מכון תודעה

םלועב םישנה רחסו תונזה תעפות רקחל העדות ןוכמ
leah2000@bezeqint.net :לאוד 03-6045128 :סקפ/לט ;61221 ביבא-לת 22197 .ד.ת

Third Chapter : Situation in Israel- Actual facts

Actual Situation based on extracts of an updated report of the Hotline for Migrant Workers
for 2001 (Published in December 2001) , on a report of ELEM "Detection and Intervention Program to
Prevent Sexual Exploitation of Children & Youth in Israel" published in December 2001 and data
collected by Machon Toda`a - Awareness Center :

I. Extracts from the report of the HOTLINE FOR MIGRANT WORKERS,
which was published in March 2002.

1.1 Recruitment Methods and Arrival in Israel

The women are recruited for work in the Israeli sex industry by diverse methods: some are promised
decent jobs (such as waitresses, modeling, nursing, etc.) which offer high pay than they could ever
hope at home. Others are aware of the true nature of the jobs, but few had ever worked as prostitutes
before. Even those who knew that they would be employed in the sex industry had no idea what it was
like or in what conditions they would be forced to work (based on in depth interviews). In rare cases
some of the women were abducted against their will.

Until the year 2000 these women were brought into Israel in a variety of ways: with false documents,
by fictitious marriages, using falsified documents of Jewish immigrants, or through the port of
Haifa. Due to the tightening regulations, the trade routes have changed and most victims are nowadays
smuggled through the Egyptian border. The women land in Egyptian airports, mainly in Cairo, Hurghada
and Sharm-al Sheikh, and are then taken to the Sinai by car. From there they cross the border on foot
accompanied by Bedouin escort. It is a hard and dangerous journey. One of the women smuggled via this
route told a Hotline volunteer that she and a small group of women were kept in hiding in a cave for
a whole day without food or water. They had no choice but to drink from puddles they found on the way.

In one indictment the journey was described thus:

"After riding in a car for a few hours, the plaintiffs were taken out and led by foot
for two days, having had almost no sleep, accompanied by armed Bedouin and rushed along
by two of the defendants..."

1.2 The Trade

Upon arrival the women are distributed among different brothels around Israel. Some are "designated"
in advance to a specific brothel. As per data collected by volunteers of the Hotline for Migrant
Workers at the Neve Tirza prison in the year 2OOO out of the total of 392 arrests 130 are from
Central Israel ( 33%) , 127 came from the North ( (32%) , 113 came from the South (29%) and 22 from
unknown places ( 6%).

As soon as they arrive in Israel the women are put up for sale. There are two main methods by which
the women are sold: public auction, where the women are exhibited in front of a large crowd of pimps
and sold to the highest bidder, or a private sale, where a woman is sold by one pimp/ brothel owner
to another. The woman`s intimate parts are often examined in order to appraise the value of the
"merchandise". The price of a woman may vary from $4,000.- to $10,000.- , according to age and looks.
The quality of the woman`s false documents is also a factor in estimating her price. (According to
data stated by police commander of the Tel Aviv district, Chief Superintendent Yossi Sedbon, in a
seminar on prostitution and trafficking in women held on February , 2,2001 at Beith Berl College.)

Only upon arrival are the women faced with the fact that they will have to "pay their debt" to the
pimp before starting to earn any money. This "debt" includes the cost of bringing them to Israel, the
cost of their false papers and, above all, the cost of their purchase, in the thousands of dollars.
Some of the women never get around to "repaying their debt", since they are constantly being resold,
acquiring new "debts", and not earning a penny for their labors. These frequent sales and resales put
the women into perpetual debt to the pimp, while meeting the clients` demands for constant turnover.
For example, in the case of the defendant Isaac Yosefov ( The State of Israel vs. Yosefov, cp.
1018/01), the plaintiff`s employment was described thus:

"As soon as the defendant purchased the plaintiffhe demanded that she has sexual
intercourse with him, under the pretext that he wished to examine her `professional
skills`, and further stating that she was required to have sex with her `owner`. The
plaintiff refused, the defendant got angry and raped herduring the time she was kept by
the defendant she was driven by car to `service between three to eight clients a day. The
defendant refused to give the plaintiff her share of the profits and took all her earnings
amounting to NIS 250-350 (US$1 is NIS 4.60) per client. The defendant locked the plaintiff
in an apartment and allowed her to leave only under escort. She was poorly fed and was
physically abused by the defendant. At one point she complained about her incarceration,
the fact that the apartment was cold, and that she had not received her share of the earnings.
The defendant replied by pulling her hair, assaulting her and threatening her life".

