25% To 30% Of Israeli Prostitutes' Customers Are Haredi, Activists Say

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October 08, 2011
25% To 30% Of Israeli Prostitutes' Customers Are Haredi, Activists Say

Prostitutes While there is no exact figures on how many people in Israel utilize the services of sex workers in Israel, Atzum estimates that up to 10,000 men each month visit one of the hundreds of discreet apartments or brothels throughout the country. Of those, Lauer said that roughly 25-35 percent are from the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community; 25-35% are Arab; 8- 10% are foreign workers and the rest are from the rest of Israeli society.

    Taking on the taboo
    Human rights groups, MK Orit Zuaretz set to raise the stakes in battle against prostitution in Israel.
    By RUTH EGLASH • Jerusalem Post

    Human rights groups and the Knesset Subcommittee on Trafficking in Women are taking on Israel's burgeoning sex service industry.

    Committee chairwoman MK Orit Zuaretz is set to raise the stakes in the coming months battling prostitution with potential legislation that will make it illegal for a man to utilize the services of a prostitute.

    "I am connected to this issue through my work as the chairperson of the committee and I have come to understand that the petrol that maintains trafficking in women is the demand for sexual services," said Zuaretz, who recently returned from a two-week trip to the US to explore the white slave trade.

    According to the MK, both women trafficked to Israel for work in the sex industry and local women who wind up working in one of the country's many discreet apartments or brothels come from very poor or problematic family backgrounds. In short, their careers as sex slaves are derived from a lack of other options.

    "These women never come from wealthy families and taking advantage of them in this way is like buying blood diamonds," she points out. "If you buy a blood diamond it is criminal; if you buy the body of a woman it should be criminal too. I don't understand why this is tolerated by the public in a Jewish state."

    Zuaretz said she plans, during the upcoming Knesset term, to forge ahead with legislation based on similar laws initially implemented in Sweden, and later in Norway and Iceland, to make it a criminal offense to buy sexual services, but not to sell them. The proposed legislation, she said, is aimed at protecting women, either trafficked to Israel from abroad or local women, who have been forced into the country's sex industry.

    Zuaretz's bill is being backed by a unique political lobbying campaign led by the Task Force for Human Trafficking, a project of NGO Atzum and the law firm Kabiri-Nevo-Keidar.

    The project, "Ad 119" (Until 119), will see 119 volunteers trained as experts in the subject of human trafficking and the sex industry who will then be assigned to each of the remaining 119 Knesset members to educate on the phenomenon and encourage them to vote in favor of the bill.

    "We have attacked the supply side of the sex trade industry and now we are turning to attack the demand side," says Rabbi Levi Lauer, director and founder of Atzum, which in recent years has seen measurable success in persuading the government to seal the Israel- Egypt border – the most common passage for women trafficked from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe into Israel – and by passing legislation to prosecute traffickers and pimps.

    "I don't believe that this kind of lobbying model, similar to tactics used by AIPAC in the US Congress, has been used here in Israel," said Lauer, adding that key differences in the political system here mean that MKs are more accountable to party lines and not to actual constituents.

    Despite this, he says: "Our goal is to make the purchase of sexual services illegal and even, if at first, there is little police enforcement of the law, by making it illegal raping these sex slaves will suddenly become daunting. There are many young people who rape sex slaves with impunity because they think there are no consequences, but if there is a chance they will get a criminal record then they might think twice about it."

    While there is no exact figures on how many people in Israel utilize the services of sex workers in Israel, Atzum estimates that up to 10,000 men each month visit one of the hundreds of discreet apartments or brothels throughout the country. Of those, Lauer said that roughly 25-35 percent are from the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community; 25-35% are Arab; 8- 10% are foreign workers and the rest are from the rest of Israeli society.

    "People tell me that this could be a lot of work for nothing," Lauer said. "But I always remind them that when the new law was passed to stop people from smoking and spitting on buses, people said there is no way in the world Israelis will stop smoking, but the law passed and the average citizen was empowered to go up to smokers and tell them to stop. Now no one, or almost no one, smokes or spits on buses."

