Representatives from the National Security Ministry, Israel Prison Service (IPS) and police failed to show up at a pair of Knesset discussions they were invited to on Tuesday to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

A police spokesperson confirmed to the Kan public broadcaster that National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, whose term has seen a spike in gender-based violence, refused to approve the participation of police representatives in a hearing of the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality.

According to Hebrew media, a message sent by Ben Gvir to members of that committee and to the organizer of a separate conference on violence against women said the National Security Ministry was busy with a religious women’s tour of the IPS anti-domestic violence unit Misgav.

“All resources are diverted to this important event, and we will be unable to send representatives to the requested event,” the message said.

The tour was organized by the Knesset’s Religious Women’s Caucus, which is headed by MK Limor Son Har-Melech of Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party. Ben Gvir himself joined the tour alongside Son Har-Melech and IPS chief Kobi Yaakobi.

MK Merav Ben-Ari of the opposition Yesh Atid party told Haaretz that the ministry had refused all the requests she sent over the past two weeks that it take part in the conference she organized. She accused Otzma Yehudit of illegally “exploiting prison service resources for the advancement of the party and the minister himself.”

The conference dealt with “challenges in implementing the electronic monitoring law,” which applies to domestic abusers. A draft version of the law was torpedoed by Ben Gvir in March 2023, soon after he took........

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