Prostitution is a result of social and gender inequality, and this situation
worsens during wartimes.
In times of war, prostitution and pornography offer the bodies of women and
children as a gift to soldiers to entice them to sacrifice their lives for
the war. Male culture has glorified death on the battlefield, and men are
unaware of the real role that they play in this situation. It is high time
that we reveal that prostitution, pornography and war construct a deadly
downward spiral.
Wherever there is war, conflict, social chaos and poverty, criminal
organizations find "human merchandise" to be sold for sexual exploitation.
Male culture encourages men to sexually abuse the bodies of women,
children and also of other men, unconsciously while remaining unpunished.
Women are also being invited to become consumers of prostitution
and pornography.
The multi-billion dollar "sex industry" does not take into account
gender differences or sexuality. It stretches the limits of what we
can consume, ever expanding itself in order to get richer. [1]
The history of prostitution in Israel emphasizes this statement.
During the first world war, when there was widespread hunger in what would
become in 1948 the State of Israel, it was known that there were prostitutes
in Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa, Ramla and other cities. Even before the war,
under the Ottoman Empire, there were brothels in Jaffa that were owned by Arabs,
and a portion of them were also owned by Jews.
In the beginning of the 1920's brothels were operating between Tel Aviv and Jaffa,
that had been in existence for several years, and documents show that they were
not closed by the new British Mandate. During the same time period, brothels
existed in the outskirts of the city of Tel-Aviv close to Jaffa, near Carem
Timanim, Manshia, Neve Shalom, and on the road between Jaffa and Tel Aviv.
The phenomenon of prostitution became more visible and widespread in the end
of the 1930's with the increase of army forces and police in the area in
response to the Arab rebellion, and even more in the 1940's during the Second
World War. Tel Aviv became the holiday city for Middle East forces, and
prostitutes could be found not only on the outskirts of the city, as they
were before, but also in the center of the city, along the boardwalk, on
the beach, brothels, apartments, cafes, streets and public parks. Management
of the brothels was against the law according to the British Mandate so
brothels were opened and closed intermittently. Some of the prostitution
took place in places of entertainment including bars and dance halls that
had connecting rooms which could be rented for the night or by the hour.
Some hotels had rooms that were reserved for prostitutes and their clients.
There were several complaints that prostitutes operated within their
apartments or in rented rooms. During this time period most of the
residents of the city lived in rented apartments. Prostitutes that worked
in their apartments worked alone or organized as a group. The clients came
to the prostitutes through middle-men that provided the needed information.
Cafes sprang up in Tel Aviv to meet the needs of Jewish immigrants mostly
from Central Europe, and also Eastern Europe, and later in response to the
needs of soldiers that came to spend their holidays. Cafes were also a
meeting place between women in prostitution and their clients. There were
also assumptions that some waitresses in these cafes also practised
prostitution during or after their normal working hours with the encouragement
of the caf?`s owners.
Often there were middlemen that made connections between the prostitutes
and their clients. Sometimes they recruited young girls to be prostitutes.
Amongst the middlemen were taxi drivers who for a fee let prostitutes use
their taxis, and made their cars available to transport customers to the
prostitutes.
Clients for prostitutes, based on complaints that were filed, included
foreigners, British soldiers and policemen. During the war years clients
were Greeks, Poles, Americans, Australians, and South Africans. In addition
to military customers there were Arab clients that came with regular frequency.
It is interesting to note that the complaints from the time of the British
Mandate do not mention Jewish customers, although there is no reason to
believe that they avoided using the services of prostitutes [2].
After World War II and with the creation of the State of Israel waves of
immigration reached the country. In each wave of immigration some women
and girls had to turn to prostitution in order to survive.
In 1950 the State of Israel signed and ratified the "UN Convention for the
suppression of the trafficking in persons and the exploitation of the
prostitution of others" from December 2nd, 1949. Though this Convention
prevented legalization of prostitution in Israel, its social aspects were
not implemented by the authorities and the question how to deal with
prostitution was not aborded by the Israeli authorities till 1977.
In 1975 the Minister of Justice appointed a committee headed by Judge Hadasa
Ben-Ito to check the issue of prostitution in Israel and to issue conclusions
and recommendations. The report of the committee was published in 1977. The
committee recommendations were not implemented.
27 years after this Committee handed over its recommendations , inspite of
the dramatic changes both in the world and in Israel in the situation of
prostitution due to the globalization of the sex industry, MK Reshef Chen
from the ultra liberal party "SHINUI" has decided to resurect these
recommendations which were not implemented.
