Chairwoman of the Committee for the Advancement of the Status of Women MK Cohen escalates the fight against underage marriage in Yavniel: “Information arrived about a manager who married off her underage daughter as part of that cult” | MK Yoav Segalovitz: “This is not Darknet… this is happening here, now” | The Police clarified: “We have no intention of taking our foot off the gas” | Clalit representative: “There is a very great difficulty in dealing with this” | Sara Maimon: “I was married off at age 15 against my will, and it continues to happen today. The Police ensured headlines, arrested innocent people… and on that very same night, a wedding of minors took place.”
In a charged follow-up discussion held by the Committee for the Advancement of the Status of Women this morning (Wednesday), the difficult and shocking reality of the continuation of the phenomenon of underage marriage in Yavniel – even after enforcement operations and arrests – continued to be revealed. Alongside a clear call for systemic action, the personal testimonies of women who were married off as minors were at the center of the discussion and illustrated the depth of the harm. Committee Chairwoman, MK Merav Cohen, warned that this is an ongoing phenomenon that is not stopping: “This will not be the last discussion, even when the Knesset is dispersed, we will get there,” and added: “Information arrived about a manager who married off her underage daughter as part of that cult, we will check what is being done about this event, how it is possible that there are no data on dropouts, no testimonies from the field.” MK Yoav Segalovitz reinforced the feeling that this is an ongoing systemic failure, and called to exhaust the existing tools: “Everyone can do something, no legislative change is needed,” and emphasized: “This is not Darknet… this is happening here, now. I don’t miss what I used to be, but sometimes it happens to me, this is one of those cases.”
The Police clarified that enforcement will continue, but admitted the complexity: Superintendent Shlomit Lands said: “We are in the midst of an investigation, and therefore, naturally, we will not be able to detail here the findings discovered so far and the plan for the future, but as my lady said, we as Police have no intention of taking our foot off the gas, this is not a one-time operation.” The representative of Clalit Health Services, Nurit Eitan Gutman, described the professional dilemma in the field: “There is a very great difficulty in dealing with this phenomenon, because the girl, for the most part, arrives with her mother, and then she is not truly free to answer the doctor’s questions,” and added that it is “walking a very thin tightrope.”
The difficult testimonies of women who were married off as minors illustrated the reality on the ground. Sara Maimon testified: “I was married off at age 15 against my will, and became a mother at age 16. The reality in which girls and teenagers are erased and become women and mothers before they even understand the world, is not history, it is happening at this very moment right under all of your noses. I came here today to look you, heads of police and welfare, straight in the eyes, and tell you, do not buy all the presentations and all the public bluff, I heard many things here that chilled me and hurt me. Last week, the police carried out a dramatic raid in Yavniel, I’m sorry to be critical, but this also needs to be heard and said. The police made sure to create explosive headlines in the media, made sure the arrests were recorded, that everyone would applaud them, and left.”
According to Maimon: “You came to create for yourselves a situation of ‘a bag of doing’ for today’s Knesset discussion. But in the field, do not fool yourselves, this raid and the arrests were one big and dangerous bluff. You ignited the field, you left the real responsible parties free to fulfill their vision, underage marriages. The police were afraid to touch the head of the snake, for the records and for the media headlines, you arrested innocent people, good and decent people. You harmed the wrong people. Only for your statistics and for the result that your enforcement is a round zero, sorry, the revolving door mechanism worked perfectly, two hours after the police left the settlement, they released everyone, and on that very same night, a wedding of minors took place in Yavniel unhindered right under your noses. How does this conspiracy of silence hold? It’s all politics and money. This cult has taken over official state institutions with strong political backing.”
The discussion emphasized that beyond criminal enforcement, immediate cooperation from all government ministries – education, welfare, health, and law enforcement agencies – is required to break the conspiracy of silence and protect the girls. The committee called on government bodies to immediately exercise all existing authorities, and Chairwoman Cohen made it clear that she will not relent in the fight until the phenomenon is eradicated.