She knew her life was in danger

A 28-year-old woman was shot dead in the exact same spot in Ramle where her husband had been shot to death six years before. Her two children did not have a chance to say goodbye.

Lorin Tafal Moserati was the mother of two children, ages 8 and 11. She was living in Haifa. Her husband’s family kept her children from her in order to pressure her. Lorin knew her life was in danger. The shooting in Ramle was not the first time she’d been shot at. She told her friends; she told the police. In between, she tried to live a quite life.

Someone knew that Lorin, despite the danger, would travel to Ramle to visit her children. The police in Haifa were even aware she was on her way to Ramle, but the Ramle police were not. She was shot as she sat in her car at an intersection near downtown.

Samah Salaime and others who were in touch with Lorin’s sister spent the better part of a day going between the police, the justice system and the welfare system, trying to arrange one last visit – to let the children kiss their mother’s hand and say goodbye, to be present at her funeral.

The request was tossed from one to the other. No one wanted the responsibility. The children did not come.

The scanty news reports say a suspect has been arrested. For justice to be done, the suspect will have to be tried, convicted of the crime and sent to prison for many years. The chances this will happen are still quite low.

Lorin was murder victim number 71 in Israel’s Arab community this year.

We have been promised a special police budget just for tackling the issue – ignored for so many years – of violent crime in the Arab communities. In the meantime, the numbers continue to rise.

Throwing money, and even extra officers, at the problem will not be enough. We need better laws to protect women, a justice system that is tough on men who commit violent crimes, better methods of reforming violent men, incentives for turning in weapons voluntarily, trust-building between Arab communities and law enforcement, and education aimed at reducing violence. For a start.

It is time to take a good, hard look at a country where a young mother can be killed when she tries to visit her children; at a system that cannot take pity on young children who have lost their mother and help them say goodbye.