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Created: March 26, 2002
Latest Update: March 26, 2002
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takata@uwp.edu

Women Slaves in Israel

Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individaul Authors, March 2002.
"Fair use" encouraged.

On Tuesday, March 26, Dorothy Naor posted to New Profile:

Subject: [New Profile] Women Slaves Hi All, Ruthi Hiller has asked me to send this around. The situation with women is indeed a subject that is New Profile oriented . All the best, Dorothy

This Pesach, think of the slaves in our midst.

By Yuval Elbashan

This week the Jewish people of Israel will sit down around the Seder table and once again tell the story of the exodus from Egypt and the transformation from slavery to freedom. "Now we are free," they will sing. But thousands of women won't take part in the joy. For them, it will be another day "on the job." That means between 12 to 20 clients on average, 16 hours a day. That often means violent, drunken, drugged men, who assault them in the course of their work. Some will even be sold this holiday, from one pimp to another.

Israel's language laundry calls them "whores" and excuses its indifference in the belief that the women basically agreed to work in the Israeli sex industry. For most Israelis they are "just" Moldovans, Ukrainians or Russians who came here to make money lying down. Why ruin the song, "O Joy, o joy, spring has arrived and Pesach has come"? Just for them?

But things aren't so simple, and just as every one of us should regard ourselves as having left Egypt and slavery so must we all regard ourselves as if we were born into terrible misery in Moldova, and were sold into prostitution by pimps who only appear to be human. And it's all happening here, in our home. In the heart of our cities. In our country.

It begins with the slave trade in women. Judge Dan Bain noted that fact when, in the Ribai case, he detailed the sale of one of these women in a McDonalds at the Gan Shmuel junction. One pimp sold her to another, who then took her into the toilets to "check the merchandise," as one of the accused so matter of factly stated, where the naked woman was "checked" while random customers at the restaurant looked on.

It continues with the horrendous working conditions, that include working all day most days of the month, including while they are menstruating, and most don't get paid for all sorts of reasons, such as reimbursing the pimp for the expense of buying them, fines for dissatisfied customers, and the like. In addition, there's rape, violence, imprisonment in moldy apartments - a chilling version of slavery.

The question that must be asked every year but especially on the eve of this celebration of liberty, is why the law enforcement authorities do not stamp out this shocking evil with the same energy that they go after, for example, money laundering. The excuse "we didn't know" is easily removed. A broad coalition of women's groups have been alerting them for the last four years about the problem. A UN commission criticized the situation in 1998. Amnesty International did the same in 2000, and last year the U.S. State Department listed Israel along with other countries that do not meet the minimum standard of the American law against trading in women, along with such countries as Bahrain, Bosnia and Saudi Arabia.

But according to a 2001 report by HaMoked, the Center for the Defense of the Individual, the authorities are usually on the other side, alongside the flesh traders and pimps, if not de jure, then de facto. It starts with police cooperation with some of the traders, whether in exchange for intelligence information or other services.

It continues with the prosecution, which usually reaches a plea bargain with the other side, which turns the business into something worthwhile for those who are caught. It goes on with the lower courts, which allow, for example, the pimps themselves to translate the prostitutes' testimony, because the courts lack resources, or hand down ridiculous punishments in plea-bargained cases. In other words, the law enforcement authorities behave toward these women not as victims, but as criminals.

True, there has been some movement lately on this issue. There is the bill proposed by the parliamentary commission headed by Meretz MK Zahava Gal-On; instructions handed down by the State Attorney's Office; the establishment of the first hostel for women who were sold; and stricter rulings by the Supreme Court (which ruled, under Justice Terkel, that the state must pay for legal representation for the sold women). But that's not enough. The field levels of the prosecution and police, and the lower courts are still not operating in that spirit.

Therefore, the State Attorney's Office, the chief of the National Police, and the presidents of the courts must gird their loins and take vigorous action to end this disgrace. The responsibility for this terrible crime is also on their shoulders. Each of them should remember when they sit down at their Seder table that there are thousands of women imprisoned in this country, spitting blood - in all senses of the word - but the blood does not lead anyone to pass over their doors.

The writer is an attorney and head of the Civil Rights Department at Ramat Gan Law College.