Human Trafficking in [Israel Street Children in [Israel] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Israel] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery State of Israel [ Country-by-Country
Reports ] The State of Israel [map] is a
republic located in SW Asia on the Mediterranean Sea and is bordered by
Lebanon (N), by Israel is a destination country for men and women
trafficked for forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Low-skilled
workers from China, Romania, Jordan, Turkey, Thailand, the Philippines,
Nepal, Sri Lanka, and India migrate voluntarily for contract labor in the
construction, agriculture, and health care industries. Some, however,
subsequently face conditions of forced labor, such as unlawful withholding of
passports, restrictions on movement, non-payment of wages, threats, and
physical intimidation. Many labor recruitment agencies in source countries
and in Israel require workers to pay recruitment fees ranging from $1,000 to
$10,000—a practice that makes workers highly vulnerable to trafficking once
in Israel, and in some cases, situations of debt bondage. Israel is also a
destination country for women trafficked from Russia, Ukraine, Moldova,
Uzbekistan, Belarus, China, and possibly the Philippines for the purpose of
sexual exploitation. In addition, NGOs note an increase in the internal
trafficking of Israeli women for commercial sexual exploitation, and report
new instances of trafficking of Israeli women abroad to Canada, Ireland, and
England. African asylum seekers entering Israel illegally are also vulnerable
to trafficking for forced labor or prostitution. - U.S.
State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2008 [full country
report] |
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CAUTION: The following links have been
culled from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** Human
trafficking report: Courts are too lenient The Hotline for Migrant Workers
also reported that the courts did not sufficiently exercise the right to
extract compensation from the traffickers for their victims. The court
awarded compensation in only 11 of the 17 trafficking convictions in 2006 for
a total of NIS 314,000, which was NIS 18,500 less than the previous
year. The courts also do not make
sufficient use of their powers to fine traffickers or seize their property,
the report stated. Israeli
women being trafficked abroad While police have struggled to
cope with the growing problem of human trafficking through Israel, human traffickers have begun to
ship Israeli women to foreign countries, said MK Zehava Gal-On Tuesday.
Gal-On also said that the country is unprepared for this new trend. "There has long been an
active ring of people using Israel as a stopping point in the trafficking of
women from foreign countries to other foreign countries… what we are seeing
now is Israeli women themselves being targeted and shipped to other
places," Gal-On said. ***
ARCHIVES *** The Hotline for Migrant
Workers (HMW) The Hotline for Migrant Workers
(HMW), established in 1998, is a non-partisan, not for profit organization,
dedicated to (a) promoting the rights of undocumented migrant workers and
refugees and (b) eliminating trafficking in women in Israel. Call
03-560-2530 Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS – The law
guarantees foreign laborers legal status, decent working conditions, health insurance,
and a written employment contract; however, some employers forced individual
laborers who entered the country, both legally and illegally, to live under
conditions that constituted trafficking. While law enforcement agencies have
successfully prosecuted employers for labor law violations, including for
violations that were tantamount to trafficking, they have not severely
penalized labor agencies for trafficking because legislation does not make
trafficking illegal if it is for purposes other than prostitution. There were
numerous documented cases of foreign laborers living in harsh conditions,
subjected to debt bondage, and restricted in their movements. Organized crime groups trafficked
women, primarily from the former In October, 2 NGOs claimed there
were 200 thousand foreign workers in the country and that 20 percent of these
workers were trafficking victims. During the year the Ministry of Industry,
Trade, and Labor (ITL) revoked 185 permits to hire foreign workers, opened
1,220 files against employers suspected of violating foreign worker
employment laws, and imposed 8,356 administrative fines on employers. Also
during the year, the ITL filed 208 criminal indictments against employers,
including manpower companies, for violations of labor laws and won 38
judgments against violators. Two
Haifa men sentenced to jail for organ trafficking In a precedent-setting ruling
yesterday the Haifa District Court yesterday sentenced two Haifa men to jail
for trafficking in humans for the purpose of harvesting their organs. Allan and Zakhalka admitted that
at the end of 2006, they persuaded Arabs from the Galilee and central Israel
who were developmentally challenged or mentally ill to agree to have a kidney
removed for payment. They located their victims by placing ads in the
newspaper offering money for organ donation. According to the indictment, the
pair gave false information to the donors, and also pressured and threatened
them to give up their kidney. After the surgery, Allan and Zakhalka did not