In another case the women were told that they must do as the defendant say, that "they have no
right to ask questions since their status is that of white meat" (From the indictment in The State
of Israel vs. Guntov, cp. 1087/01

1.3 Terms of employment

Interviews with victims of trafficking portray a harsh reality. Working hours in the brothels are
extremely long (15-17 hours a day), the women get few, if any, days off, and are forced to work even
during menstruation. The pay is minimal, about NIS 20 per client. This money is not given to them
until they have paid their "debt". Further more, the women are fined for a number of so-called
"felonies": for not fully satisfying a client, for looking out the window, for talking on the phone,
for leaving the premises without proper authorization, for drinking a glass of alcohol without
permission, etc. The women are subjected to every known kind of human rights violation, including
physical and verbal abuse, incarceration, rape, abduction, and more. Escape routes are blocked -
their pimps know where their families live in their countries of origin and threaten to harm them
if the women try to escape or to testify against them.

1.4 Enforcement

At a seminar organized by the Ministry of Internal Security on the issue of trafficking in women,
Deputy Minister, Mr. Gideon Ezra chose to open his speech with the following words: " This
(trafficking) should be the worst of our problems, because as you know we are presently confronting
very difficult existential problems..It is necessary to raid the brothels, to catch the
prostitutes, and to deport them from the country as quickly as possible. Every woman deported
brings us closer to solving the problem." (At a seminar on trafficking held on July, 7, 2001)

These remarks reflect the current policy of the enforcement agencies towards the phenomenon of
trafficking in women. (These remarks show that there is a long way to go in order to change the
views of local enforcement agencies though we see a radical change in the policy adopted by the
Public Prosecutor and some high officials in the police - Comments of Machon Toda`a- Awareness
Center) While it is trafficking in women and organized prostitution - and not prostitutes -
that is clearly defined as a crime in Israel, most enforcement methods until recently were used
against the women themselves, on grounds of illegal residence, while enforcement proceedings
against the traffickers themselves are rare (The no. of files opened for trafficking is relevant
only for the period after the amendment to the Penal Law prohibiting trafficking). Recently, since
the beginning of 2002 this approach, which clearly demonstrates the way in which women are perceived
as criminals rather than victims is starting to change.

Table: Police files opened for trafficking in women and related offences, number of indictments,
and number of cases that reached trial:

II. Data collected by Machon Toda`a :

According to a report by Minister of Justice, Meir Shitrit during the meeting of the Parliamentary
investigation committee on February 2002 up to date there were 42 files in Prosecution with the
charge of trafficking in human beings for prostitution purposes. Out of which 28 were ended with a
conviction. Sentences are between one year to 12 years in prison. In 20 of these files a plea
bargain was signed due to a doubt that if the bargain would not be accepted there is a concern
that the defendant will find ways to avoid punishment at all.

According to data collected by volunteers of the Hotline for Migrant Workers, in 2000 only 12
victims out of the total of 392 trafficked women slated for deportation provided testimony.
They had no incentive to testify against their pimps because:

Their testimony would not result in their release from prison.
Their testimony would not prevent their deportation.
Their testimony would not grant them any special protection
from the dangers following their testimony.

During 2001 the State attorney stopped issuing detention requests following rulings of the
Tel-Aviv District Court on this matter. The rulings stated that victims of trafficking need
not await testimony in prison, that the police must house them in a hotel and pay them a per
diem of NIS 400.- for living expenses. Within the police department, new instructions were
formulated according to which women providing testimony would be housed in a hostel. Despite
this change, their security is still not assured before their testimony and they are still
deported immediately afterwards.

See comments by Officer Pini Aviram, member of the Inter ministerial task force and member of
a special unit in the Police that deals with Trafficking in women, during the Parliamentary
committee meeting dedicated to the report of this task force ( on 13th of February 2002 ):

"The differentiation between women who consent to testify and those who are not
creates an absurd situation. Since there is no shelter and no safe place, those who
cooperate are "freed" to the street. They need to wait for their early testimony for
a couple of months and they are not protected anywhere, while the women who refused
to testify were already deported to their countries of origin."

Another problem is seen due to non-diffusion of the new instructions. Though these new instructions
should have been diffused to all Police districts the Hotline for Migrant Workers provides in his
report 8 cases where the new instructions were not adopted (See chapter 4 section VII). One of the
cases reported by the Hotline is particularly illustrating the situation:

- In the case 1288/02 of Ashdod Court of Justice, two women who were found in a police raid on the
5th of March 2002 (after all instructions have been already in place for some months) were arrested.
In spite of the fact that the women agreed to testify against their traffickers, they were detained
in the detention center until the17th of March (12 days). Following many unfruitful attempts of the
lawyers to obtain the release of the victims, the Hotline for Migrant Workers sent an urgent request
to the Court as per their status of "Amicus Curiae". It is only then that the two women were released
from jail and the Court stated that " it is the duty of the State provide a place to stay and
allowances to the plaintiffs, including ensuring their personal safety from their suspected
perpetrators".

