Chapter IV Incest in Domestic Law Introduction The Universal Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women was issued by the United Nations General Assembly on 20 December, 1993. It defined violence against women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life”. Domestic violence is defined as “as a pattern of violence within the family committed by one of its members with actual authority over the affected woman28. It is also possible to define domestic violence as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women or to an individual of the family including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty”. The study of legislative policy of domestic violence shows that the Palestinian law has not allocated a special section for domestic violence, but included it as a separate criminal act within the penal code. The legal provisions criminalizing acts that are prejudicial to women are included into two different sections, one for the crimes that affect the family and the second for the crimes of misconduct (criminal sexual assault, encouragement of dissipation and debauchery). Whereas family crimes, including crimes relating to marriage (adultery, incest, abandoning and kidnapping children, illegitimate children) are listed in the first section, crimes of rape, criminal sexual assault, elopement, temptation, caressing in breach of public decorum, prostitution, encouragement of debauchery, violation of ethics and morals and abortion are listed in the second section. The law, furthermore, considers domestic violence as a misdemeanor punishable by an imprisonment term ranging from two months to three years, while considering the crimes of misconduct as felonies and misdemeanors, punishable by imprisonment terms ranging from two months to three years. With regard crimes of misconduct, it states that blood relationships should be considered as an aggravating circumstance in the crimes of rape, 28 Al-Mo’aqat, 2006. (Temporary), Sexual Abuse in the Family; Between Reality and Law (Women’s Studies Center,), p. 23; documented in Masis & Dwekat and other. 2009. Domestic Violence against Palestinian Women. 25