pay the donors as promised. Allan and Zakhalka were part of a
criminal ring that included an Israeli surgeon, Dr. Michael Zis, who also
worked at Assaf Harofeh Medical Center. According to the indictment, Zis sold
the kidneys he harvested for between $125,000 and $135,000, of which Allan
received $10,000 dollars. The State Prosecutor's Office is preparing an
extradition order against Zis, who is being held in prison in Ukraine. The plan calls for providing
housing solutions to victims; establishment of a rehab facility for victims
who suffer psychosocial and medical problems; employment services and
translation services. Medical services will be provided by the Ministry of
Health in conjunction with the Ministry of Social Services. The Social
Services. Ministry will allocate NIS 4.2 million ($1.1 million) to fund the
plan. The project's initiators said
that the motivation is strictly humanitarian: "the victims of human
trafficking, slavery or prostitution in Israel deserve protection and
care." Women
trafficking to Israel drops sharply The smuggling of women for
prostitution and of drugs from Egypt into Israel has dramatically declined
since the IDF has taken over the border nine months ago. The report stated that no women
were caught being smuggled into Israel to serve as prostitutes in the last
nine months, but head of the shelter for victims of women trafficking in
Israel Ruth Davidovich claimed that some 30 women were currently staying at
the shelter, and that most of them were smuggled through the Egyptian border. The report stressed that despite
Israel's substantial efforts, the border remained volatile, with smugglers
becoming more sophisticated and using more technologically advanced methods. NGOs
warn against plan to increase Russian visas However, Russia is considered a
transit destination for trafficking operations, with many men, women and
children from neighboring countries arriving there before being transported
elsewhere. Egypt has no visa
requirements for Russian visitors, and its border with Israel is considered to
be a main entry point for human traffickers. A spokesman for Aharonovitch told
the Post zthat the minister was aware of the problems of human trafficking in
Israel and that the issue needed to be tackled; however, he added that there
was little connection between the trafficking and the cancellation of visa
requirements for Russian visitors. He
also said that the number of women arriving from Russia was much lower than
those from other countries and that countries with border policies stricter
than Israel's still had to contend with women and men being smuggled in for
illegal work purposes. ISRAEL:
Shelter tries to rehabilitate victims of human trafficking Foreign women who are victims of
trafficking can now get support at a special shelter - the Maagan shelter -
in Tel Aviv dedicated to cater for their needs. In 2002 the Israeli government, in an
attempt to encourage these women to testify against the people who bought and
sold them, decided to offer them work visas in return for sworn statements
detailing their tribulations. The visas run until one year after the end of
their trials. Women
protest Ha'aretz sex ads TFHT filed a report in June
demanding an investigation into the paper and its owner, Amos Schoken. The
advertisements in question offer the services of prostitutes, while other ads
call for women to work in prostitution in Israel or abroad. According to TFHT head Roni Aloni Sedovnik,
advertisements related to prostitution are far more expensive than standard
ads and therefore could not be the initiative of prostitutes advertising
privately. The ads could only be funded by wealthy organized crime
syndicates, she maintained. Freedom of expression, Sedovnik
said, "is subservient to a person's right not to be enslaved ... By
giving a stage to pimps and other human traffickers, [the paper is allowing]
organized and efficient trading in trafficking victims." The ads
"make the paper complicit in the crime," she added. Israel's fight
against sex trafficking CHANGING TACTICS - Campaigners say things began to
change for the better in 2004, when the government opened a shelter in north
Tel Aviv for women who had been trafficked for sex. It marked a change in the way the state
perceived them - as victims of a crime rather than accomplices. There are some 30 women at the Maggan
shelter - most from former Soviet states, but also five from China. Police say their actions have led
to a significant drop in the number of women now being trafficked into Israel
for sex. Ukrainian
national says employer raped her, confiscated passport Two years ago, S., 47, came from
Ukraine to work as a domestic in the home of an Israeli businessman. The
employment company abroad that contracted her told her she had "nothing
to worry about," with respect to her new boss. However, according to S.,
her employer - a resident of a wealthy Tel Aviv suburb, who works at a
foreign consulate in Israel - withheld most of her salary, took her passport,
did not let her leave the house unless he was with her, and raped her. In
many cases, S. says, her employer's friends who came to dinner or parties
sexually molested her, and one of them also raped her. Today, the police, who are
concluding their investigation of S.'s charges, are arranging a confrontation
between the suspect, who has denied any wrongdoing, and the alleged victim.
