Health Ministry refusing to release sexual violence data - lobby

• Author: EVE YOUNG
• Published date: 04 October 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

"The fact that the Health Ministry is not doing anything to put a stop to [sexual violence of staff against patients] is a disgrace on its own," but its willingness to break the law to keep information about the scale of this [violence] quiet is a red flag, the lobby said in a statement.

The lobby said its request was submitted in July, but the Health Ministry had failed to release the information within the legally allotted 30 days.

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The lobby said it has been raising alarms for years about the Health Ministry's failure to address cases of sexual violence toward patients committed by staff. Its requests for information are usually met with apathy and sometimes with resistance, it said.

"We are not safe in the healthcare system," it added.

"The Health Ministry's refusal to give information on the sexual assault and harassment of patients by medical staff left us with no choice but to turn to the Justice Ministry," said Yael Sherer, head of the lobby against sexual violence.

"We have never received an answer from the Health Ministry to a request for information under the Freedom of Information Law in the time frame set out by the law and have always had to oblige them to answer and turn to the court," she said.

"The insistence on hiding this information, even at the cost of breaking the Freedom of Information Law, is deeply concerning," Sherer said. "We turn to the government and...