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”.