Sex Slavery – The Growing Trade in Israel Posted on June 12, 2009 by Antievil Modern slavery of women in Israel – trafficking Sex slavery: The growing trade in Israel, thousands of Eastern European and Russian girls lured to Tel Aviv and enslaved into prostitution As customers – demands for slave trade workers who do not have HIV or AIDS … “Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property. You can will them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life…..” (Leviticus 25:44-46) There are an estimated 20,000 female sex slaves forced into prostitution in Tel-Aviv each year. According to a report released in 2005 by the Knesset Subcommittee on Trafficking in Women, between 10,000 and 15,000 women had been smuggled into Israel over the previous four years to work as prostitutes. According to the report, the women, who were mostly from the former Soviet Union, were sold at public auction for as much as $10,000 and forced to work up to 18 hours a day. On average, the women received only three percent of the money they earned from prostitution, and many were raped and beaten. Most of the women had been smuggled over the Egyptian border and lured from Russia and Eastern Europe on false promises of secretarial jobs. Israel Sex Slavery Thrives Israel and the Ugly Slavery Trade Human rights groups have long demanded actions against the trade in women in Israel. These women many from the former Soviet, are working as prostitutes in a condition of virtual slavery. Many of the Russian women who have ended up in Israel’s brothels, some smuggled into the country from Egypt on the back of camels, expected to find jobs a cleaners and or working in childcare. There are certain places where auctions are taking place. The Israeli police well know the names. They are nightclubs or regular bars. The women are brought there, buyers come and look at their bodies and their teeth, then the bidding starts. They are held by the pimps, beaten and totally isolated Dozens of brothels and peepshows have sprung up in Tel Aviv and Haifa in the last few years. There are over 20,000 women in prostitution in Tel Aviv. Their customers pay for 45,000 acts of prostitution every day. Women are held in apartments, bars and brothels where they are bought by up to 25 men a day. They sleep in shifts, four to a bed. (Police officials, Michael Specter, “Traffickers’ New Cargo: Naive Slavic Women, “New York Times, 11 January 1998, They cannot walk freely. They cannot leave the apartment as they wish. Usually the passports have been taken. Amnesty International investigation of the trade in Russian women suggests Israel’s police and government officials have largely ignored the abuse. The arrest of prostitutes is frequent, as illegal workers, the men who brought them to Israel many of whom are Israelis are not arrested. The Justice Ministry spokeswoman Etty Eshed (1998)said the government would think about making legal changes to address trafficking in the “near future” but had no date or plan for doing so. (Elisabeth Eaves, “Israel not the promised land for Russian sex slaves,” Reuters, 23 August 1998) The Israeli police say they are powerless to stop the flow of trafficked women until the laws change. “They (trafficked women) are very much afraid to come to the police and complain, so the police really can’t do anything,” said a police spokeswoman Linda Menuhin. “Israel has no law against trafficking people, and no law against prostitution.” Rachel Benziman, legal adviser to the Israel Women’s Network, said there are a variety of crimes, rape, abduction, battery, deceit and theft which the authorities rarely bother to prosecute for, even though they have the power to do so. “It’s not a problem of finding the right section in the criminal code. It is more a problem of finding the women who will testify and finding the motivation. she said. (Elisabeth Eaves, “Israel not the promised land for Russian sex slaves,” Reuters, 23 August 1998) Israel does not have a specific law against the sale of human beings. (Michael Specter, “Traffickers’ New Cargo: Naive Slavic Women,” New York Times, 11 January 1998). There is no law related to bringing women from another country into Israel for prostitution. (CEDAW Report, 8 April 1997) If trafficked and prostituted women are caught they are deported. Since 1994, not one woman has testified against a trafficker. (Betty Lahan, director of Neve Tirtsa Prison, Michael Specter, “Traffickers’ New Cargo: Naive Slavic Women,” New York Times, 11 January 1998) There are no official numbers regarding the extent of prostitution and the traffic of women in Israel, but there is a general consensus that it is becoming more prevalent. (CEDAW Report, 8 April 1997

You would think in one of the richest areas, in the richest state, of the richest country in the world...there would not be power outages. We knocked the backup generator off line when digging the trenches for the new retaing walls.