    He added that putting legislation in place could empower people who live in buildings where there are discreet brothels to call the police.

    While Zauretz and Lauer are determined to push through this law, the government and certain social rights groups are more hesitant that criminalizing prostitution, without concurrent attempts at social education and rehabilitation services for the women, is not necessarily the answer.

    The country's national coordinator for human trafficking, lawyer Rachel Gershuni, said that her department in the Justice Ministry has already held a series of meetings on the topic to solidify a governmental position on the issue. After hearing from a wide variety of academics, NGOs and even women working in the industry, Gershuni said the matter is not so "clear cut."

    "Even for someone like myself who feels that prostitution can be seen as a gross violation of human rights by everyone who takes part in it, except of course the victims, I still have my doubts that criminal action is the way to go," Gershuni said.

    Her doubts, she said, stem from the fact that Israel does not have adequate rehabilitation services to help the women who would quickly be out of a job, leaving them with "little help and little recourse."

    Gershuni also said that some ground work needs to be done in order to "change public attitudes" toward the sex industry, including working on re-educating the public and only then creating legislation.

    "When we look at the prohibition acts in the US, what happened was that there was only a small body of Christian women that pushed for it," Gershuni said. "Not only was the majority of the public against it but the police were against it and therefore it was never enforced.

    "We have to ask whether it is right to first do criminal legislation in order to educate the public or whether it is more effective to educate the public first. In Sweden, for example, education was carried out first."

    Zuaretz disagreed, saying that legislation can spark societal change. "Sometimes the law can be a catalyst for change and push the government, which has been comfortable doing nothing, into action," she said, adding, "When the battle to stamp out sexual harassment in the army started, it was a phenomenon that no one liked to talk about and everyone acted as though it was normal.

    "Then the law was implemented, mechanisms were put into place and women started complaining."

    Because prostitution brings in money, Zuaretz said, no one wants to challenge it. "I am determined to make people realize that prostitution is a human rights issue and we have to deal with it."

http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed ... s-789.html

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French chemist killed by Israeli prostitutes
Posted on January 4, 2012 | 1 Comment

For the last few days, internet was flooded by Zionist propagandists claiming Iranian agents had murdered a Jewish chemist, Dr. Elie Lalouz in Israel, as revenge for Mossad's assassination of Iranian military engineer Hassan Tahrani Moqaddam in November 2011.

On January 3, 2012, Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported the good-old Jewish chemist was murdered by two Israeli prostitutes in his Tel Aviv apartment while having sex with them.

"Israeli police has arrested two Israeli prostitutes and two of their male pimps for the murder of a 70-year-old French chemist Elie Lalouz," reported Ha'aretz on January 3, 2012.

The two prostitutes told police they had drugged Elie Lalouz while in bed with him in Elie's Dizengoff Street apartment. Then one of them stabbed him with a kitchen knife and put a plastic bag on his head and set his mattress on fire to cover-up the crime.

One of the prostitute told police that Elie paid her 200 euros for her services four days before his death and called her again on Tuesday. She asked Elie if she can bring another prostitute with her and Elie agreed to pay them 200 euros each. However, once in bed, he changed his mind on payment for their services.

Police found Lalouz's body when neighbors called to report a strong smell of smoke. Police found prostitute's business card and were told by a neighbor that Lalouz, who had made Aliya (religious journey) to the Promised Land a few months ago, would bring prostitutes home.

Dr. Lalouz was a close friend of Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav, who called the sex-maniac old Jew, "a kindhearted and smart man".

According to Israeli sources, Tel Aviv is world's prostitution capital. The city has 280 brothels and over 20,000 prostitutes.

http://rehmat1.com/2012/01/04/french-ch ... ostitutes/

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Israeli police pose as drunks, prostitutes to entice African refugees to steal
Undercover cops disguised as drunks and prostitutes arrest African asylum seekers living in Tel Aviv who are not allowed to work in Israel.
By Yaniv Kubovich   | Feb.29, 2012 | 2:41 AM | 9

refugees- Alon Ron
African refugees and labor migrants near the Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv. Photo by Alon Ron


Undercover Tel Aviv police, posing as drunks and prostitutes, have begun arresting refugees and asylum seekers by luring them to steal wallets and other items.