According to the suspect's lawyer, Yehoshua Resnick, S. made up the whole
story to avoid deportation. Eight
Israelis charged with trafficking human organs Israeli police have broken up an
organ transplanting ring that persuaded dozens of Israelis to have their
kidneys removed in Ukraine. But, because Israeli law does not explicitly
forbid the trafficking of organs, police may have to release the suspects. It’s not difficult to become an
organ donor. Ads have appeared in both the Russian and Arabic press. Dozens
of people are believed to have been duped into donating their body
organs. We are co-operating with the
Ukrainian justice system. In Ukraine and Israel, there is no law that a
person cannot sell body organs. But what police are charging is that they
were trafficking organs, which is illegal,” said Lizzy Troend, defence
lawyer. Israel allows transplants from
relatives or anonymous donors, but the law forbids anyone to buy organs. - IsUkr Sex slavery:
Israel’s low but thriving trade Rachel Benziman the legal advisor
to the Israeli Women’s network backed up Menuhin’s words by explaining how
difficult it is to find witnesses. “It's not a problem of finding the right
section in the criminal code. It is more a problem of finding the women who
will testify and finding the motivation”, Benziman said, according to
Reuters. What’s more shocking is that,
since 1994, no single woman has testified against any trafficker. Many say this
could be attributed to the fact that although women are the victims here,
trafficked women are the ones usually arrested as illegal workers, while the
men who brought them to Israel, who are usually Israeli, are not. Virtual
pimps may pay the price In December 2000, Zohar set up the
Escort Plus Web site, which featured the details of women who could be
ordered for paid sex. Zohar received a commission on every order from the
site, which was deducted from the fee paid by the clients. The enterprise, however, did not
end there. In 2001 Zohar began traveling to European countries to hire young
women. He housed them in apartments in Israel and "marketed" them
via the Web site. The indictment details how he purchased two Ukrainian women
from a man named Igor, and two Moldavian women from a man named Pasha. U.S
Orthodox rabbis urge Israel to crack down on human trafficking A prominent organization of U.S.
Orthodox rabbis has called on Israeli authorities to step up their fight
against trafficking in women, urging "action to put an end to this
shameful practice by whatever legal means necessary." The statement of the Rabbinical
Council of America, the rabbinic authority of the Orthodox Union and a
partner organization of Israel's Chief Rabbinate, cited Knesset statistics
reporting that "some 3000-5000 women in Israel are currently enslaved,
in violation of Israeli law, as prostitutes as a result of human
trafficking." The RCA stated that it was taking
the position, in part, because "Judaism affirms the right of each
individual to a life of personal freedom, dignity and a duty of national
holiness, particularly regarding sexual conduct" and because "our
Torah stresses no less than 36 times the overarching importance of treating
the stranger with compassion and kindness." The group also noted that Israel's
Declaration of Independence emphasized that the state "will be based on
freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel. Brothel
owner sentenced to five years in jail for human trafficking In 2002 Reizin, who was the owner
of a Haifa brothel, reached an agreement with the owner of an Acre brothel to
sell him a prostitute in return for a part of his establishment's profits.
