An Israeli Christian killed his daughter because of her love for a Muslim, police say
By Samantha Schmidt July 18
On the day after her high school graduation party, Henriette Karra, 17, confided in a relative her plans to become a Muslim for her boyfriend.
Karra, an Arab Israeli, knew that her Christian family in Ramle, a city in central Israel, would be furious. Her parents had made it clear during Henriette’s year of dating her Muslim boyfriend, also an Arab Israeli, that they considered the relationship a shame to the family.
They allegedly beat and threatened her in an attempt to break up the relationship, prompting her to report the violence to police, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.
Her boyfriend was in prison at the time, but was scheduled to get out at the end of the week. On June 13, she told her relative of her plans to be with him. The relative then called her father, telling him Henriette’s intentions.
Then, on that same day, police found Henriette dead in her parent’s kitchen, with multiple stab wounds in her neck.
Henriette Karra, 17, was found dead last month. (Courtesy Arab Women in the Center).
On Sunday, about a month after Henriette’s death, Israeli police charged her father, Sami Karra, with murder, Israeli media outlets reported. Authorities allege Karra killed his daughter over his “vehement opposition” to her relationship with the young Muslim man and her intentions to convert to Islam for him, the Jerusalem Post reported, citing a criminal indictment. Karra’s attorneys asserted their client’s innocence and criticized what they claimed was a lack of forensic evidence in the case.
Henriette’s death last month spurred protests in her hometown and outrage from community leaders and lawmakers who claimed the authorities, knowing about the teenager’s dangerous family environment, did not do enough to protect her.
“The school knew about the problem, the neighbors knew about the problem,” Samah Salaime, founding director of Arab Women in the Center, said in an interview with The Washington Post. “The painful thing is she complained. She was in the police station a week before she died.”
Salaime, whose organization focuses on combating gender-based violence against women, has met with the teenager’s relatives and community members to learn more about her case. She said the killing underscored the problem of widespread violence against women, including a string of killings of Israeli-Arab women.
Arabs make up half the women murdered in Israel every year, Salaime told The Post, even though Arabs only make up 20 percent of the population.
In response to the news of Henriette’s death, Aida Touma-Sliman, a member of Israel’s parliament who leads a committee on the status of women and gender equality, called for a “deliberate plan to fight this epidemic” of women being killed and authorities failing to prosecute those responsible.
Touma-Sliman told the Associated Press in November that more than 15 women were killed in the neighborhoods Ramle and Lod, near Tel Aviv, over the period of one year, but only three men were charged.
Since much of this violence takes place within families, some compare the deaths to “honor killings” in other Muslim countries where relatives will murder women for bringing dishonor to the family. Salaime pushes back against the term “honor killings,” saying these crimes are tied to domestic violence and drug abuse.
A large proportion of these killings happen in Ramle and Lod, “known as the backyard of Tel Aviv,” Salaime said, where poverty, drugs and illegal weapon use is rampant. As the Associated Press reported last year, a number of large clans in the region have participated in organized crime and permitted abuse against women to go frequently unpunished.
When news initially broke of Henriette’s death last month, some community members assumed her boyfriend might be responsible, not her father, Salaime said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...aughter:homepage/story&utm_term=.45512cfc610d
Gee, I wonder how many Christian leaders will condemn this.
Nah, I don't wonder at all.
By Samantha Schmidt July 18
On the day after her high school graduation party, Henriette Karra, 17, confided in a relative her plans to become a Muslim for her boyfriend.
Karra, an Arab Israeli, knew that her Christian family in Ramle, a city in central Israel, would be furious. Her parents had made it clear during Henriette’s year of dating her Muslim boyfriend, also an Arab Israeli, that they considered the relationship a shame to the family.
They allegedly beat and threatened her in an attempt to break up the relationship, prompting her to report the violence to police, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.
Her boyfriend was in prison at the time, but was scheduled to get out at the end of the week. On June 13, she told her relative of her plans to be with him. The relative then called her father, telling him Henriette’s intentions.
Then, on that same day, police found Henriette dead in her parent’s kitchen, with multiple stab wounds in her neck.
On Sunday, about a month after Henriette’s death, Israeli police charged her father, Sami Karra, with murder, Israeli media outlets reported. Authorities allege Karra killed his daughter over his “vehement opposition” to her relationship with the young Muslim man and her intentions to convert to Islam for him, the Jerusalem Post reported, citing a criminal indictment. Karra’s attorneys asserted their client’s innocence and criticized what they claimed was a lack of forensic evidence in the case.
Henriette’s death last month spurred protests in her hometown and outrage from community leaders and lawmakers who claimed the authorities, knowing about the teenager’s dangerous family environment, did not do enough to protect her.
“The school knew about the problem, the neighbors knew about the problem,” Samah Salaime, founding director of Arab Women in the Center, said in an interview with The Washington Post. “The painful thing is she complained. She was in the police station a week before she died.”
Salaime, whose organization focuses on combating gender-based violence against women, has met with the teenager’s relatives and community members to learn more about her case. She said the killing underscored the problem of widespread violence against women, including a string of killings of Israeli-Arab women.
Arabs make up half the women murdered in Israel every year, Salaime told The Post, even though Arabs only make up 20 percent of the population.
In response to the news of Henriette’s death, Aida Touma-Sliman, a member of Israel’s parliament who leads a committee on the status of women and gender equality, called for a “deliberate plan to fight this epidemic” of women being killed and authorities failing to prosecute those responsible.
Touma-Sliman told the Associated Press in November that more than 15 women were killed in the neighborhoods Ramle and Lod, near Tel Aviv, over the period of one year, but only three men were charged.
Since much of this violence takes place within families, some compare the deaths to “honor killings” in other Muslim countries where relatives will murder women for bringing dishonor to the family. Salaime pushes back against the term “honor killings,” saying these crimes are tied to domestic violence and drug abuse.
A large proportion of these killings happen in Ramle and Lod, “known as the backyard of Tel Aviv,” Salaime said, where poverty, drugs and illegal weapon use is rampant. As the Associated Press reported last year, a number of large clans in the region have participated in organized crime and permitted abuse against women to go frequently unpunished.
When news initially broke of Henriette’s death last month, some community members assumed her boyfriend might be responsible, not her father, Salaime said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...aughter:homepage/story&utm_term=.45512cfc610d
Gee, I wonder how many Christian leaders will condemn this.
Nah, I don't wonder at all.
