The Question of Human Trafficking: Israel

Since from the early days of Israel's inception and till late 90s, Human Trafficking grew to disproportional rates as immigration chaos, loose border control and Middle Eastern politicking took its toll in Israel. At one point, it was widely held that Israel is a “destination” country for human trafficking, where women, children and even men were exploited to varying degrees. Especially after the fall of the Soviet Union, the rate of illegal immigrants and their exploitation sky rocketed, as women from the former Soviet Union were trafficked to Israel. The trickle effect has lasted even to this day as new studies show majority of sexually exploited women to be from the former Soviet Union.

The modern day slavery business, prostitution and indentured workers, is largely organized and funded by the dark underground world of organized crime. During the years from the 1990s to early 2002, over 3,000 women a year were brought to Israel on false pretexts, including the promise of jobs, welfare and better life. Many of these women were answering ads for study abroad or job offers, but then kidnapped, and held against their will by criminal gangs. Although prostitution is legal in Israel, pimping and brothels are not, yet during a report published by the UN during 2006, Israel was named as a destination for trafficked persons, mainly women. Most are sneaked into the country through Israel's border with Egypt and others enter through the occupied territories of Israel. With this in mind, the country's leadership under Sharon decided to tackle the problem more efficiently. Thus, early 2000, we began to see more aggressive stance by Israeli Law enforcement agencies as laws such as Equal Rights for Women Law (2000), the Employment of Women Law (Amendment 19), the adoption of the Sexual Harassment Law (1998), the Prevention of Stalking Law (2001), the Rights of Victims of an Offence Law (2001) were consistently passed in the Knesset. Israel also extended the punishment for persons caught in Human trafficking, 20 years for trafficking minors on top of 20 years for kidnapping charges, 10 years for illegal border crossing, 3 years for withholding passport illegally as well as compensation to the victim using the criminal's own property value in 2006. The Law passed in 2006 also addressed issues like forced labor, slavery, organ-theft, and prostitution. In 2004, the government of Israel opened a large shelter in north Tel Aviv for women who had been trafficked for sex in an effort to help bring them some justice. Israel has taken a more strong push in its campaign against human trafficking yet the fight is far from over. Israel is also being faced with a problem of indentured servitude. Men from countries like Turkey find themselves working to pay off debts and in return, get turned into indentured servants. Some find themselves being threatened by Labor Recruitment Agencies in their home countries after arriving in Israel, and many of these agencies are withholding of passports of the workers that are working under them, thus restricting their freedom of movement and turning them into servants. Israeli law enforcement agencies are being empowered to tackle these growing problems.

The Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America has been taking the fight, religiously, against this problem by quoting Jewish laws and prophets that spoke for personal freedom and dignity and then exerting pressure on their Israeli counter parts to fight the problem efficiently. Both - in 2003, Human Rights Committee and in 2005,State Department of America - complimented Israel in their fight against Human Trafficking in their annual report on the issue but Israel has been working to eliminate the problem. To effectively combat the issue, Israel's Arab neighbors must being serious and cooperative dialogue and border security cooperation must be increased.

The issues of violence in Israel's territories must be addressed, and the Bedouin tribes in Saudi Arabia and Egypt must be controlled as they contribute seriously toward the sex trade. Even though the rate of trafficking for the purpose of prostitution has decreased, Israel wants to make sure it is no longer a destination country for these Criminals. Towards this end, Israel has begun serious initiatives geared towards the children and soldiers in an effort to educate them of the problem via mass media and local campaigns. Israel is also tackling businesses that have not abided by laws and the social codes of Israel, resulting in a crackdown on the traffickers. Israel hopes to hold its standards high and protect the victims of this trade while promoting their rights and human dignity through collaboration with various governments and NGOs around the world.