As families who stand beside survivors of sexual assault, we have known the rupture up close.
Key figures (according to the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel):
One in three women and one in five men in Israel will experience sexual assault during their lifetime. Tens of thousands of requests for help reach the rape crisis centers and the authorities every year – and 2025 alone saw a dramatic rise. Behind every survivor stands an entire immediate family – parents, partners, siblings, children – who also bear the cost of the assault.
The bottom line: hundreds of thousands of family members in Israel live every day with the consequences of the assault inside their own homes, with no support designed for them.
Families facing other profound hardships, such as bereavement or cancer, are met with a warm public embrace, broad social recognition and comprehensive, holistic support from the state and from many organisations. Families of survivors of sexual assault, by contrast, encounter a public discourse of denial, silencing, resistance, disbelief and isolation.
The association seeks to create a safe space – room to breathe, recognition, a community of peers, understanding and acceptance – with no need to explain or to defend oneself.