On the 23rd of July 2001, during a meeting of the Parliamentary Investigation Committee headed by
MK Zehava Galon, the Internal Security Minister, Dr. Uzi Landau promised that a shelter for
trafficked women who are ready to give testimony against their perpetrators will be opened.
On 21st of January 2002 the counselor of the Minister responded to a request of the Hotline for
Migrant Workers about the shelter that according to the directives of the Minister, women victims
of trafficking , who are ready to testify against their perpetrators are accommodated in civil
facilities and not in jail. As for the construction of a shelter, it depends on the allocation of
financial resources and the collaboration of several ministries. If those conditions are obtained
the opening of a shelter will become a reality. We, Hotline for Migrant Workers, Machon Toda`a
and other NGO`s are still waiting.

On the 23rd of July 2001, the Internal Security Minister, Dr. Uzi Landau was asked by MK Zehava
Galon during same meeting of the Parliamentary Investigation Committee how he is going to react in
cases of policemen that are collaborating or deal themselves with trafficking in women. The Minister
responded that these policemen would be harshly sentenced. Obviously, nobody in the Court of Justice
or in the Prosecution heard about this statement since several months later (20/3/2002) a policeman
involved in the buying of a trafficked woman, who "worked" for him, and in warning brothel owners
against police raids in Beer Sheva, was sentenced to only 6 months of community work. The plea
bargain was commented by the court as "exceptionally lenient" concerning a corrupted policeman but
was accepted. (see more details in Chapter 4 Section X)

III. Extracts from a report of ELEM "Detection and Intervention Program
to Prevent Sexual Exploitation of Children & Youth in Israel" published in December 2001

Interim Summary & Recommendations

The research and examination process over the first eleven months of the program indicates that
systematic commercial sexual exploitation of youth & children exists in Israel.
Taking in to account that the phenomenon was examined mainly in Tel-Aviv and due to the fact
that there are evidences of similar phenomena in other cities around the country, with certain
cautiousness, the scope of the phenomenon can be estimated at 200-300 youngsters all over the
country (the actual numbers might be much higher).

An important fact that was revealed during the field research is that most of the youngsters
started prostituting at the early age of 13-14 years old.

Most of these youngsters suffer from severe detachment, not being aware of their rights and the
social services they are entitled to. Above all this, the fear from pimps and employers paralyzes
any hope and willpower to change their situation.

By their own words, many of the exploited youngsters refer to their situation as "the unavoidable
nature of the world". Most of them dream of living a different life and quitting their occupation
in sex trade although they do not see any other way to get by and survive. They cannot escape the
drugs, violence and abuse cycle in which they are living.

The tendency to relate "free choice" to these sexually exploited children & youth only perpetuates
their victimization.

It is possible to locate and contact C.S.E. children & youth and to lead them through a changing
process. The success of such program requires full cooperation from all parties related including
police forces and social & welfare agencies combined with informal fieldwork.

There is a need to expand the activity scope in Tel-Aviv region and to develop learning programs
in other parts of the country.

It is important and necessary to promote public awareness to the phenomenon and to take actions
for reducing the relevant clientele.

In addition to the accomplishments, we have encountered a number of challenges and difficulties
in the course of our work. The first challenge has been to ensure the safety of workers, which is
specifically an issue because of the connection between sexual exploitation and organized crime.
Another issue has been how to deal with minors who are from the areas governed by the Palestinian
Authority. For these youth we have little more to offer than individual counseling since they
cannot be served by the Israeli social services and would be rejected by the Palestinian social
services as well. Thirdly, we are still debating about the specific methods of intervention, which
will be used, specifically given the need to ensure that interventions be properly adapted for the
different sub-groups within the target population (e.g. immigrants, transgender youth, etc).

Overall, we have made significant progress since the beginning of the year. We have learned a
great deal about commercial sexual exploitation of minors in Israel, and firmly planted our feet
in the field. It is our hope that this pilot project in Tel Aviv to develop prevention, treatment,
and rehabilitation programs for sexually exploited minors will lay a strong foundation for
combating the phenomenon of commercial sexual exploitation of children in Israel.

Identification and Outreach of Young People being Sexually Exploited

In addition to enabling the gathering of general information, the staff's work in the field
provides an opportunity to identify youngsters who are being sexually exploited and to begin making
contact with them. Thus far, more than 80 sexually exploited youngsters have been identified in
the Tel Aviv area. A similar number was detected in other parts of the country by other professional
factors in Elem.

13 teenagers, who are (or were) intensively involved in sex trade, are taken care of directly by the
program staff. 5 of them quit their prostitution involvement (to date).

Accurate statistics that has been collected (this data refers to 56 youngsters):

Sex: girls - 31(55%~), boys - 18(32%~), trans genders - 7(13%~).
Age: (12-14) - 6(11%~), (15-16) - 11(20%~), (17-18) - 19(34%~), (19-20) - 20(35%~).
Cultural background: Israelis - 35(63%~), new immigrants from the former USSR - 8(14%~),
Ethiopian origin - 3(5%~), Palestinians - 10(18%~).
Type of prostitution site: street prostitution - 26(46%~), saunas - 3(5%~),
strip clubs - 11(20%~), private apartments - 16(29%~).

Introduction | Chapter: | 1 | | 2 | | 3 | | 4 | | 5 | | 6 | | 7 | | 8 | | Annex |

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