Reizin later sold the Acre brothel two more women for $10,000. The women were forcibely held and
required to have intercourse with some 25 clients a day. They were paid NIS
50 daily. In November 2002 they managed to escape. Human
trafficking report: Courts are too lenient The Hotline for Migrant Workers
also reported that the courts did not sufficiently exercise the right to
extract compensation from the traffickers for their victims. The court
awarded compensation in only 11 of the 17 trafficking convictions in 2006 for
a total of NIS 314,000, which was NIS 18,500 less than the previous
year. The courts also do not make
sufficient use of their powers to fine traffickers or seize their property,
the report stated. National
Geographic Slave to Bias National Geographic’s September 2003 article by
Andrew Cockburn entitled “21st Century Slaves” fails to mention the world’s leading
human-rights and slave-trafficking offender, Sudan, while unfairly
highlighting with a double-page photograph Israel’s relatively insignificant
prostitution rings. Though forced prostitution in
Israel is a grave problem, its scale compared to the extensive abuses
elsewhere hardly merits the attention National Geographic gives it. By
contrast, the omission of Sudan, a country that has enslaved and exploited an
entire people in its southern region, is inexplicable. Unlike the other countries
discussed in the article, with the exception of the United States, Israel has
significant anti-prostitution legislation it enforces Israeli
women being trafficked abroad While police have struggled to
cope with the growing problem of human trafficking through Israel, human traffickers have begun to
ship Israeli women to foreign countries, said MK Zehava Gal-On Tuesday.
Gal-On also said that the country is unprepared for this new trend. "There has long been an
active ring of people using Israel as a stopping point in the trafficking of
women from foreign countries to other foreign countries… what we are seeing
now is Israeli women themselves being targeted and shipped to other
places," Gal-On said. Analysis:
Israel has stepped up the fight against human trafficking Gershuni's office researches matters
related to human trafficking, represents Israel in international forums
dealing with the problem and is now waiting for the chance to get the state
to prosecute traffickers according to the new legislation. Until now, there
have been a fair number of indictments and convictions in trafficking for the
purposes of prostitution, but none regarding the new forms of slavery
recognized by the recent legislation. "Our first cases must be
extreme, so that they will guarantee convictions," she told the Post,
adding that the courts will have to learn to discern between slavery
indictments and lesser charges of work exploitation. Government
drafts national plan for combating human trafficking The government has drafted a
national plan for combating human trafficking for the purposes of slavery and
coercion, including steps in the areas of enforcement, prevention, and
protection. The purpose of the plan is to
eliminate the phenomena of holding migrant workers in slavery conditions,
through forced labor, coercing them to provide sexual services or collecting
large sums of money from workers. Israel
hosts human trafficking seminar In October, the Knesset (Israeli
parliament) passed a bill banning human trafficking for the purpose of
prostitution and forced labor. “We are talking about an
innovative and revolutionary law, which deals harshly with traffickers of
people and body parts,” said Zahava Gal-on, member of Knesset. “The law will
provide law enforcement officers better tools to combat the phenomenon.” There are an estimated 3,000 women
in Israel, according to Amnesty International, involved in trafficking rings
and Israel wants to help these women, many of whom are victims of extreme
violence. Knesset
passes human trafficking bill In a unanimous vote Tuesday night,
the Knesset approved a law to strengthen and broaden laws against human
trafficking. The bill, which was
drafted by MK Zehava Gal-On (Meretz) and supported by the government,
increases the time served for involvement in human trafficking to 16-20
years. It also broadens the definition of trafficking in men, women and
children. Gov't,
NGOs still find time to fight against human trafficking Despite the current war on the
home front, government officials and representatives of the US Embassy and
the US State Department took time out of their busy schedules last week to
discuss practical recommendations for how to address sex trafficking and
labor trafficking in the country. 3
arrested on suspicion of human trafficking Tel Aviv Police succeeded in
tracing the steps of the group after spotting a notice published in a Russian
language newspaper advertising employment in Canada for "young,
beautiful girls." Israel
among worst human traffickers Tal Eisenberg, the organization's
legal advisor and coordinator for the center's Fighting Against Trafficking
in Women project told The Jerusalem Post, "It is excellent that the
United Nations has recognized that there is such a problem in Israel. I hope
that we can learn from the report and that the government will now take more
notice of the problem." She said that many countries did not even know
that trafficking takes place within their borders and that Israeli rights
organizations had made great progress in combating the problem. But perhaps in honor of
International Women's Day, let me introduce the woman you'll have such a good
time with tonight. Here's 10 things you never knew about her. 1. Her name is Svetlana. Like most
whores, she's from Eastern Europe. She's 22-years-old. 2. Misha, Svetlana's boss, bought
her for 5,000 dollars from an Egyptian Mafioso who smuggled her across the
border tied to a camel after he and his friends "checked her out"
to see if she was worth the effort. Women
leaders gather in Israel to combat crime of trafficking "The committee set itself a goal to serve as watchdog over the authorities and has compelled the state to act in accordance with international standards," said Gal-On. "Today women are treated as victims of a crime, and as people whose human rights have been breached. Those who traffic and pimp in the bodies of women are treated severely." Art
exhibit takes behind scenes look at Israeli sex trade The distressed expression on the
face of an anonymous woman peering out from behind a barred window in a Tel
Aviv building triggered curator Revital Ben-Asher Peretz to launch her own
private investigation behind the scenes of the Israeli sex trade. With approximately one million
visits to prostitutes each month, the Israeli sex "industry"
generates an estimated billion dollars a year, Gal-On reveals. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared last
month that this "despicable phenomenon completely contradicts Jewish
tradition and the values of dignity."
