Teen Prostitution in Israel

Israel is a land of many contradictions. Donna Rosenthal in her book The Israelis discusses one aspect of this tiny nation, home of so many different religious faiths, that is truly surprising- the thriving sex trade that exists within its borders.  Rosenthal states that “an estimated 700 massage parlor/brothels operate in the country … [and that] according to police about twenty-five thousand paid sexual transactions take place daily” (383).  While prostitution itself is legal in Israel, there is a type that is not-and that is teen prostitution.

Solicitation via Internet

According to an article in the Jerusalem Post, of the estimated 10,000 prostitutes in Israel, more than 1,000 are minors. The article goes on to say that statistics released by the Prime Minister’s Office show that most sex workers begin their careers at the age of 13 or 14.  The non-profit Elem Youth in Distress organization is a child welfare agency aimed at rescuing kids from entering the sex trade. According to Dorit Friedman the project director for their Awake All Night project, “We’re constantly seeing ads seeking younger and younger children for underage sex”. Friedman says that it has become more difficult to reach out to kids that may be getting involved in the sex-trade because they are not out in the open, “today much of the activities have moved to the Internet and on-line chat rooms, making the already secretive industry harder to detect”. The Awake All Night project gives teens somewhere to turn where they will not be judged, and where they will hopefully seek intensive rehabilitation services to keep them out of prostitution. Despite the size of the problem of teen prostitution, project Awake All Night is the only program of its kind in Israel.  The Jerusalem Post article is factually reporting the grim statistics regarding teen prostitution in Israel; the elem website gives more information about the organization and is a site that accepts donations to help them with their work.

In another article from WeNews which also describes the work of Elem, even more disturbing statistics are given.  Correspondent Brenda Gazzar reports that in the city of Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv, at least 350 teens ages 13 and 14 prostitute themselves at “extremely low prices”, according to a report made to the UN Commission on Human Rights. She has also looked at the causes behind teen prostitution in Israel and has found blame to fall on a variety of shortcomings in Israeli society including “a deteriorating economy, government cuts in social services for children and youth and the availability of pornographic materials that seem to legitimize sex with children”.  The focus of this article and the writer’s intent seems only to draw attention to the plight of kids in danger.  This danger is reflected in Rosenthal’s chapter when she quotes a sixteen-year old runaway from a drug rehabilitation center who says about unprotected sex with foreign workers “If they don’t want to wear condoms, I don’t care. They’re the ones who have to explain things to their wives”. Rosenthal goes on to report that the transmission rates for venereal disease and AIDS, which had been far lower than in Western Europe and the United States have skyrocketed (384).

Damaging

In 2011 Elem identified 620 kids some as young as 12 who had been involved in prostitution, compared with 126 kids in 2010, reports Dana Weiler-Polak in Haaretz. Law enforcement efforts to combat this activity have been lax. Only two cases were opened against customers of teen prostitutes in a ten year period and both cases were closed, one for lack of evidence and the other on the grounds that there was no public interest in prosecuting the case.

A blog entitled “the sisterhood-where Jewish women converse” has an entry from Allison Kaplan Sommer that points out the casual attitude that most Israelis have toward prostitution in their nation.  She says that “In a country with a long laundry list of worries and concerns, it seems like the most benign of practices, an inescapable fact of life”. She points out that the “hooker with the heart of gold has been a staple character of Israeli films” and that a recent Hebrew-language Honda commercial had a man picking up a prostitute forgetting that his wife and kids were in the back seat. The tagline was “You forget it’s a family car”.

Sommer states that there is a real effort currently in the Knesset to criminalize the purchase of sexual service, even though a similar effort failed two years ago. It is clear from her blog that Ms. Sommers is appalled by the attitude of many Israelis and her view is articulated by Rabbi Levi Lauer of non-profit organization Atzum which has a task force on Human Trafficking. Rabbi Lauer states that “there are too many important people who themselves solicit the services of trafficked women” and also that “there are too many people in important places with too many important friends [who] would get caught with their pants down”.

Godless in the Holy Land

The land of Israel sits at the crossroads of the world’s major religions with the city of Jerusalem itself considered a holy site for Jews, Christians and Muslims. Religion permeates the very air of this ancient land.  The violence that has rocked the area is based on conflicts that are, at their core, of a religious nature.

How then do citizens of Israel who profess no religious beliefs manage to live in a land where they are surrounded by religion at every turn? Where the very state they live in, though secular, is awash in religious symbols and imagery?