During the last 30 years the most dramatic changes in the sex industry world
wide was its becoming a global industry in most of the countries and its
banalization. Israel was not spared mainly due to the following reasons:
In the last 15-20 years the Israeli society underwent dramatic changes,
which facilitated the development of the current situation. Rapid
modernization of the country, the loss of traditional cultural values
without creating a new system of cultural references, the influence of
modern techniques of communication such as T.V. and Internet and the
development of materialistic values made possible the banalization of
the idea of prostitution. The pornographic industry also appeared in the
last years. This is a supplementary reason to worry about a further
development of the trafficking in human beings for the sex industry.
There are quite few elements that contribute to this situation.
The main reasons for the fast development of Trafficking in persons and
prostitution in Israel are:
A massive wave of immigration from the former Soviet Union, which
destabilized the fragile social structures of the country.
The development of public and private aggression due to harsh security
problems.
The infiltration of groups of International organized crime as well as
the lack of interest of the authorities in social problems.
Lack of implementation of projects concerning education on sexuality
and gender equality.
Women are trafficked into Israel from Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Uzbekistan,
Lithuania, Belarus, Brazil, Colombia, Estonia, Latvia and others. The economic
situation in these countries is catastrophic. Women are ready to do any kind
of job in order to be able to bring money back to their families that will
allow them to survive. Criminal organized groups are taking advantage of the
situation and organize the trafficking. We estimate that in about 70% of the
cases the women are aware of the fact that they will be selling their bodies
in prostitution but they are not aware of the harsh conditions that await them
upon arrival to Israel. About 30% are bluntly deceived and do not realize that
they will end in prostitution. The traffickers promise them that they are
going to work as waitresses, cooks, models, au pairs or in medical massage.
The regular entries to Israel through seaports and airports are recently
heavily guarded, which is why so many women are trafficked through the
Egyptian border in places where there is no control (The situation of the
Egyptian border will be developped in Chapter 3 ). Immediately after entering
Israel most of the trafficked women are sold and directed towards locked
apartments or brothels.
Trafficking in women to Israel was overlooked until several reports were
issued. In 1997 the report of Martina Wandenberg from the Global Survival
Network with the IWN threw light on the issue for the first time. Three
years later Amnesty International has decided to write a report on trafficking
in women worldwide though in fact they issued a report only on trafficking
in women to Israel. In their report they have completely separated
trafficking and prostitution and as their recommendations were taken
seriously by the Israeli authorities, the Israeli parliament has decided
to establish an Parliamentary Investigation committee on trafficking in
women for prostitution purposes. At the same time the government decided
to establish an intergovernemental committee to examine the ways to tackle
the issue of trafficking in women for prostitution purposes. When the US
Department of State issued the first TIP report in 2001 the situation
in Israel was so bad that the country found itself in Tier 3 and was
threatened with economic sanctions unless the Israeli authorities would
tackle the issue seriously. Unfortunately this TIP report ignored the link
between trafficking and prostitution, which led the Israeli authorities to
concentrate on the fight against trafficking in women while neglecting the
fight against organized prostitution per se. The Parliamentary Investigation
committee of MK Zehava Galon decided at a very early stage of its existence
to refuse the recognition of organized prostitution as an acceptable option
but this stand is still opposed by several MKs that participate in the same
Committee. Nevertheless during the last two years there is a major change
of attitudes towards the phenomenon of trafficking.
During the last two years the police in several districts has changed its
policy towards the illegal resident women that they find while they raid
the brothels. Until 2002 the procurers, pimps and traffickers were arrested
for a couple of days, but then, with the help of mighty lawyers and financial
bail, they were liberated until their process. Since 2002 we could witness a
change of police and prosecution procedures towards them, as the legal
directive in cases of trafficking calls for the arrest of traffickers,
procurers and pimps until the end of the investigation. Until July 2000
the law did not have a particular article refering to trafficking in women
so that files until mid 2000 were opened on the grounds of different felonies
such as brothel managing and brothel keeping, pimping, incitement to
prostitution, abduction etc. According to a police report in 1998 - 377
files were opened among which none was opened on the grounds of trafficking
in women. in 1999 - 522 files among which none was opened on the grounds
of trafficking in women. In 2000 - 410 among which only 1 was opened on
the grounds of trafficking in women. In 2001 - 427 files were opened while
40 files were opened until the end of 2001 on the grounds of trafficking
in women based on the new law. This represents growth of 3900%. In 2002 -
351 files were opened against traffickers and in 2003 we see a considerable
change of attitude with the creation of a specific police force called
"ETGAR" that is dedicated to the issue of trafficking. A law proposal that
MK Zehava Galon is promoting in the Knesset already enables the police to
close brothels even though the law has only passed as preliminary reading.