Yet, despite repeated criticism by the State Department and human
rights organizations, Subject: Israel & International - August 16 -
Moment of Silence for Trafficking Victims; International Day Against
Trafficking http://lists.whathelps.com/wa.exe?A2=ind0508b&L=wunrn_listserve&D=0&F=P&T=0&P=2502 On August 16, it will be five
years since two trafficking victims from the former Soviet Union were burned
to death in a brothel in Tel Aviv. The tragedy occurred because the women
were locked in the house and had no way out, which is common in the
trafficking business. There are also three other known cases of deaths of
trafficking victims in Briefing
to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women - June
2005 TRAFFICKING
IN HUMAN BEINGS (ARTICLE 6) - Amnesty International published a report on the trafficking of women
into Trafficking
in Persons for the Purpose of Prostitution: The Israeli Experience [Restricted] THE CHANGE IN ATTITUDE TOWARD TRAFFICKING - With time, as the phenomenon became more prevalent, and its distinguishing characteristics were identified, the attitude changed. Law enforcement agencies began to focus on trafficking as a serious crime distinct from prostitution offenses, and victims began to be viewed first and foremost as victims rather than illegal immigrants. As a consequence, a specific trafficking offense was legislated, law enforcement authorities began to initiate investigations, victims were encouraged to testify against traffickers, and courts began to detain traffickers until the conclusion of the criminal trial against them and to mete out more severe sentences. Israel Women
Trafficking Soars Between 3,000 and 5,000 women have been smuggled into Russian
Girls Eager To Work Abroad, Despite The Danger Of Sex Trafficking It is really difficult for such
girls to escape when they reach Interior Min. to expel 15 prostitutes who testified against pimps According to the charge
sheet against her procurers, she was sold at a Tel Aviv parking lot to the
owner of an escort agency, where she worked without being paid, ostensibly to
pay for her travel expenses. The young
woman cooperated fully with the police and the prosecution, and provided
evidence concerning several suspects. As a result, she has received threats
and is scared to return to the Freedom
House Country Report - Political Rights: 1 Civil Liberties: 2 Status: Free Human
Rights Overview by Human Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights
Worldwide U.S. Library of Congress
- Country Study Thousands of foreign women have
been smuggled into Israel and sold into prostitution, earning the criminal
underworld millions of dollars a year, a parliamentary investigation has
found. Jewish
Wives Are Arab Husbands' Prey The stories of pain and torture
chill every bone in my body. Trembling, I sit before half-a-dozen women in
the Lev L'Achim rehabilitation center for battered women, learning about how
they lost their independence, lost their happiness, lost their lives. These
women have been rescued from the misery of life in their husbands' Arab villages. "I Was
Silent and I Was Alone" - First in a Series "If you complained you were
beaten," Esther weeps. "He would yell and then he would hit. If I
said something to make him angry: beating. If a neighbor looked at me the
wrong way: beating. If I opened the door for a male neighbor: beating. If I
didn't do something or prepare something the way he wanted: beating. There
was no speaking. There was no help with the children. If the children were
sick: nothing. I was alone. I was silent and I was alone." He told her he couldn’t make it financially and that they
would have to move to his Arab village over the Green Line. Several children
and hundreds of bruises later, Esther knew it was time to go. She says she
did an accounting of her life, looked at how she and her children were living
and knew she must escape before it was too late. ´He Was Taking
Over My Mind´ ? Second in a Series "There was always violence,
always humiliation" says Miriam [not her real name], who spent 12 years
with a Palestinian-Arab, the last four in his village over the Green Line in
southern Israel. "First he would hit me with his hands. Then he moved on
to using small objects, and finally iron rods and a metal rake. He broke all
of my teeth with the rake and then refused to give me any medical
attention." When Israeli
Women Marry Arab Men: Third in a Series Aliza met her Arab lover via the
internet, and like most girls in her situation, she was promised the world in
exchange for a Muslim conversion and a marriage license. Less than one year
later, she was left beaten and betrayed. Almost a statistic, Aliza spent all
the money she had ($250) to take a cab to the Erez Crossing, and with the
help of the rescue organization of Lev L'Achim, she reentered Israel proper