Dozens of undercover police officers operated last weekend around the central bus station, where many of the refugees who entered the country illegally live. In a joint operation of the Tel Aviv Region police and the Border Police's Barak unit, policewomen disguised as prostitutes stood on street corners and arrested everyone who tried to attack them. Others pretended to be drunk women looking for a cab home.

"Within two hours there were a number of cases where Eritrean and Sudanese men robbed the police," said Superintendent Ron Krieg, the commander of the Border Police company that took part in the operation.

"Minutes after we started the operation, we already had a number of arrests of those who stole purses and cell phones. Such robberies in the area are nothing new, and we are trying to use the forces creatively to deal with the situation," said Krieg.

A., a university lecturer, witnessed how the operation works. He was wandering around near the Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv at 3 A.M. on Friday., hoping to find the thief who had stolen his cell phone minutes earlier. When A. reached the middle of Hasharon Street he noticed a man who appeared to be drunk or drugged lying on the sidewalk and not moving. Next to him was a woman trying to help. A. went over and offered his help. He was surprised when the man immediately sobered up and told him to move on right away.

A. continued on his way and when he reached nearby Hacarmel Street he was surprised to see another man lying on the ground and there was a woman trying to help out at his side too. Both of the men he sawing lying on the ground also had wallets with bills sticking out in their shirt pockets. A. waited on the corner to see what would happen.

A few seconds later, a young Eritrean man approached the man lying on the ground. The Eritrean tried to ask how he was - and when he got no reply he put his hand into the man's shirt pocket, took the wallet and tried to run. The man on the sidewalk and the woman at his side jumped on the young man, shouting "police." Within seconds six police cars and motorcycles appeared and surrounded the Eritrean, whose head hit the wall during his arrest.

These illegal refugees, who are not entitled to work, are brought daily to the Magistrate's Court in Tel Aviv to be remanded, usually after they were caught stealing property worth a few hundred shekels at most. They steal mobile phones and sell them for NIS 150 in stores in the area. Sometimes they work in groups of two or three who steal together to buy food and pay rent.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/ne ... l-1.415441

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       Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation --  Israel -- Trafficking

        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)

        There has been a steady increase in the numbers of foreign women involved in prostitution who are arrested for illegal stays in Israel and who are detained before being deported to their home-countries; in over 95% of the cases, they were from the former USSR. The average time these women spend in prison is 50 days. The women themselves are supposed to pay for their expenses to leave Israel, but when their resources are inadequate, the Ministry of Interior finances their deportation from a special budget. (Authorities, Neve Tirza women's prison, CEDAW Report, 8 April 1997)

 Traffickers and    pimps earned US$50,000 - 100,000 a year from each prostituted woman, resulting in a US$450 million sex industry. ("A modern form of slavery," The Jerusalem Post, 13 January 1998)  

        1,500 Russian and Ukrainian trafficked women have been deported from 1995-1997. (Michael Specter, "Traffickers' New Cargo: Naive Slavic Women," New York Times, 11 January 1998)

        Russian women are bought and sold by pimps in Israel for prices ranging from US$5,000 to $20,000. (Police sources, "'Invisible' Women Shown In Russia's Demographics," Martina Vandenberg, St. Petersburg Times, 13 October 1997)

        A small brothel with ten women can make up to 750,000 shekels a month (US $215,000). (Michael Specter, "Traffickers' New Cargo: Naive Slavic Women," New York Times, 11 January 1998)

        Women trafficked from Eastern Europe, were stripped and sold naked as slaves to Tel Aviv traders for US$500-1,000. Smuggling, fraudulent documents, collaboration between police and brothel owners are involved. There are routine brutal beatings and sexual abuse. (New York Times 11 January 1998)

