EXCERPT

Fighting the flesh trade

By Marion Marrache


Although new laws are in the works to stem the white-slavery trade into Israel,
Marion Marrache explains why the authorities must do more to treat the
prostitutes as victims rather than criminals

"Woman's flesh for sale, woman's flesh for sale," yells a man in front of the
Hamashbir department store in downtown Jerusalem, offering up to passers-by the
young woman standing next to him.

Although trafficking in women is very much a reality in Israel, this scene was a
protest staged two weeks ago by the Jerusalem Women's Center as part of the
International Day of Protest Against Violence Against Women.

"Instead of just protesting rape and domestic violence as we do every other
year, we could not ignore the terrible issue of thousands of women being
trafficked annually into this country to be used as prostitutes," says Adi
Kunstman, coordinator of activities at the center, adding "Trafficking is modern
slavery."

Local organizations dealing with the issue, such as the Hotline for Migrant
Workers and the Awareness Center, believe that some 3,000 women are smuggled
into the country every year for the purpose of prostitution. The majority of
these women are from Moldavia, Russia and the Ukraine. They are approached in
their countries of origin - where they earn $20 to $30 a month - with the
promise of employment which will bring in a magical monthly $1,000.

According to a report issued by the International Abolitionist Federation, an
estimated one-fourth of these women are unaware that they will be working in the
sex trade, believing instead they will be employed as waitresses, cooks, au
pairs, models or masseuses. None are prepared for what they eventually
encounter. Most suffer beatings and repeated rape. The women are viewed and
bought at pimping auctions - during which they are forced to undress - at prices
ranging from $4,000 to $10,000.

According to attorney Nomi Levenkron of the Migrant Hotline, those who fetch the
lower prices end up working in the slum area around Tel Aviv's old central bus
station. Their passports are taken from them, and they are often kept locked up
in apartments with barred windows. This was the case with the four prostitutes
who were trapped and burnt to death when a religious fanatic torched a Tel Aviv
brothel in August, 2000.

[...]

"Israel has become a convenient center for pimps who trade in women," says
Gal-On, who also proposed this bill. "It is modern-day slave trading, and the
sentences for the pimps are not harsh enough, as judges still do not take this
matter seriously enough. The courts give the criminals ridiculous sentences,
rendering the current law meaningless. At the worst, the pimps spend a couple of
years in jail, but they make a fortune. But from now on, criminals will know
that you cannot trade in women and get off lightly."

AN ILLUMINATED sign reading "Palace Club" flashes outside a seedy brothel in
south Tel Aviv. A group of journalists joining Gal-On's committee on a recent
fact-finding mission, head down a few flights of dark stone stairs to the
reception area where three young women sit huddled in a corner waiting for
clients. Beside them stands their portly pimp dabbing the sweat from his
forehead with a large silk handkerchief.

There are approximately 250 such brothels in Tel Aviv, an increase of 100 since
last year. This is by far the largest number of brothels in the country; in
other parts of the country trafficking exists, but it is less common and there
is far less awareness of the problem. Some of the women live in brothels, others
have a room elsewhere.

If business is good, a shift can last from 10 a.m. to 3 a.m. They are paid at
the end of the month after expenses and "fines" have been deducted - prostitutes
can be fined by their pimps for almost anything. And this is only once the girls
have paid back their purchase price, during which time they are extraordinarily
lucky if those who are pimping for them give them a daily allowance of NIS 20
for cigarettes.

Often, by the time they have finished buying themselves out of their slavery,
they have been resold and must begin again. These women are told so often that
they are the property of their pimps that they do not even stop to think whether
or not they have to have sex with them as well. Although clients generally have
to use protection, the pimps usually don't. Gal-On says one pimp told her his
women make NIS 120 for a half-hour, "NIS 100 for me, NIS 20 for them." Many
brothels also have a kitty into which the girls have to put NIS 30 to 50 per
client in order to cover the brothel's tax bill (declared income is credited to
"massages").

These women are often lured into prostitution in their native countries by
misleading job advertisements in the papers. They often have very young children
who they have left behind with their families.

"Some have artistic careers, others are academics who want to make some money to
pay for their studies," explains Levenkron. "Those who have children generally
have not been part of the work force yet because they have married young."

Many of the women travel from Moscow to Sharm e-Sheikh, and then are taken to
the Israeli border. They are met by there by Beduin guides, who smuggle them
across the border and deliver them to an agent acting on behalf of procurers.

They are also provided with false documentation, needed for those times when the
police raid brothels, check the womens' identification papers and ask to see if
they have valid visas. But according to the prostitutes, they rarely enquire
whether they are being held against their will. In any case, the women admit,
they are usually too frightened to answer truthfully.

Although prostitution itself is not a crime in Israel, such groups as the
Migrant Hotline and the Awareness Center accuse the authorities of treating the
trafficked women as criminals, instead of victims, interested simply in
deporting them - as has been the case with more than 1,000 such women in the
past three years. These organizations also accuse law enforcement of generally
ignoring the crimes of pimps and traffickers, even though they "buy, sell, rape
and torture women," because they sometimes cooperate with the police by
providing information about other criminal activities.

There have also been at least a half-dozen cases of sex trafficking involving
policemen as suspects, and one policeman was charged with managing a brothel. In
four cases, policemen informed the pimps of expected raids on their premises,
and in one instance a policeman was accused of selling a woman to another pimp
following her arrest.

One prostitute, Sonya (not her real name), says she went to a police station and
asked to be arrested because she had just ran away from the brothel where she
was held against her will. The policemen turned her away, and as she left she
heard them saying (in Hebrew) they were going to call her pimp.

ONE OFFICER who does care is Tel Aviv Police Superintendent Pini Aviram, who
heads a special investigative team dealing with the trafficking issue. But
Aviram complains that he does not have anywhere near the manpower need for the
job.

"My team consists of only five Russian speakers," he says, "We need people who
can speak to the women in their own language, and interview them adequately."

This adequate interviewing is actually taking place, but unfortunately not until
the women have already found their way into jail. They are held, usually at the
Neveh Tirza prison but alternatively at Abu Kabir, Kishon, Negev or others, for
weeks and sometimes for months, awaiting deportation. Levenkron or other
volunteers from Migrant Hotline visit Neveh Tirza every Sunday taking a
translator and additional student volunteers with them. Hotline is the only
non-governmental organization which has been allowed access to the prisons, and
they bring the women phone cards and clothing.


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