Background
There is an acute need for legal assistance for women in Israel facing a wide variety of urgent legal challenges ranging from domestic violence, divorce and custody issues, dealing with the government, financial institutions, landlords, and much more. WIZO’s professionals, lawyers and social workers manage a hotline and assistance center for women who need this critical legal guidance. The hotline number is *3980.
Free Legal Assistance
In July 2023, for the first time in Israel and in WIZO, we launched a certification program for lawyers specializing in family law to represent cases of domestic violence in the family. This certification program is part of a process whereby WIZO is revamping its legal aid services.
As part of the new and improved service, an online inquire system has been added whereby the applicant has the option to choose: a male/female lawyer, an additional language to Hebrew if needed, and a convenient counseling location in the country. This new “customer journey” preserves privacy and affords the client preferences that are convenient and tailored to their needs.
All lawyers providing WIZO’s legal aid were required to undergo training in the field of domestic violence and will be able to consult with WIZO’s professional team in complex cases. Lawyers and legal practitioners from all over the country participated in the meetings, from Nahariya in the north to Eilat in the Southern tip of Israel.
Alongside lawyers, a network of specialized legal-social workers has been established to deal with cases of domestic violence at affordable prices within the framework of referrals from WIZO.
A Unique, Holistic Approach
The system is designed to provide a holistic — therapeutic and legal — response as well as representation and support for victims of domestic violence in criminal proceedings.
Legal advice and psychological treatment in divorce proceedings shadowed by domestic violence require knowledge, tools, and above all awareness and sensitivity. Training of specialists in the field may significantly improve the legal recourse given to women victims of violence and their children.
Implementing such a system is both heartening and strategically significant for WIZO in terms of realizing a dream. And as one of the lawyers accurately defined our feelings:
“It’s a feeling of doing something bigger than yourself. To make a change from within the system. To create an army of ambassadors who speak the same language…”
Online and Phone Inquiries
*3980 is a free, 24 hour hotline for women who prefer a telephone response as an alternative to the digital platform.
In charge of the telephone response and the new legal-therapeutic system is Attorney and Psychotherapist Shiri Feld Bibi, whose expertise in domestic violence, being both a lawyer and a social worker simultaneously, provides callers with an unparalleled and high-quality service from a professional perspective.
WIZO’s Legal Aid service, free of charge and confidential, provides the following nationwide legal services to women and their children:
- Free legal consultations
- Representation in court
- Ministerial and municipal rights realization
- Information, form filling, and referrals
Critical legal assistance to Israel’s most vulnerable women, in areas such as:
- Exercising their full legal rights
- Protection from domestic violence/abusive partners
- Securing child support and custody
- Workplace harassment or discrimination
Case study:
One of the women participating in WIZO’s Safety Net program (helping women establish a secure and independent life after leaving a women’s shelter) survived an attempted murder by her partner: he threw her off the fourth floor balcony of their apartment. The violent man filed a request to shorten the prison term and the women needs representation her in the appeal of the request and at the same time try to help her get to Canada, where her brother lives. The Hague Convention requires the consent of the husband to take the children out of Israel, and she will need a special court order to do so.