        The non-profit Israel Women's Network estimates that 70% of prostituted women  in Tel Aviv, Israel's commercial center, come from the former Soviet republics, and that about 1,000 women are brought into Israel illegally each year. At any one time, as many as 100 women may be awaiting deportation in Neve Tirza women's prison near Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion airport, a prison spokeswoman said. (Elisabeth Eaves, "Israel not the promised land for Russian sex slaves", Reuters, 23 August 1998)

        A poll by the Women's Network showed 44% of Israelis believed all Russian immigrant women provided sexual services for pay. Illegal immigrants in Israel, who are mostly Russian, are often stereotyped as having brought crime and prostitution while exploiting Israeli laws enabling anyone with a Jewish grandparent to immigrate.(Elisabeth Eaves, "Israel not the promised land for Russian sex slaves," Reuters, 23 August 1998)

       Official Response and Action

        While trafficked women are frequently arrested as illegal workers, the men who brought them to Israel -- many of whom are Israeli citizens -- are not. Justice Ministry spokeswoman Etty Eshed 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)

        Police in Israel 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 spokeswoman Linda Menuhin. "The problem is there is 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. When it comes to drug dealing, the police don't wait for someone to come into their office and say they have found drugs. They look for it. We expect them to do the same thing for the trafficking of women -- but they don't," she said. (Elisabeth Eaves, "Israel not the promised land for Russian sex slaves," Reuters, 23 August 1998)

       Policy and Law

        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)

       Case

        One woman's story:

        Lyubov, 17, arrived in Israel from a Russian coal mining city only to be sold into prostitution. Now she sits in a prison cell awaiting expulsion as an illegal worker. Six months ago, a man in Lyubov's hometown told the young woman he could get her a plane ticket, a visa and a job abroad. She entered Israel with a tour group and was met by a hotel owner who befriended her and gave her a job as a cleaner in exchange for a room. The hotel owner introduced her to friends, showed her around and taught her some Hebrew until one day he told her to get out of his car and into another. Then he drove away. "At first I didn't know I had been sold. Then my owner told me he had bought me for $9,000," Lyubov said in an interview in a prison office. Her new "owner," as she calls him, told her she would work as a call girl.

        It was the beginning of a stint as an unpaid prostitute -- part of an international crime phenomenon which women's groups see as a modern slave trade. Lyubov's "owner" kept her and eight other women in two apartments. He never paid any of them but instead said they were indebted to him for their plane tickets and every expense incurred, from doctors' visits to haircuts. Transported to clients by drivers and often under guard, Lyubov had sex with an average of six men a day for about $75 an hour. All she could keep were tips. She worked round the clock, seven days a week, with no holidays except for Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. "You have to have very strong nerves to do this kind of work," she said.

        Life in Russia was very difficult. "There were days when I had nothing to eat," Lyubov said. She weighed 50 kg (110 pounds) when she left Russia, and gained 20 kg (45 pounds) after arriving in Israel. She said circumstances had made it hard for her to quit (leave her "owner"). "I came into this circle and then it was very hard to get out. My papers were fake, I had no money, I had no acquaintances and I was in an enclosed place," she said. The nearest police station was across the road from the apartment where Lyubov was kept but she never went there, inhibited, like many others, by the double bind of fear of her owner and fear of deportation. "I kept hoping some day I would earn some money. But when they actually caught me, I was relieved," she said. (Elisabeth Eaves, "Israel not the promised land for Russian sex slaves," Reuters, 23 August 1998)

   Prostitution

        There are over 10,00 women in prostitution in Tel Aviv. (CEDAW Report, 8 April 1997)

        Men pay for 25,000 acts of prostitution every day. There are 250,000 foreign male workers who help create a demand for prostituted women. Women are held in apartments, bars and brothels where they are bought by up to 15 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)

        The Russian mafia has moved into Israel to profit from trafficking and prostitution. Police in Israel have been keeping around 30 organized key crime suspects under surveillance. (Kevin Connolly, "How Russia's mafia is taking over Israel's underworld," BBC, 3 April 1998)

