Israel’s Ministry of Welfare will take over funding for the Michal Sela Forum, a domestic violence prevention organization, a year after the National Security Ministry decided to withhold the budget it allocated to the forum. The decision by the Ministry of National Security was revealed in an exclusive report by Shomrim and Calcalist in February 2024.

This week, Minister of Welfare and Social Affairs, Yaakov Margi (Shas), and the CEO of the Michal Sela Forum, Lili Ben Ami, signed a long-term cooperation agreement to run the Michal Commando Unit, which provides a framework of protective measures for at-risk women. The program, which started several years ago, will operate in collaboration with experts from the Ministry of Welfare. The annual cost of the program is around 2 million shekels (around $550,000), which matches the 2 million shekels that the Forum has raised for the program.

News that the National Security Ministry was ending its funding for the Michal Sela Forum— a decision made by then-Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir— sent shockwaves through the community. No one was more stunned than Ban Ami, who founded the Forum in 2020 in response to the brutal murder of her sister, Michal Sela, by her partner.

According to some reports, the ministry’s decision was partially driven by a desire for retaliation, following Ben Ami’s public criticism of Ben-Gvir’s lax policy on issuing gun permits and firearms  — a move experts warn heightens the threat from domestic vioelnce. However, an investigation by Shomrim has revealed that as early as August 2023, Ben-Gvir had already refused to renew the Forum’s contract. Since then, the organization has been operating without state funding, relying solely on its own resources.

The cooperation between the Ministry of National Security  (or the Ministry of Internal Security as it was at the time) and the Michal Sela Forum began in the summer of 2022, when the minister was Omer Bar-Lev. Even though Ben-Gvir received it as an unwelcome inheritance, it’s worth noting that funding for the project was negligible: the ministry set aside just 1 million shekels a year. The Michal Commando Unit was the National Security Ministry’s only program aimed at preventing violence against women – a phenomenon that has grown over the years. In fact, more women were murdered in Israel in 2024 than in any previous year.

The Michal Sela Forum offers women in the program a free framework of protective measures, including installing security cameras in their homes, a panic button that can be carried around at all times, and is linked to a private security firm that sends a patrol if the button is pressed. The program also provides a smart, camouflaged panic button that works with a cell phone, allowing the women to activate it just by using their voice – and an armed security guard will be dispatched immediately. In addition, the program offers women 10 self-defense lessons and will send a warning letter, written by a lawyer, to whoever is threatening them. This framework is available for 12 consecutive months.

A study conducted to look into the effectiveness of the Michal Sela Forum found a significant increase in every parameter; participants reported an improvement in their quality of life, their lifestyles, their sense of security, the quality of their sleep and their ability to resume a higher level of functioning than before they participated in the program. The study also found that the guard dogs offered by the Forum also acted as a deterrent to violent partners and there was a concomitant drop in the level of violence.

Following the revelation that Ben-Gvir was halting funding for the Forum, Shomrim reported that Margi vowed that his ministry would look into taking over responsibility for the Michal Commando Unit. Now, Ben Ami confirms, that this is happening.

“During the war, there was a sharp increase in the number of at-risk women contacting the Michal Sela Forum, asking for help and protection,” she says. “In the first month of 2025 alone, four women have been murdered. Femicide is not preordained. At the Michal Sela Forum, we have come up with blue-and-white solutions that have given confidence and security to more than 2,000 people. I am proud of the exciting and fruitful cooperation between the Michal Sela Forum and the Ministry of Welfare since the day the group was founded. Signing this long-term cooperation agreement is a significant milestone toward the goal we set: zero female murder victims.”

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Margi said that “As I promised in the Knesset several months ago, we have signed a long-term cooperation agreement that is vital to protect women, and which is part of a long list of programs and services that the Ministry of Welfare operates to prevent domestic violence. Protecting women from violence and saving their lives is a mission that obligates us to enter into broad cooperative ventures with all the relevant bodies in the government and civil society, such as the Michal Sela Forum, with which I have been in contact since the day it was founded. The partnership with the Michal Sela Forum is a force multiplier when it comes to dealing with the scourge of violence against women and, as far as we are concerned, this is a strategic partnership.”