WOMEN AS COMMODITIES: TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN IN ISRAEL 2003

Areas of trafficking in women

Trafficking in women can occur at the global, regional, and local levels. An example of global trafficking is the trafficking in women from the Ukraine into Israel, or the trafficking in women from the Far East into the USA. Regional trafficking takes place between countries with a common border, such as Burma and Thailand, or Nepal and India. When women are transferred from the former Soviet Union to Israel via Egypt, this is a combination of global and regional trafficking in women. Trafficking on a local level takes place when women are traded between traffickers in the same country. In Israel there is intensive trafficking on all three levels. It takes place in a variety of ways and means: it manages to traverse the country's borders with impunity, and it takes place almost undisturbed within the country as well. Trafficking in women is a complex activity requiring a coordinated network linking traffickers in the country of origin with go-betweens and traffickers in the country of destination. What makes possible trafficking in women in Israel on all levels is the existence of an international network of criminal organizations, most of whose members are from countries of the former Soviet Union.

Organized crime and trafficking in women

The collapse of the Soviet Union significantly weakened the rule of law and the central government's control over both economy and society. The resultant vacuum was rapidly filled by numerous criminal organizations, with businesses and investments in fields like banking and the oil industry. For these organizations, trafficking in women represents an attractive sourceof income, since it coa low risk levwith high profits, compared with drugs and arms trafficking. In addition, the authorities tend to arrest and punish the women rather than their traffickers. The criminal organizations operate almost unchecked, mainly by paying bribes. These backhanders serve to "top up" the meager salaries of public officials and government functionaries, and in return for this the traffickers gain access to the women's documents. The criminal organizations also bribe officials and guards at border crossings to allow them to smuggle in the women. A report by the United Nations' Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) found that blackmail and corruption of government officials are the primary factors in the growth of trafficking in women and prostitution in Moldova and the Ukraine.

Trafficking in women offers the traffickers a wealth of advantages: it is a source of ready cash, the profits that can be made from it are continuous rather than one-time, the return on investment period is quick, and the woman can be resold for further profit. The payment to the women is low, and frequently they are paid nothing whatsoever. It is hard to find another form of criminal activity in which the cost-benefit ratio is so high. The traffickers recruit the women, finance their subsistence and travel expenses, arrange the documentation needed in order to move from one country to another, and pay the various go-betweens on their itinerary. Traffickers who have no independent sources of financing turn to established criminal organizations and repay the loans from the trafficked women's income. Even women who turn to prostitution with full knowledge of what they are doing, as a last resort, are unable to manage without the traffickers' services, since they are without resources and are unable, without assistance, to overcome the hurdle of the immigration authorities in the country of destination. It is important to emphasize that as the countries of destination tighten their immigration controls, the women are forced to rely increasingly on criminal organizations to arrange for their illegal entry and stay in these countries.

Trafficking in women - definition and approaches

"Trafficking in women" is not the same as prostitution, and not every prostitute is involved in it. "Trafficking in women" designates a wide-ranging category of methods of exploitation and violence on the labor market involving female migrant laborers. This category includes various kinds of prostitution, the entertainment industry and domestic work. The definition of trafficking is a complex matter, not just because of the range of activities that it covers, but also because of differences of opinion, ethical, ideological and political alike. The argument over the issue of what trafficking in women is, as well as over the appropriate ways of dealing with the phenomenon, sparks fierce debates. The feminist discussion about trafficking in women is split along ideological lines, stemming from attitudes to the question of prostitution. At the heart of the differences is the question of whether a woman can validly choose prostitution as an occupation. What is termed the "neo-abolitionist" approach argues that prostitution constitutes a human rights violation. It sees prostitution as a practice which subjugates women to male control and reproduces traditional patterns of oppression and inequality in socio-economic power relations. This point of view tends to define any woman involved in prostitution as the victim of a patriarchal society, and prostitution as the result of the coercion and deception of women in order to employ them under conditions of modern slavery. For neo-abolitionists, there is no significant difference between prostitution and trafficking in women.

In contrast to the approach that views all women involved in prostitution as victims, a different perception distinguishes between prostitution as a result of coercion and prostitution out of "free will." This approach condemns prostitution as a result of coercion, as well as the working conditions and the exploitation of the women employed in prostitution. However, it argues that a woman's right to autonomy also includes rights over her own body, so that prostitution can be a legitimate occupation that constitutes a reflection of women's freedom of choice and autonomy, subject to the proviso that their choice of prostitution is a free one. This is a prevalent approach among movements working for the rights of women working in prostitution. It defines women involved in prostitution on a voluntary basis as sex workers, not prostitutes. Its proponents argue that totally rejecting prostitution leads to the criminalization of the women involved in prostitution and violates their rights as human beings and as workers, so that the situation of many women becomes even worse - particularly impoverished women from the Third World working in prostitution in order to gain a livelihood. Adherents of this approach also agree that the criminalization of prostitution increases women's dependence on criminal organizations that violate their rights and live off their earnings.