        £2.5 billion (US$4 billion) of organized crime money from the former Soviet Union has been invested in Israeli real estate, businesses and banks in the past seven years. Gregory Lerner, who was arrested in 1997 for defrauding four Russian banks of £70 million (US$106 million), was reputedly sent to Israel to head up one of the money laundering operations. One highly profitable area in which organized crime thrives is prostitution. Dozens of brothels and peepshows have sprung up in Tel Aviv and Haifa in the last few years. (Former police chief Asaf Hefetz, Kevin Connolly "How Russia's mafia is taking over Israel's underworld" BBC, (3 April 1998)

        Israel's demand for prostituted women may be bolstered by three groups -- foreign workers, Orthodox Jews and Arabs. Many of Israel's nearly 200,000 legal and illegal foreign workers are young, unattached men likely to buy sex. (Elisabeth Eaves, "Israel not the promised land for Russian sex slaves", Reuters, 23 August 1998)

        Amir, a Tel Aviv pimp, said a woman could cost up to $20,000, depending on her looks. "It's like a car. It depends how valuable she is," he said, standing on a street lined with flashing lights advertising brothels near Tel Aviv's old central bus station. Arabs and Orthodox Jews have "very strong taboos against sexual connections outside of marriage and therefore go to a place where they can do it more anonymously. It's a matter of supply and demand," he said. (Elisabeth Eaves, "Israel not the promised land for Russian sex slaves," Reuters, 23 August 1998)

       Health and Well-being

        In Israel, there is a significant correlation between prostitution and drug abuse. Of the 200 women prisoners in Neve-Tirza Women's Prison, 70% are drug-addicts (mainly to heroine, which is the most common drug in Israel);10% are in a process of getting treated. Of the 80% with drug addictions, over 60% were involved in prostitution in order to finance their addiction. (Neve Tirza prison's officials, CEDAW Report, 8 April 1997)

       Case

The Tropicana in Tel Aviv is one of the busiest brothels. The women are all Russian. There are 12 cubicles where 20 women work in shifts, 8 during the daytime, 12 at night. Buyers are Israeli soldiers, business executives, tourists, and foreign workers. The brothel owner said, "Israelis love Russian girls. They are blonde and good looking, and they are desperate. They are ready to do anything for money." (Michael Specter, "Traffickers' New Cargo: Naive Slavic Women," New York Times, 11 January 1998)

       Policy and Law

        Within the legal framework it is theoretically possible to criminally charge the clientele of the sex-industry under at least one section, namely section 210 of the Penal Law-1977, which states that approaching a minor under 16 or an adult woman with indecent insinuations is punishable by up to three months in prison. This section however, has never been enforced against clients of prostitutes. (CEDAW Report, 8 April 1997)

        The current Israeli legal framework for dealing with prostitution is based upon the abolitionist approach. However, the current legal arrangement and its method of enforcement suffer from inconsistencies and lack of protocol for dealing with the reality of prostitution. (CEDAW Report, 8 April 1997)

        Prostitution in itself is not, and has never been, a crime under Israeli law, and the woman who engages in prostitution is not considered a criminal. The legal system engages in selective prohibition, by criminalizing exploitive conducts that surround prostitution, so that both the exploitative and practical aspects of prostitution are criminalized. Engaging in prostitution as a client or sponsor is a criminal act, while prostitution itself is not. (CEDAW Report, 8 April 1997)

        "Procurement," defined as living off the profits or taking all or some profits from a woman who engages in prostitution, and solicitation of a woman to engage in prostitution, are crimes according to sections 199-201 of the Penal Law-1977, punishable by 5 years in prison, and up to 7 years under aggravating circumstances. Such aggravated circumstances include the following: when the woman is a minor under 18 years old; when the woman is the perpetrator's daughter, wife, or when he is her custodian, teacher, or otherwise in charge of her; when the perpetrator accused of soliciting was armed during the act. Case law, however, had interpreted solicitation to mean proven engagement in prostitution, thus making it much more difficult to prosecute for solicitation. Under section 202 of the Penal Law, soliciting a woman to leave her home with the intention of engaging her in prostitution is punishable by 5 years imprisonment, and if the woman is a minor - by up to seven years. Soliciting a woman to leave the country for the same purpose is also punishable by seven years. Section 207 imposes mandatory imprisonment on perpetrators convicted under sections 199-202, with no possibility of a suspended sentence. This is a highly unusual provision in the context of the Israeli criminal law and indicates the gravity that the legislator had attributed to these crimes. (CEDAW Report, 8 April 1997)