and left her life in the Arab "prison" behind. She immediately
relocated to America for safety reasons, where she continues to undergo
psychological treatment, attempts to obtain a divorce from the Muslim court,
and puts her affairs in order. US
Faults Israel on Human Trafficking The 2004 report was discussed on
Tuesday in the Knesset Committee of Inquiry into Women Trafficking. Committee
chair Zehava Gal-On (Yahad) backed the conclusions of the 2004 report on
treatment of victims, saying that a shelter was opened in February that can
house 50 women, but has taken in only 23 women who are waiting to testify in
sex slavery cases. All the rest of the
women are being held in prisons without any assistance while awaiting
deportation, Gal-On said. Gal-On also
noted that the report found that the Internal Security Ministry has issued
only seven visas to victims, which has forced most of them to go back into
prostitution. INTRODUCTION - Legally speaking, the State of
Israel can be considered as an abolitionist country that signed and ratified
the UN Convention of December the 2nd, 1949.
Until 2001 in fact, the State of Israel was leading a policy of
laissez-faire that drove to a kind of reglementarism. Since then a
considerable change of attitude of the authorities towards the phenomenon of
Trafficking in women has occured. Unfortunately prostitution per se is still
not perceived as a problem by the authorities. This situation is also
reflected by the attitude of the media.
The tendency is to see trafficking in women as a serious crime that
needs to be erradicated whereas prostitution, mainly local, is still
considered as a victimless crime. Prostitution
in the Land of the Maccabees: Trafficking in Women in Israel Today, the prostitute in Tel Aviv
is more likely to be named Olga than Rachel, and she's not an Israeli, or in
Israel legally. She's one of the more than 2,000 to 2,500 women from former
Soviet republics brought into Israel by international traffickers to feed a
$450 million-a-year prostitution industry centered around Tel Aviv. The money
paid for her body goes to the man she's been sold to. Assault and rape are
common ways of keeping "employees'"in line in this business, and
the only way a woman will leave Israel's sex industry is if she comes to the
attention of the Israeli authorities who will deport her, penniless and
traumatized, back to Eastern Europe. Human
trafficking in Israel: a "meat market" Justice Minister Yosef (Tommy)
Lapid said this week that there are as many as 3,000 prostitutes in Israel
today, many of whom have been "imported" into the country against
their will. In a statement released to mark the fourth annual,
locally-organized "Fight Human Trafficking" day, Lapid wrote that
most of the women were tricked into coming to Israel from their homes in the
countries of the former Soviet Union. The women are no better than slaves to
the men who control them, Lapid said. Many of the women were recruited by the
Russian mafia, transported to Egypt, and then smuggled across the border into
Israel by Bedouins. Israel a Human
Trafficking Haven Human trafficking (search) is
turning into a real problem in Israel, where law enforcement officials say
women are bought and sold into the indentured servitude of the sex
industry. The women in question are
usually from the former Soviet Union (search) and are traded by the Russian
mob (search). The same Bedouins who smuggle weapons into Israel bring the
women up through the Egyptian desert, oftentimes with a load of weapons. "It's a kind of meat market. It's very
brutal — most of this kind of auction," said Gadi Eshed of the Israel
Police. Women
As Commodities: Trafficking in Women in Israel 2003 In 2001, the USA stepped up its
involvement in fighting the trafficking of women worldwide, threatening to
cut off economic aid to countries failing to combat the phenomenon within
their borders. This threat suddenly became tangible when Israel was ranked in
the group of countries failing to take steps to eradicate trafficking in
women. The U.S. warning succeeded in effecting changes in the states
threatened with sanctions. However, in Israel, the struggle to eradicate
trafficking has barely begun, and most authorities do not live up to their
declared principles. Sometimes their operations amount to no more than a sham
- a case of lip service only. As this report will show, efforts to combat
trafficking in women in Israel are still not proportionate to the extent of
the phenomenon and the gravity of the offense. "Fighting
the flesh trade" by Marion
Marrache According to a report issued by
the International Abolitionist Federation, an estimated one-fourth of these
women are unaware that they will be working in the sex trade, believing instead
they will be employed as waitresses, cooks, au pairs, models or masseuses.
