The Knesset’s Labor, Welfare and Health Committee approved on Monday the final version of a bill granting a stipend to a woman who stayed in a battered women’s shelter. The bill was drafted by Hadash (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality – Communist Party of Israel) and is now ready for the Knesset to vote upon in the second and third readings, and is expected to pass just as the Knesset is about to dissolve itself pending new elections.

End the violence!

The law grants a woman who stayed in a battered women’s shelter for at least two months, and who has been assigned a rehabilitation program, NIS 8,000, plus NIS 1,000 for every child she has with her. The law stipulates that the extra payment for children will not exceed NIS 2,000. The woman will receive the payment only if she does not go back to living with her spouse. The recipient does not need to prove that she has been abused in order to receive the stipend.