The Knesset on Wednesday advanced a law requiring DNA samples taken from victims of sex crimes to be stored indefinitely, despite 51 opposition lawmakers who voted against the bill.
MPs, mainly from the Arab Joint List party, voted with the coalition, to ensure that the law passed its initial reading despite the absence from the plenum of several government MKs. 64 votes were cast in favor of the bill.
The bill proposes that all post-attack samples taken from victims of sexual offenses will be sent to the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute where DNA will be extracted. The DNA would then be stored without any time limit for the purpose of future investigation and prosecution of the attackers.
Under existing rules, forensic samples are destroyed after just three months if no complaint is filed with the police. Victims of sexual assault often do not report the crime immediately, sometimes taking months or even years before they can speak to law enforcement.
“The law today allows the filing of a complaint for a sex offense, and even dozens of years later, in the case of sexual offenses against minors,” the law reads. “Preserving the samples without a time limit will help create a fair system for victims to file future complaints.”
The law also requires that so-called rape kits be available to medical teams in all hospitals to collect samples of attack victims. Currently, they are provided to only five hospitals, Haaretz pointed out.
A plenary session at the Knesset in Jerusalem, July 14, 2021 (Yontan Sindel/Flash90)
The law’s sponsor, Yesh Atid MK Merav Ben Ari, said he was shocked that the opposition would put partisan politics ahead of the needs of victims of sex crimes.
Ben Ari tweeted: “I can’t believe the members of the opposition will speak to women who have been sexually assaulted.” “I yelled at them at the plenum – it’s a shame. The law passed by a large majority of 64 – Arab, Jewish, secular, religious – we are all in favor of it.”
MK Merav Ben Ari attends a meeting at the Knesset on February 6, 2017 in Jerusalem. (Miriam Ulster/Flash 90)
While she was speaking at the Plenum, Ben-Ari was interrupted by Likud MK Yoav Kish.
“It’s impossible to do anything with you guys,” he shouted, claiming the coalition “violates every agreement,” according to Haaretz.
In the wake of the vote, Meretz Mk Yair Golan expressed his outrage that the opposition had voted against the bill.
“All opposition MKs except the Joint List voted against a law extending the time limit for the protection of forensic evidence of victims of sexual assault,” Golan tweeted on Wednesday. “They have so much courage? Do they have no wives, daughters and sisters? Are they on the side of sex offenders? They are against rape victims.”
However, Likud MK Mickey Zohar on Thursday defended the opposition vote, saying that although regrettable, it was meant to undermine the new government.
“It is a pity that I had to protest, it is a very important thing. But there is something more important than anything – the State of Israel be led by the appropriate people to do so,” Zohar told Army Radio.