Israeli
courts generally reach a plea
bargain with the pimps and
sentence them to a few months
of community
service. . .Report slams Israel on sex slavery
Associated Press
Jerusalem – About 3,000
women, mainly from the former Soviet
Union, are sold each year into Israel’s sex industry, which takes in about
$1-billion (U.S.) annually, a parliamentary report said Sunday, slamming the country’s justice system for being lax on punishments.The women, seeking to escape poverty at home, are usually smuggled in by traffickers who promise them legitimate jobs. Once in Israel, they are sold to pimps for between $3,000 and $6,000 each, the preliminary report said.
The women receive between $25-$30 per customer, of which the pimp takes between
80 and 90 per cent, the report said. The women work about 12 hours a day, six or seven days a week and receive an average of 10 to 15 clients daily, it added.
Often, the women live in dismal conditions and sometimes they are physically abused or live in fear of their pimps.Israeli courts
generally reach a plea bargain with the
pimps and sentence them to either a few
months of community service or up to an
average of two years in prison,
punishments which the committee said
are too weak to serve as
deterrents.It suggested that these crimes should have minimum prison sentences to deter the sex traders, who often jail, blackmail and enslave the women.
In July of 2001, a U.S. State
Department report placed Israel on a black list of countries whose laws don’t meet
U.S. criteria for dealing with this crime and threatened economic sanctions.Israel has reformed the law somewhat since then, but the committee said it is not enough to confront the problem effectively. In addition to changes in the law, the committee suggested an authority be formed to fight the “war against trafficking in people.”