Minister of Internal Security Amir Ohana today (Wednesday) signed an order to enforce the law banning the consumption of prostitution in Israel. The headquarters for the fight against trafficking in women and prostitution said that law enforcement should have started as early as July 10, 2020, but Minister Ohana refused to sign an order authorizing police officers to enforce the law. Thanks to a petition filed by the headquarters for the fight against trafficking in women and prostitution to the High Court, Ohana undertook to sign the order by the end of 2020, and today we updated the Minister’s Office that the order was signed and the police will begin enforcement.
Ayelet Dayan, co-director of the headquarters for the fight against trafficking in women and prostitution, said in response that “with the beginning of the enforcement of the law prohibiting prostitution we are entering a new era, an era where prostitutes are punished for their exploitation of women in prostitution. “Consumption of prostitution is a crime. Along with enforcement, we will continue to work to further expand rehabilitation and assistance for prostitution populations and to prevent the exploitation of more women in the prostitution circle.”
On Friday, enforcement of the law banning the consumption of prostitution, which was enacted on December 31, 2018, will begin, along with a government decision allocating large budgets in order to eradicate the phenomenon of prostitution in Israel.
In 2016, the national survey on the phenomenon of prostitution in Israel, published by the Ministry of Labor, Welfare and Social Services and the Ministry of Homeland Security, found that about 12,040 people live in prostitution in Israel. In 2017, the Ministry of Welfare updated the estimate of the number of minors in prostitution in Israel to about 3,000 (about 2,000 more than stated in the survey), so that the official estimate currently stands at about 14,000 women and men in prostitution in Israel, of which 3,000 are minors. The known age of entry into prostitution is 14 and most women in the prostitution circle experienced sexual abuse as children.
The survey shows that a woman in prostitution has to meet an average of 5.5 consumers a day, that in Israel prostitution is consumed 26,500 times a day and that the prostitution industry in Israel is rolling in, about NIS 1.3 billion a year. In addition, 62% of women in prostitution in Israel are mothers.
Many of those in the prostitution circle expressed a desire to get out of this circle, over 76% of them would be interested in getting out of prostitution if only they were given the opportunity and 71% of them report that they stay in prostitution due to financial difficulties.
Prostitution is a serious phenomenon characterized by the exploitation of women, men and trans * for the benefit of an industry that rolls in huge sums of money that go mainly to pimps and women traffickers. This is an equally destructive phenomenon. Since 2010, at least 104 women have been killed in prostitution, with an average age of death of 40.
The harms that feeds create for those in the feeding circle are inconceivable. It is not possible to engage in prostitution without experiencing mental pain and without being severely harmed on a physical, psychological and social level. Feeding is an ongoing trauma. Many women in the feeding circle suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, along with other psychological symptoms such as effective disorders and dissociation. Prostitution populations tend to suffer from depression and stress, self-harm and suicide. Prostitution is also accompanied by many physical ailments: venereal diseases, fatigue and fatigue, tendency to contract viral diseases, genital infections, back pain, headaches, abdominal pain, eating disorders, sleep disorders, chronic jaundice, cervical cancer, and chronic pelvic inflammatory disease. All this along with increased use of alcohol and drugs for the purpose of numbing the pain and difficulty that accompany life in the cycle of feeds.
Or Abu, director of the headquarters for the fight against trafficking in women and prostitution, explained that “the law banning the consumption of prostitution is an opportunity for Israeli society to see the reality of prostitution as it is. The reality of women’s distress, the reality of poverty and lack of choice. “Only exploitation and trauma. The law is an opportunity for Israeli society to move towards a more moral and egalitarian society.”
Until now, the State of Israel has imposed responsibility only on those who solicited, pimped and trafficked women. From now on, the responsibility for the hard exploitation is also brought to the door of the feed consumer. Until now, the Penal Code has prohibited trafficking in women, bringing a person into prostitution, pimping, running a brothel, advertising prostitution services and offers to engage in prostitution, and consuming minors. The Prohibition of Prostitution Act imposes the responsibility on the consumer for the first time. Feed consumers will no longer be able to deny their responsibility, their share, in the harsh exploitation that exists in the world of feeds.
The headquarters for the fight against trafficking in women and prostitution promoted the enactment of the law for more than 11 years, initially only with the support of former MK Zehava Gal-On. After other MKs – Shuli Mualem, Aliza Lavi, Orit Zoarz and many others joined the fight As Ayelet Shaked announced her support for the law – the law was passed.
The Prohibition of Prostitution Law stipulates that the consumption of prostitution is an administrative offense and that a perceived prostitution consumer will be fined NIS 2,000 for prostitution, and in the case of a repeat offense, NIS 4,000. In addition, the law stipulates that everyone present in a brothel is a consumer of prostitution. That is, if a person is present at a place designated for the consumption of prostitution and claims that he is not there to consume prostitution, the burden of proof is on him.
The law is part of an integrated process that includes education and public information and the expansion of treatment and rehabilitation methods for prostitution populations. Along with the law, the government decision stipulates that NIS 90 million will be transferred over three years for the purpose of expanding the existing rehabilitation services and establishing additional solutions. Among other things, the services provided today in Be’er Sheva, Haifa and Tel Aviv have been expanded, a flexible response basket service has been developed, and in the near future a set of services will be established in Jerusalem, rehabilitation systems for mothers, dedicated responses to the trans community *, mobile clinics in Be’er Sheva and Jerusalem and more.
In this context, we note that the headquarters for the fight against trafficking in women and prostitution works to ensure that all budgets are implemented and not a single shekel is returned to the state coffers. In December 2019, the headquarters filed a petition in the matter against the Ministry of Welfare and the Ministry of Finance. The petition bore fruit and a significant part of the 2019 budget remained in the hands of the Ministry of Welfare. In addition, following the petition, and despite the lack of a state budget for 2020, already in early June the Ministry of Finance passed the entire budget for 2020 for the implementation of the government decision and in November the Ministry of Welfare updated that all budgets transferred for 2019 and 2020 This is in addition to additional budget commitments that already exist for the year 2021. As a result, the petition was deleted by agreement and the headquarters continues to monitor the expansion of rehabilitation and assistance in all government ministries and the development of new programs in the field.
It is a huge perceptual and social change, the beginning of a process, not the end of a verse. The starting point in the change that society and the state need to go through.