Fifth Chapter: Measures taken by national and local authorities
On December 2000 Israel signed the UN Convention against transnational Organized Crime and on the
14th of November 2001 Israel signed the attached protocol dealing with trafficking in women.
On June 13th 2000 a parliamentary investigation committee was created and headed by MK Zehava
Galon from the party Merez. This committee includes 17 MK`s representing all the parties in the
Israeli Parliament. On December 13th 2000 the committee gathered for the second time and
representatives from NGO`s among which Center Awareness and Hotline for Migrant Workers were
invited for the first time. Representatives from the NGO`s declared themselves opposed to the
legalization of prostitution as a means to fight against trafficking in women. Machon Toda`a
and the Hotline for Migrant Workers are invited to each one of the meetings of this committee.
Since March 2001 until March 2002 there were 21 meetings that resulted in a number of law
proposals some of which have already been presented to the Law committee of the Parliament and
were accepted for voting by this committee on 7th of February 2002. These are the main amendments
that were accepted:
It was decided that the minimum penalty regarding the felony of trafficking
in women will represent a quarter of the maximum penalty which is 16 years. The
committee has decided that the court will be obliged to determine at least part of
this penalty as actual arrest and not only conditional arrest unless there are
special reasons to do so. (This decision is due to the fact that many of the cases
until now happened to end with the penalty of only conditional arrest to the trafficker/procurer/pimp - comments of Machon Toda`a).
There is the possibility to judge an Israeli citizen that committed the felony
of trafficking in human beings for prostitution purposes in another country even
if in this country trafficking in human beings women is not considered as felony.
It will be possible to take evidence of the victim of trafficking before the
beginning of the trial to allow the victim to get back to her country of origin
as soon as possible. The evidence will be taken during 2 months from the day that
the court has determined that an early testimony is possible.
The victims will be allowed to testify without the perpetrator physically present
in order to avoid the threat that might constitute the meeting with the perpetrator.
The committee determined, with the recommendation of the Ministry of Justice, that
the legal assistance of the Ministry of Justice will assist the victims of
trafficking both in the question of their administrative detention and in their
civil suites against the pimps. As per estimation of the Ministry of Justice the
Legal assistance will deal with at least 4,000 files per year. Each file will cost
NIS 3,000.- which means that the Ministry of Justice will have to pay NIS 12 Million
( $2,500,000.-) per year.
Other law proposals are still awaiting acceptance. These are mainly law proposals that request
a considerable budgetary effort.
As there is a constant need to defend the witnesses there is a law proposal that
requests a witness protection program.
Victims of trafficking do not have medical insurance and when the police rescue them
from the brothels the medical treatment they need is not covered by the state except
for emergency cases. This need has to be taken care of by the state.
A law proposal that allows the victims of trafficking to stay in Israel for at least
3 months and with a possibility to extend the period on humanitarian grounds.
Law proposal - A work permit for 6 months to victims of trafficking.
A law proposal to protect women arriving to Israel in the frame of mail order bride
agencies. This law proposal wants to protect women in case they find out that marriage
was not the real purpose of their arrival to Israel.
A law proposal to add victims of trafficking to the list of plaintiffs that are allowed
to have hearings with closed doors. The rational behind this law proposal is the same
as is the rational according to which is a hearing in case of sexual offences.
In January 2001 an Inter ministerial committee to check and recommend steps to face the phenomenon
of trafficking in persons for prostitution purposes was created headed by Superintendent Avi
Davidovitch. This committee met several times and heard some NGO`s as well as other experts on this
issue. A report will be shortly delivered but its main recommendations were already transmitted by
Superintendent Avi Davidovitch to the Parliamentary committee headed by MK Zehava Galon in a meeting
held on 13 February 2002 The recommendations of this committee include:
The construction of a shelter for the victims of trafficking - This recommendation
implies a massive financial budget and according to the statement of Minister of Justice,
Meir Shitrit during another committee meeting there is no budget for this project and he
is trying to locate an alternative way to find finances for it.
The use of financial tools to hurt the traffickers and to enable the courts to confiscate
the earnings and possessions of the perpetrators.
According to the Minister of Justice during the same meeting there were also given new directives
to the police regarding the victims of trafficking that are ready to give testimony. These victims should not be detained in prison or in detention centers as was the case until recently but they should be hosted in hotels and guest-houses and this should be financed by the police.
First contacts were initiated between the government of Israel and the IOM (International Organization for Migration) to set up a program to help the victims of trafficking but these
contacts are too new to report any result. We hope that we see a progress of these contacts in the coming year.