        Laws against procurement and soliciting are rarely enforced. Instead, the prostitutes themselves are often arrested, not for engaging in prostitution - since that is not a criminal offense, but for related practices such as the enticement of others to engage in indecent acts in public places, a felony punishable by three months in prison, according to section 209(a). Usually prostitutes are released after several hours, but sometimes they are charged under section 209(a), which was never intended to serve as a regulation of prostitution, or under section 216(a)(5) which prohibits "strolling." Another criminal offense directly applicable to women who engage in prostitution, is section 215(c) which states that being in a place for the purpose of engaging in prostitution, in circumstances which pose disturbance to neighbors or obstruction of traffic is punishable by up to one year in prison. (CEDAW Report, 8 April 1997)

        Public Action

        There has been a proliferation of sex industry advertisements in daily newspapers. An ad-hoc public committee offered guidelines to publishers regarding these concerns. The significant consequences of this initiative were: 1) the cessations of advertisements that specifically mentioned or alluded to the age (under 18) of the women whose sex-services were being advertised. 2) The moderation of the overall tone of these ads and the pictures which accompany them. (CEDAW Report, 8 April 1997)

   Pornography

There is a growing market for child-pornography in Israel. It is not produced in Israel, but is imported and sold freely in response to growing demand. The use of child pornography is explicitly dealt with under the section 214 of the Penal Code, which prohibits the publication and presentation of obscene materials. (CEDAW Report, 8 April 1997)

        Factbook Table of Contents            CATW Homepage

        Coalition Against Trafficking in Women
        Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation
        Donna M. Hughes, Laura Joy Sporcic, Nadine Z. Mendelsohn and Vanessa Chirgwin

http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/israel.htm

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Because We Were Slaves: Israel's Sex Trade

Arina sits at a table in one of Jerusalem's all night bar/cafés. She's dressed stylishly, albeit a bit provocatively for Jerusalem. It's just past 5 a.m. on a Thursday night and Marina and her party seem to be having a good time. They're drinking and chain smoking Marlboros – laughing and joking in Russian. They don't seem significantly different from any of the other patrons at the impossibly busy bar. Marina has been in Israel for 3 months. A recent arrival from Novosibirsk via Moscow, she's 26 years old and has a degree in Physics. Speaking passable English, Marina was both charming and vivacious – as were Artem and Vlad, the two guys she was with. Natalia and Irina rounded out the party, and although their English wasn't as good as Marina's, they were equally animated.

These people represent a continuing issue in Israel. They are the well scrubbed representatives of Israel's booming $1 billion sex trade industry. When they walk into your hotel room, their appearance, intelligence and friendly demeanor might make you think that they are simply college students earning extra money for school books. After parting with a not insignificant sum of money and being serviced by one of these libertines, you might assuage your guilt by thinking that you've somehow helped.

You haven't. Not really. See not only are Marina, Natalia and Irina Israeli sex trade workers. They're also slaves. Little, if any of the cash they receive plying their trade actually goes to them.

Artem and Vlad are their drivers – they get some of the cash, but the lion's share goes to their    pimps – ruthless mobsters who purchase these women at impromptu auctions for anywhere between $5,000 and $20,000. Afterwards, the women, escaping grinding poverty and chronic unemployment in their homes in the former Soviet Union, have to work to repay the pimps for the price of their purchase and expenses involved in their upkeep. Despite sometimes servicing a dozen men a day, they rarely, if ever manage to repay their "debt."