None are prepared for what they eventually encounter. Most suffer beatings
and repeated rape. The women are viewed and bought at pimping auctions -
during which they are forced to undress - at prices ranging from $4,000 to
$10,000. According to attorney Nomi
Levenkron of the Migrant Hotline, those who fetch the lower prices end up
working in the slum area around Tel Aviv's old central bus station. Their
passports are taken from them, and they are often kept locked up in
apartments with barred windows. Report slams Israel
on sex slavery About 3,000 women, mainly from the
former Soviet Union, are sold each year into Israel's sex industry, which
takes in about $1-billion (U.S.) annually, a parliamentary report said
Sunday, slamming the country's justice system for being lax on
punishments. The women, seeking to
escape poverty at home, are usually smuggled in by traffickers who promise
them legitimate jobs. Once in Israel, they are sold to pimps for between
$3,000 and $6,000 each, the preliminary report said. Israeli courts generally reach a
plea bargain with the pimps and sentence them to either a few months of community
service or up to an average of two years in prison, punishments which the
committee said are too weak to serve as deterrents. Four die
in Tel Aviv brothel attack Police in Tel Aviv are hunting a
serial arsonist attacking the city's sex industry after the horrific death of
four women, locked inside a brothel which was set on fire overnight. The attack, said by social workers to be
the sixth of its kind in a week, added to the debate on the increasing
traffic in women for prostitution by Russian and Israeli gangs, and the
appalling treatment they suffer. Traffickers'
New Cargo: Naive Slavic Women Irina always assumed that her
beauty would somehow rescue her from the poverty and hopelessness of village
life. A few months ago, after answering a vague ad in a small Ukrainian
newspaper, she slipped off a tour boat when it put in at Haifa, hoping to
make a bundle dancing naked on the tops of tables. She was 21, self-assured and glad to be out
of Ukraine. Israel offered a new world, and for a week or two everything
seemed possible. Then, one morning, she was driven to a brothel, where her
boss burned her passport before her eyes. "I own you," she
recalled his saying. "You are my property, and you will work until you
earn your way out. Don't try to leave. You have no papers and you don't speak
Hebrew. You will be arrested and deported. Then we will get you and bring you
back." Europe's
sexually exploited children: coming home In 1994 a 16-year old girl was
deported from Israel back to her home country on the grounds that she was in
possession of a false passport. It transpired that she had been taken to
Israel and forced to work as a prostitute in a brothel. During her stay --
just three weeks -- she served some 200 men and US$3.000 changed hands. The girl was not from Thailand, the
Philippines or Nepal. She was not from Brazil or Colombia or the Dominican
Republic. She was not from any of the countries which have featured in the
media over the last six years, since ECPAT (End Child Prostitution in Asian
Tourism) first began its pioneering work with media and governments to put
the issue of commercial sexual exploitation of children in Asia onto the
public agenda. The girl was from
Lithuania. She was European. All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use |
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Human Trafficking in [Israel Street Children in [Israel] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Israel] [other countries]