Viewing women involved in prostitution as victims, they argue, reflects a conservative and moralistic attitude that reinforces negative stereotypes. The women are depicted as passive and weak, something which - they contend - exacerbates the violation of their rights and promotes racism towards women of Asian and East European origin. For those who take this approach, the desired solution is to cease treating prostitution as a criminal offense and to focus on the women's rights, health and safety. The debate about the importance of the distinction between prostitution by coercion and prostitution by choice is also reflected in international conventions on trafficking in women. The 1949 UN Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others condemns all those who exploit women involved in prostitution, even if the women involved have given their consent. The Convention has been criticized because of the absence of a distinction between prostitution by coercion and prostitution by choice. In contrast, the 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women makes an implicit distinction between prostitution by coercion and prostitution by choice, in the same spirit as the resolutions of the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995.

By now it will be clear that the link between trafficking in women and prostitution is a controversial one, depending on a variety of value-related, ideological, and political positions, both within and outside the feminist movement. The current standard international legal definition of "trafficking in persons" was formulated at the UN and was endorsed by the General Assembly in November 2000. Most international organizations fighting to uproot trafficking operate according to this definition. It appears in the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, appended to the Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, together with a protocol on smuggling of migrants and a protocol on trafficking in arms. The State of Israel signed the Convention and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons. The purpose of the Protocol is to combat trafficking in people, particularly trafficking in women and children, and to protect its victims while respecting their human rights. The protocol defines trafficking in persons as follows:

a) 'Trafficking in persons shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor services, slavery orpractices similar to , servitude or the removal of organs; (b) The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article shall be irrelevant where any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) have been used.

The Protocol has explanatory notes concerning a variety of expressions. The expression "abuse of a position of vulnerability" refers to any position in which an individual has no choice other than to agree to be abused or exploited. It is important to note that the definition of trafficking is not limited to women and prostitution alone, but relates to all persons and includes practices such as the mail order of brides, forced labor and slavery arrangements such as debt bondage. The Protocol acknowledges the distinction between prostitution by coercion and prostitution by choice, but deliberately refrains from defining "the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation." This is due to the fact that during the negotiations the various country representatives could not come to a common understanding. While there was across-the-board agreement that prostitution by coercion falls under the definition of trafficking in women, many countries opposed defining prostitution by choice as "trafficking in women." The result was a compromise in which the term was not expressly defined.

The different interpretations of trafficking in women have practical ramifications, because they lead to different policies for dealing with the phenomenon and its victims. There are a number of alternative approaches toward trafficking in women. As the differences contribute to an understanding of the phenomenon of trafficking and the diverse responses to it, we will present these in some detail:

The moral approach: This approach relates primarily to prostitution, but a general ignorance concerning the differences between prostitution and trafficking in women makes it relevant to our discussion. The moral approach condemns all forms of prostitution. Its emphasis on the immoral and illegal nature of prostitution aggravates the isolation of the women engaged in it and their stigmatization, thereby increasing their vulnerability. It reinforces the distinction between "good" women and "bad" women, of whom the latter do not deserve protection and whose suffering is seen as the just outcome of immoral behavior. Under this approach, fighting prostitution involves punishing all those involved, including the women. The debate in Israel often fails to distinguish between trafficking in women and prostitution in general.

The public order approach: Like the moral approach, the public order approach also relates primarily to prostitution and not to trafficking in women. Here prostitution is perceived as a violation of public order and a danger to public health. This is one of the key arguments of those who advocate institutionalizing prostitution. The solutions, according to those who take this position, are to introduce strict regulation, mandate regular medical checkups, and designate areas in which prostitution may be engaged in. A number of countries have legislation regulating prostitution, but many of them focus specifically on tax collection. This approach is criticized for its inattention to the fact that many of the women involved in prostitution are in fact victims.

The criminal approach: This approach sees trafficking in women as a criminal activity that must be eradicated by passing draconian legislation, enforcing it vigorously, and imposing strict penalties on individuals involved in organized crime, who are viewed as bearing the sole responsibility for trafficking in women. This approach ignores social and economic factors and sees trafficking as an accumulation of private decisions and activities by those involved in organized crime. Because the trafficked women often violate laws banning prostitution and their stay in the country is illegal, they are sometimes viewed as criminals. As such, they are likely to suffer from stigmatization, which will remain with them when they return to their countries of origin. This approach also leaves the women vulnerable to revenge on the part of the traffickers and the pimps, particularly when they have testified against them. Generally speaking, when traffickers are put on trial, the women's interests are subordinated to the interest of the prosecution. For example, the residence permit issued to them is limited to the purpose of giving testimony, while ignoring their own needs, including the need for rehabilitation and compensation. In other words, taking the criminals to court does not necessarily protect the victims' rights.

