Social workers to close offices Wednesday in protest of attack

The union of social workers will close welfare offices across the country on Wednesday to protest the attack on a social worker in Lod on Monday.

The attack took place during a routine meeting between two social workers and a client. During the meeting, the social workers discussed with one another the client's problems fulfilling her duties as a mother of six children, and they raised the possibility of taking the children out of their home.

The women lunged at one of the workers, knocked her over onto the floor and began pulling her hair while threatening to kill her and burn down her house.

The woman was arrested.

According to the chairman of the social workers' union, Itzik Perry, the attack is the last one in a long string of violent incidents. Last week, a social worker in Nahariya was attacked, and in first ten months of 2007, 88 complaints were registered of violence toward social workers by clients.

	Social workers protesting over the summer. (Kobi Gideon / BauBau)