Donna Rosenthal, in her book The Israelis asserts that 80% of Israeli Jews are non-Orthodox. This is a huge majority that encompasses a broad variety of beliefs ranging from those that are “staunchly atheistic, agnostic, semi observant, Reform or Conservative” (232).   Rosenthal states that many of these Jews consider themselves to be very secular and not religious despite what label they give themselves. Though they may only go into a synagogue twice a year, or not at all, they still frequently take part in “religious” activities because they are so ingrained in Israeli life. “Wearing costumes on Purim, planting trees on Tu b’Shvat, partying around campfires on Lag b’Omer” are given as examples of this. Rosenthal seems to view this as perfectly acceptable and just another side of Israeli life, despite the huge contrast that exists between these types of people and those that are highly religious.

Symbol of Jewish Atheism

While many of the non-Orthodox are semi-observant (the equivalent of Christians who go to church only on Easter and Christmas in America), some who are classified as non-Orthodox have no religious faith at all. The experience of being Atheists, Agnostics, or vaguely “spiritual” in a country like Israel must be an unusual experience.

Rosenthal relates the experiences of Israelis who have been verbally harassed by Ultra-Orthodox Jews for their manner of dress, or for driving through Hasidim neighborhoods at the “wrong” times. Describing the division between the non-orthodox and the Ultra-Orthodox one Israeli in the book states “Sometimes it feels like it’s them and us… We hardly talk to each other. They despise our modern culture, they’re repulsed by us” (239).  Despite living in such a small area of land and being a single ethnicity surrounded by ‘enemies’, the huge gulf in religious beliefs seems to be driving a wedge within Israeli society and Rosenthal emphasizes this in her chapter.

A difficulty for non-religious Jews in Israel is that the government has given the authority over many key areas of daily life to the Orthodox Jewish establishment and its Rabbis. They have control basic elements of life that touch on the lives of every citizen regardless of belief- marriage, divorce and burial. ProfessorDan Mahler, chairman of the Israeli Association for the Prevention of Religious Coercion states that “while in any other developed country or society the discussion between atheism and the religion lies on the ideological plane, in Israel the STATE gives ultimate power to the orthodox establishment.  He states that this forces secular Jews to participate in religious rituals and ceremonies that they do not believe in.  It is Mahler’s viewpoint that this is an attempt to force Orthodoxy on all Jews living in Israel and an attempt by the Orthodox “delegitimize, defame and ban all other opposing Jewish trends, sects and individuals”.

What is an Atheist Jew? How can one be a Jew, which seems like a religious term and also be an Atheist?

A blogger who goes by the name Andyboy who claims to have been born in Britain, but who is now an Israeli by choice, answers this question and provides many statistics regarding religious beliefs in Israel and expressing his views as an Atheist Jew in Israel. He states that “Jewish Atheism is practiced by atheists who are ethnically, and to some extent culturally, Jewish. Because Jewishness encompasses ethnic as well as religious components, the term ‘Jewish Atheism’ does not necessarily imply any kind of contradiction”.  He also rightly states that by Orthodox Jewish law and its belief in matrilineal descent, a person who identifies themselves as Atheist who was born to a Jewish mother would be considered by Orthodox authorities as fully Jewish. In the blog it is pointed out that Theodor Herzl, David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir were all Jews who were also Atheists, while I found much written about Herzl and Ben-Gurion and their Atheism, whether Meir was an Atheist is less clear. She is famously quoted as saying, when asked about her belief in God: “I believe in the Jewish people and the Jewish people believe in God.”  I don’t know if this can be called proof of Atheism however.

Theodor Herzl-Atheist

David Ben-Gurion  -Atheist

Golda Meir-Atheist?

For regular Jews living in Israel getting away from religion sometimes requires a court order and that can be difficult to get. Author Yoram Kaniuk recently received a court order from a judge in Tel Aviv allowing him to register his official religious status as “without religion”.

In granting the change, the Judge, Gideon Ginat, stated “Freedom from religion is a freedom derived from the right to human dignity, which is protected by the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Freedom”. Kaniuk, for his part emotionally stated that he feels he can now live in Israel and be considered legally Jewish by nationality, yet follow his conscience to determine his own religious identity. This article originally appeared in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz which lends it credibility.

Jews in Israel who call themselves Atheists, Agnostic or something other than the mainstream Orthodox or Non-Orthodox categories may do so for a wide variety of reasons but they have a difficult path to follow. As Rabbi Azari says in Rosenthal’s book, “Israel is the only democracy in the Western World where Jews do not have freedom of religion, the only place where Jews deny religious freedom to Jews. What we are fighting for is the right for Israelis to have the freedom to choose how they want to be Jewish” (242).

Oy! Gay?