In 2003 as a result of the new policy 500 brothels were raided and closed,
330 investigations opened against brothel managers, 44 cases of trafficking
are dealt by the "Yamar" (Central Unit of the Police), 119 persons were
detained until the end of their trial, 119 women agreed to be witnesses,
521 women have been sent back to their country of origin, the names of 70
persons linked to the organized crime were forwarded to the IMPA - The Israel
Money Laundering Prevention Authority - a Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU)
was established in the ministry of Justice on January 2002 headed by
Adv. Yehuda Sheffer. Finally a shelter for trafficked women was opened on
the 15th of February( see chapter 3). Training sessions to police officers
started during February and will continue as well as training sessions
to public prosecutors.
In a meeting of the Parliamentary Investigation Committee on the17th of
February SuperIntendant Ilan Franco stated that during 2004 the police would
dedicate itself to the fight against criminal organizations. According to
Superintendant Franco there are in Israel 50 known criminal organizations
and 860 criminals that are active in several fields: casinos, drugs,
trafficking and managing brothels, money laundering , financial loans and
more but the fight against traffickers in women is top priority.
The 11th of December 2003 is a turning point date in the understanding of
the danger that is represented by organized crime in Israel due to an
explosion caused by criminal organizations in which innocent citizens were
killed. 644 brothels were shut down between the 11th of December and the 17th
of February though some of them reopened. Since the 11th of December a
coalition of the security forces and fiscal governmental entities was formed
in order to fight against these criminal organizations and to eliminate them.
A strategy was formed which comprises several points: forming a task force,
increasing fiscal penalties based on the law to confiscate properties of
criminals, increasing international cooperation and full cooperation with
the IMPA.
Though these efforts must be recognized there are still many problems to be
handled. According to the data published in the report of the Parliamentary
Investigation Committee on Trafficking in Women(December 2002) the estimated
number of trafficked women each year is 3,000.
According to the same report the sex industry represents up to 1 billion US
Dollars per year. The amount paid by a customer in these brothels is about $30.-
and the amount which is received by the woman, if she receives it, is about $4.-.
In the known places women work 12 hours a day for 6-7 days a week and are
obliged to receive about 15 clients per day and sometimes more. According to
an article entitled "The Old Profession" and that was published on March 2003
in the review of the Police " Marot Mishtara" ("Police Visions") by Police
Commander Anat Bashan we have evidence collected through the citations of
several police officers: "In Natania and Petach Tikva alone ( two midlesized
towns in the center of Israel-Remark of Machon Toda`a) work 300 escort girls,
almost all of them are illegal residents from Moldova. Very few are local
Israeli women "claims Police Commander Ami Eshed , an Information Officer
from the Sharon district. Also in the north, according to Rapak Shmuel Bekor
"there are tens of brothels and most of the girls are "imported" from the
countries of Eastern Europe. Lately we notice an increase in the number of
Israeli escort girls as well as in the number of brothels in which Israeli
girls work. Street prostitution exists too and is noticeable especially in
the Haifa area and in the Industrial area of Zvulun". According to Chief
Super Intendant Yoram Asis, Head of the Vice Unit in the Tel-Aviv district
"In Tel Aviv alone there are about 300 brothels and escort services
especially in the central station and in the south of the city and more than
3,000 prostitutes not including those who work from their houses."
Super Intendant Yoram Asis claims that the reason " for the reluctance of
the victims of trafficking to testify against their traffickers is the
threats that their families are subject to in the countries of origin. But
according to the data collected by the "Hotline for Migrant workers" ( "Isha
Overeet Lasocher" ) it is clear that still around 30% of the victims of
trafficking are not even asked whether they wish to testify or not.
The year 2003 saw a drastic improvement in the fight against trafficking
in women as the public authorities realized the danger it represents for the
Israeli society since it is handled by organized crime. Unfortunately since
trafficking in women was separated from prostitution as a whole, the year
2003 also saw the renewal of efforts of MKs to legalize prostitution under
the cover of the fight against trafficking and the wish to improve the
situation of Israeli women in prostitution.
[1] Excerpt from the final statement of the 33rd International Conference
of the International Abolitionist Federation - Tel Aviv , October 2002
"Prostitution, Pornography, War"
[2] Excerpt from the intervention of Prof. Deborah Bernstein, Haifa University
- 33rd International Conference of the IAF, Tel Aviv , October 2002
