White Slavery in Israel

"Every year hundreds of women, and an unknown number of girls under the age of 18, are bought, sold, drugged, imprisoned, and forced to work as prostitutes in Israel's thriving sex industry. In countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, and Hungary, traffickers prey on desperate women. Facing poverty, the women are lured to Israel with the promise that they will make fabulous salaries working as teachers or caregivers."

"But when they come to Israel their passports and travel papers are taken away, in order to prevent them from leaving. They are raped and beaten. Trafficked women are treated as objects, as commodities to be bought and sold by pimps for thousands of dollars or held in debt bondage, forced to work to pay off large sums of money. Their "owners" imprison them in locked houses or apartments with barred windows. They can rarely leave the apartment and are prevented from going out unaccompanied. They are frequently abused, especially if they refuse to have sex with a customer or try to escape. . . . In brothels, massage parlors, and sex clubs throughout the country, these women "slaves" are subjected to violence, degradation, and terror. According to a report released last month by Amnesty International entitled 'The Trafficking of Women to Israel,' the country is rapidly becoming a major destination for sex trafficking and slavery."

Examples of white trafficing taken from this article:

"Anna arrived here in October 1998 on a tourist visa. She was met at the airport and taken to an apartment and locked up with six other women . . . [from eastern Europe]. She was auctioned twice and finally bought for $10,000. Taken to Haifa, she was held in captivity with two other women. The apartment in which she lived had bars on the windows." Et cetera. The article goes on to say that the Jew who had bought Anna repeatedly reminded her that he knew where her family lived in St. Petersburg, and that he would harm them if she escaped or failed to obey his orders. Anna was not able to escape, but she finally was deported back to Russia by Israeli immigration authorities because her tourist visa had expired. Her former "owner" remains at liberty, and Anna remains in terror that he will one day show up again at her residence in St. Petersburg.
Then there is the story of a young woman from Belarus -- from White Russia. Again I read the exact words of the Jerusalem Post: "Tatiana (not her real name) had been promised a job working as a cleaner in a hotel in Eilat. She was told the job would pay enough to support her mother and six-year-old son. In Eilat a man pretending to be from the hotel where she thought she was going to be employed took her to a brothel, where she was forced to work as a prostitute. She was told that she would have to repay her 'sale price' and travel costs. She tried unsuccessfully to escape and was finally freed after a police raid. She was held in Neveh Tirza. Three days after her arrest Tatiana found an anonymous note on her prison bunk threatening to kill her and punish her family if she spoke out about what had happened to her. She petitioned the chief of police but was told that the Israel Police cannot guarantee anyone's safety abroad. She testified in June 1999 and was deported later that month. . . . Her fate is not known. A police spokesman refused to comment on the case."

"In Israel prostitution is not illegal. Nor is there legislation against trafficking or slavery, [my high-lighting] though there is a law forbidding taking people out of the country by force. Police officials complain that in the absence of legislation their options are limited. . . ."

Now I'm skipping to another paragraph, and again I quote: "According to the statistics provided by the Israel Police, in 1997 between 500 and 600 police files were opened under Article 10 of the penal code, which covers prostitution and obscenity offenses. An unknown additional number of cases against traffickers and pimps were also opened under other sections of the penal code, for crimes such as assault, kidnapping, and unlawful possession of passports. And though the police have opened more than 1,100 files during the past three years, only 126 cases against men involved in trafficking have actually been brought to court. During the same period more than 1,200 women were deported from Israel. According to sociologist Esther Herzog, director of Shin -- "The Movement for Equal Representation for Women" -- in 1999 the police arrested more than 400 women but only 28 pimps. And even these minuscule numbers, she says, are probably inflated. Since there is no law here against trafficking in human beings or slave trading, it is impossible to know how many of the above cases were related to trafficking, and how many were connected to prostitution-related offenses, such as pimping or operating a brothel." End of quote.
 

---

Excepts for a Report originally posted June 16, 2000 in the "Jerusalem Post"