Horrifying no? Marina works as an escort for one of several agencies that advertise in tourist magazines and Israeli newspapers. As such she's actually one of the lucky ones. Tourists and upscale Israelis don't like their whores bruised, worn out looking or whacked out on heroin. Marina's agency does outcalls, servicing clients at their hotels or homes. In the sex trade hierarchy, that's considered the top position. But all other positions are well represented in Israel.

There are the so called "Health Clubs" where one can go for anything from a massage with a "happy ending" to full-on sexual intercourse. Typically, the women try to get you off as quickly as possible as this is a volume business. The women here may work as long as 18 hours a day, sleeping in shifts, and service upwards of 2 dozen men a day. The more upscale Health clubs, such as the ones located in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, service Israeli office workers and the occasional tourist directed there by a cab driver. The really scuzzy ones, such as those located near the former bus terminal in Tel Aviv specialize in servicing Israel's growing population of foreign workers from China, Thailand and the Philippines. If a woman finds herself here, she is definitely close to the end of her usefulness to her pimp. Sex workers also operate out of private apartments. Israeli papers are full of advertisements for these places. They operate in a similar manner to the Health Clubs but offer more privacy to the customer and operate far less openly. Thus, while there are no Health Clubs in Jerusalem, there are plenty of prostitutes working out of such apartments.  

One can also find street prostitutes in Israel – for instance, at the Tel Baruch beach, north of Tel Aviv and all along the road leading to the Mandarin beach. Prices here vary depending on the service offered, and the women plying their trade here include many drug addicts and post-op transsexuals.

The sex trade operates openly in Israel, including that part of the sex trade that involves women lured to Israel and forced to work as prostitutes against their will. Some of these sex slaves are smuggled across the Egyptian border by Bedouins. The smuggling is done by the Azazma tribe who also smuggle weapons, consumer goods and are suspected of assisting terrorist groups. Many of the horror stories told by foreign prostitutes smuggled into Israel involve being gang raped by the Bedouins en route to Israel. What further complicates things is the presence of Azazma tribe members in the Israeli police force. The lucky ones, like Marina, manage to get into the country on a tourist visa or as olim (Jewish immigrants), with the paper work arranged for them by their future pimps and corrupt Israeli officials – this way they avoid the gang rapes, but not the ceremonial "breaking in" by their    pimp.

Marina couldn't divulge many details with the muscled and tattooed drivers present, but from what I could piece together, despite her rather impressive degree, she was unemployed back home. Looking for work and maybe a little adventure and escape from the drudgery of her life, like many other young women in her position, she answered an ad promising remunerative overseas employment. She was told she'd be working under the table as a live-in nanny in Israel and an otherwise difficult to obtain tourist visa was quickly arranged.  

Once in Israel, she was picked up at Ben Gurion by a representative of her "employment agency." The representative immediately took her return ticket, passport and ID (for safekeeping) and brought her to an apartment in Tel Aviv. There she met with her future employer who made it clear that she now owed them lots of money and that she was going to be working as a call girl. What transpired next remains vague, but suffice it to say that Marina is now docile and acquiescent and was at all times extremely deferential to the drivers. She did not seem like what one would expect a willing prostitute to be like – she wore a crucifix and asked many questions about religious sites in Jerusalem and Russian Orthodox churches, which she hoped to visit one day.

I asked her about money and she said that she spends it all on cigarettes. Even if she smokes two cartons a week, that's $50. If she services as little as three Johns a day, she's earning at least $1000 a week. Clearly, the lion's share of that cash goes to her pimp. As for her customers Artem and Vlad described a cross-section of male Israeli society. This included religious Jews of all levels of observance, ordinary Israelis, celebrities, politicians, soldiers, tourists, police officers and the occasional wealthy Arab.