IDF Soldiers

            The Israeli Defense Force or IDF is known as one of the toughest and most admired armies to be found anywhere in the world. Unlike the volunteer army of the United States, military service in Israel is compulsory for all non-Arab citizens (with some religious exemptions). Also unlike the United States which has been grappling with its “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, Israel has had, since 1993 a far different policy. In Donna Rosenthal’s The Israelis, the author explains that “since the Israeli Supreme Court decriminalized sodomy in 1988, justices have approved some of the world’s most progressive gay rights legislation” (371).  Since 1993, it was decreed that all gay soldiers were to be treated equally and that no officer could ask a soldier about their sexual orientation. Rosenthal goes on to mention the fact that there are dozens of high-ranking gay officers in the IDF.

            While this sounds very progressive, one must wonder how the IDF and its leaders who are known for their formidability actually feel about it and what is the actual behavior towards gays.  A former female soldier is quoted as saying “If Israel is machismo, than the army is Machismo on steroids” (Rosenthal, 348).  Does the reality match the hype?  Is the IDF one big happy family?

Not exactly.

While discrimination based on sexual orientation is illegal in Israel, according to an article in Haaretz, “More than 40 percent of gay and lesbian soldiers in the IDF were sexually harassed during their time in the military” the article goes on to say that of those surveyed 45% said that “homophobic remarks are very frequent …soldiers serving in combat units reported such remarks more frequently- 59%”. The report referenced in the article was a study done in 2011 by the Israel Gay Youth organization and it was based on a sampling of 364 gay and lesbian soldiers who were either currently serving in the IDF or who had been discharged within the year.  The study did go on to say , however, that the IDF had in recent years acted extensively to improve conditions for gay soldiers serving in the military  and to increase their commanders awareness of the conditions involved.

Many former soldiers have made their personal experiences known on various websites.  On the NewJersey Jewish News website, bureau Chief Debra Rubin quotes Avner Even-Zohar, a decorated former IDF captain who spoke about being openly gay in the Israeli military.  “Even-Zohar kept his own sexual orientation mostly to himself during his six-year stint in the IDF, which ended in 1993 just as the new rules took effect. Previously, officers were often demoted if their homosexual preferences became known.” Even-Zohar, who today chairs Turkish and Hebrew studies at the United States’ Department of Defense Language Institute, says that the Israeli military of today is much more accepting of gays.

            An example of this is the personal account of Tomar Azaria, who was a gay combat soldier. Reported in the Huffington Post, Azaria said that during his initial obligatory three years’ service there was “a homophobic atmosphere in his unit”. Now that he is a reserve soldier though, it is much easier because “his comrades accept and respect him”.

From the online version of Moment Magazine which bills itself as “Independent Journalism from a Jewish Perspective”, an Opinion piece from Yoav Sivan describing his experiences in the IDF comes across as fairly positive. Sivan gives background on how the Israeli military policy came about which mirrors what author Donna Rosenthal said in her book. He adds the interesting detail that while gays were allowed to serve beginning in 1983, they were required to undergo psychiatric evaluations and were denied security clearances. He also states that these rules were implemented in an arbitrary and inconsistent manner.

Sivan makes the excellent point that the speed with which the policy was changed in the Israeli military shows that the “constantly embattled Israelis feel as if they have bigger fish to fry then squabbling over gays in the military".  He also says that the speed of the change can also be linked to the make-up of the military. While service is compulsory, the Ultra-Orthodox and Arab Israelis are exempt from the draft, so “progressives may be over-represented”.Sivan goes on to say that he did not come “out” until his IDF service (between 1998 -2001). He said that once he became an officer in the navy headquarters his “peers, friends and even commanders helped me gradually step out of the closet”.

The 2002 film Yossi and Jagger which was a love story between two male soldiers helped the IDF’s reputation for diversity according to Sivan.

However, Sivan admits that Israel’s progress is not perfect. And this seems to be what becomes apparent when one searches the web for information regarding this topic. While great strides have been made, and the IDF is far ahead of the US military in its treatment of gays, he states that “homophobia and discrimination are still a challenge”.  The information presented in this post seems to come from reliable sources that are honestly describing personal experiences of individual soldiers. The accounts seem credible as most contain both positive and negative elements and seem to all point at a fairly similar experience. As time has gone by since the policy of the IDF was changed at the urging of Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin (Rosenthal, 371), conditions for gays in the military seem to be steadily improving.

As Israel seems to be under an almost constant state of threat, and since neighboring Arab nations still call for its destruction, it does indeed seem that the IDF has “bigger fish to fry” than worrying about gays serving in its ranks. While more work appears to be necessary, the IDF seems light years ahead of other military organizations in their treatment and integration of gays into the armed forces.