By Marion Marrache
The Jerusalem Post - August, 01 2001
NEVEH ILAN (August 1) - Attorney-General Elyakim Rubinstein
yesterday called for a crackdown on trafficking in women, charging that law
enforcement officials are not doing their job.
"We have to fight this phenomenon morally, socially,
and legally... to aspire to uproot this phenomenon," Rubinstein said.
Rubinstein spoke at a conference held yesterday at
Neveh Ilan on trafficking in women for prostitution. Also speaking at the
conference, chaired by Internal Security Ministry adviser Hagai Herzl, were
Internal Security Minister Uzi Landau, Deputy Internal Security Minister
Gideon Ezra, Insp.-Gen. Shlomo Aharonishky, and Labor MK Yael Dayan.
Police investigations head Cmdr. Moshe Mizrahi said
3,000 trafficked prostitutes are currently in Israel and that numbers are
on the rise. Insp.-Gen. Shlomo Aharonishky said that seven women were caught
last night trying to enter Israel from Egypt.
Mizrahi expressed concern about how to protect women
who decide to testify against their pimps. If they are repatriated, those
who imported them will be able to find them; additionally, many are supporting
children in their home countries whom they fear may be harmed. So far 31
women have agreed to testify and are receiving a monthly stipend of NIS
6,000.
Mizrahi called for a "serious operation" that would
extend to the women's countries of origin.
Some two-thirds of the women brought here end up virtual
captives and are physically and mentally mistreated. One-third eventually
manage to get work in more established brothels where they only work 12 hours
a day but still must foot the bill for their medical expenses.
Mizrahi said that 146 files involving brothels have
been opened, and 23 women have appeared in court.
Meretz MK Zahava Gal-On called for the issue to be
dealt with as soon as possible. Interior Ministry Director-General Mordechai
Mordechai said he is appalled that this is happening in Israel, and that
it is connected to the absence of proper regulations concerning foreign workers,
who are often treated as slaves.
Seventy-five percent of the women who come from Ukraine,
Moldova, and Russia understand that they will be working as prostitutes.
The rest think they will be working as masseuses or in hotels. None, however,
expect such mistreatment. They enter the country with false documents provided
by the traffickers, which are then taken from them, and are kept virtual
captives, and work 16 to 18 hours a day servicing between four and 25 clients.
In addition, they are often sold to other pimps.
Tel Aviv District Attorney Miriam Rosenthal decried
the lack of infrastructure that let the women back onto the street after
coming to the police for help. Some of them manage to come to the police
for help. "It's as if we didn't want to touch it."
Organization for Foreign Workers' Rights legal adviser
Naomi Levenkron said that although police do spot checks for documents at
apartments where the women are held, they often overlook false papers and
never ask the women whether they want to be there.
Dep.-Cmdr. Avi Davidovitch, head of an inter-ministerial
team established at Rubinstein's recommendation, mentioned the women's
social-psychological plight. He said that few complaints were filed against
pimps, whereas the number of trafficked women was high, and that many women
either refuse to complain or retract their statements to police later in
court. He called the situation "a war against Amalek without guns." Davidovitch
added that thanks largely to Levenkron's work, every woman who does come
forward is provided with a lawyer at the state's expense.
Prof. Julie Cwikel of Ben-Gurion University's Center
for Women's Health Studies and Promotion supported "bringing some focus on
occupational hazards and funding." She said that the women should be given
more help than just AIDS testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases.
The women interviewed for Cwikel's study (as reported in yesterday's paper,
"BGU publishes first study of local prostitutes") were those who "work in
organized places. We cannot interview women held against their will. If the
situation according to our study doesn't sound 'all that bad,' it's because
we have looked at a small group in much better conditions."
(Itim contributed to this report.)
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