Honor Killings on the rise in the West Bank

The news spread at dawn, and people in the village made their way to the olive tree where the bruised body of a young mother of six was hanging, her veil torn off, killed in the name of honor. ‘‘For two weeks her children were incapable of sleeping, crying for their mother,’’ said Ahmad Abu Arra, a cousin of the victim. ‘‘We want justice.’’

A Palestinian woman holds a sign that says “Protecting 

women from violence is an official and social responsibility” 

during a 2012 rally held at the spot where a woman’s throat 

was slashed by her husband .(Majdi Mohammed/AP)

Here in this northern West Bank mountain town of breathtaking views, the relatives of Rasha Abu Arra, 32, who was murdered in November after rumors spread that she had committed adultery, are adding their voices to an outcry against honor killings in the Palestinian territories. Twenty-seven women are suspected of being killed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip last year by family members claiming reasons of ‘‘honor’’ — more than double the 13 cases documented in 2012.

The age-old rationale can serve as a cover for domestic abuse, inheritance disputes, rape, incest, or the desire to punish female independence, according to Maha Abu-Dayyeh, the general director of the Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling, a Palestinian human rights group that tracks the murders. Once hidden behind a curtain of silence and shame, honor killings are beginning to generate condemnation of its perpetrators, public support for its victims, and vows to stop the practice.

‘‘The entire society is incensed by the increase,’’ said Rabiha Diab, the Palestinian minister of women’s affairs. ‘‘It is a very worrying situation, not just in the occupied Palestinian territories, but all over the Arab world.’’

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