

May that day come soon.