Marina is still relatively new to the industry. Considered fresh and still attractive she's treated somewhat well. The longer she stays in the business though, the worst it will get for her. Eventually she will be demoted and forced to service more men and work longer hours. Her options for escape are limited. She will never be able to repay her pimps. Going to the police means immediate arrest for being in the country illegally as well as detention for up to a year before deportation. Seeking help from the Russian embassy is difficult given the presence on the street of spotters working for her pimp who will drag her away and punish her severely, and threaten her family back home if caught. Sadly, the best thing that could happen to her is to be caught by the police and deported back home. There are a number of Israeli organizations who try to help, but with limited resources and an overburdened staff, their effectiveness is questionable – certainly, despite embarrassing publicity and governmental initiatives, the Israeli sex trade remains as robust as ever and constantly expanding with even more new recruits from Eastern Europe and, lately, from Asia.

Those of us concerned with Israel's image and its moral imperative cannot however ignore this problem. Especially this close to Passover, the presence of slaves in our midst and the broad support given to an industry that thrives on their enslavement is insupportable.

I'd like to think that Jewlicious readers are a kind, caring and sensitive lot. That's why we're doing this little series on modern day slavery. We're not experts by any means but we are duly horrified. We feel compelled and hopefully you will feel compelled as well. Other than raising awareness on the issue we'd also like to raise some money to help out some of the organizations involved in alleviating the situation.

The first is the Task Force on Human Trafficking, an organization aimed at helping end human trafficking in Israel. They deal with the government, the victims and raising public awareness. The TFHT is a 501(c)3, and you are also free to make donations to them directly through there Web site – tfht.orf. We'd also like to send some cash to an International organization that deals with slavery on an International scale (as discussed by laya in her previous post).

Please, please make any donation. No sum is too small. Use the button at the end of this post – all major credit cards are accepted. More importantly, feel free to look into the subject – a quick search on Google for "human trafficking" or "Israel prostitution" will reveal a wealth of information. Talk about it with your friends and any politicians or officials you know.

I know that sounded really, really weenyish and usually I am far more cynical about stuff. But if you'd seen those women, you'd be heartbroken too.

Oh and for the record, all the names and personal details reported in this post have been totally altered. I have no interest in getting killed by the Russian or any other mob. If you mob motherfuckers are reading this, I live in Wisconsin. Come and get me!

http://www.jewlicious.com/2006/04/becau ... sex-trade/

[Roy Hobs]

This reminds me of the Movie, "Taken" with Liam Niesen.  

Just substitute "Albanians" and "Arab Shieks" and you will get a Color with sound version of how this all works.  Natalie Holoway comes to mind as well.  I'll bet money she made it to Israel.  Whether she is dead now, no one will ever know.  

Will the Goyim wake up?  

I often times approach the sheeple with a simple question, "Does Art imitate Life; or does Life imitate Art?"  Their knee jerk answer is always = life imitating art.  Of course it works both ways, but in this example, I'll bet my life that this movie, "Taken" was an insider's spin -- art imitating life.

On a side note.................How does someone like Cindy Sheahan buy the propaganda?  She should be our biggest ally.  How about the Holloway's?  You don't think the "jewish" angle ever came across their investigations?  So why are they silent?

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

This reminds me of the Movie, "Taken" with Liam Niesen.  

Just substitute "Albanians" and "Arab Shieks" and you will get a Color with sound version of how this all works.  Natalie Holoway comes to mind as well.  I'll bet money she made it to Israel.  Whether she is dead now, no one will ever know.  

Will the Goyim wake up?  

I often times approach the sheeple with a simple question, "Does Art imitate Life; or does Life imitate Art?"  Their knee jerk answer is always = life imitating art.  Of course it works both ways, but in this example, I'll bet my life that this movie, "Taken" was an insider's spin -- art imitating life.

On a side note.................How does someone like Cindy Sheahan buy the propaganda?  She should be our biggest ally.  How about the Holloway's?  You don't think the "jewish" angle ever came across their investigations?  So why are they silent?

Interesting connection to "Taken" Roy.  

I kind of wonder if it is really, for J-Tribers, phrased a little differently --- like  "Does Law imitate Life; or does Life imitate Law?"  Love of Art, and life, is only for us Goyim in their eyes. --CSR