Immigration approach: Here trafficking in women is viewed primarily as a problem of illegal immigration, similar to that of migrant workers. This approach centers on defending the interests of the State, which is viewed as combating unwanted foreigners attempting to enter its borders without authorization. For those taking this position, combating trafficking in women is similar to preventing illegal immigration: what is needed is an efficient and tough border control system; a policy of limited immigration, which as far as possible prevents the entry of women; and the imposition of draconian limitations on marriages between locals and non-nationals. There are also countries like Bangladesh, which impose limitations on the exit of women from their territory in order to prevent trafficking.

Human rights approach: Its adherents argue that countries are duty-bound to take action in order to eliminate the trafficking within their borders and to rehabilitate its victims. Within this approach exist the two versions mentioned above. The first version views prostitution itself as a breach of human rights and aspires to abolish it, while the second version distinguishes between prostitution by choice and prostitution by coercion in violation of the women's rights. The infringement of human rights includes fraud, physical abuse, violence, debt bondage, blackmail, curtailment of freedom, and arduous working conditions. The human rights approach supports a no-holds-barred war on trafficking, along with assistance to victims. Its adherents advocate defending the women's rights even if they chose to engage in prostitution without coercion.

Prostitution-as-a-job approach: Like the human rights approach, this approach focuses on the rights of the women as workers, but unlike the former it focuses on prostitution and relates only indirectly to trafficking in women. Trafficking in women is viewed as deriving from women's inferior status in society and on the job market. This inferiority is ascribed not only to the fact that the trafficked persons are women, but also to the fact that they are illegal migrant workers in a gray, unregulated market that makes their servitude possible. Adherents of this approach call for the inclusion within the formal job market of women working in prostitution, with provision of employment opportunities, safeguarding their rights as workers, and giving women the opportunity to benefit from the safety net of a welfare state. Labor laws that protect weak workers must recognize this group as also deserving of protection. Recognizing these rights will provide women with protection against the traffickers and pimps.

To sum up, the method of combating trafficking in women and the attitudes toward its victims are to a large extent determined by the approach taken, with each serving different interests. There is a fundamental difference between those approaches whose goal is to combat organized crime and those approaches whose goal is to support women. Treating trafficking as a problem of illegal immigration centers around the interests of the country of destination, in contrast to treating trafficking as a human rights problem, which requires putting the women's needs first. States tend to focus on combating prostitution, illegal immigration and organized crime. In contrast, civil society organizations tend to focus on defending the victims of trafficking.

This report is informed bythe belief that traffiin women constitutes a breach of human rights. It focuses on the rights of the trafficked women as human beings and as workers. These rights include the right to freedom of movement, the right to physical integrity, freedom from servitude and violence, freedom from persecution and arbitrary arrest, the right to medical and psychological treatment, etc. These rights impose an obligation to act on the part of the countries of origin and destination, in order to enable the women to exercise these rights.

Trafficking in women is an extreme example of the repression and humiliation of women and the violence, physical and sexual, to which they are subjected. Adopting a human rights-centered approach and recognizing the trafficked women's special problems is likely to contribute not only to the fight to abolish trafficking in women, but also to help to empower women and thereby subvert efforts to turn them into victims in the future. At the beginning of the 21st century there is growing awareness, on the part of some countries at least, of the limitations of those approaches that focus on the interests of the State, while ignoring the rights of the trafficked women and the economic, class, and gender circumstances that allow women to become victims of trafficking. Perhaps the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons and the effort that went into defining trafficking are harbingers of a change. As shown by the present report, Israel's attitude toward trafficking in women continues to center on the interests of the State, all the more forcefully in the wake of the September 2002 establishment of a so-called "Immigration Authority," whose real purpose is, in fact, to expel thousands of foreigners. This report not only reveals Israel's policy concerning the phenomenon of trafficking in women: it also examines the policy outcomes in terms of the victims. The report tries to focus on the voices of the women themselves - voices that normally remain unheard - and to recount their experiences as trafficked women - modern sex slaves.

CHAPTER 2: VICTIMS OF TRAFFICKING - MYTH AND REALITY

Following the break-up of the Soviet Union, the social and economic systems of the states of the former Soviet bloc collapsed and millions of people found themselves either out of work or employed at wages too low to make a living. Women were the first to be thrown out of work. These circumstances provided a powerful incentive to seek employment abroad. Perhaps because of the fact that it is almost impossible to migrate legally in search of work, due to the rigid immigration policies of the countries of Western Europe and North America, many women are enticed by job offers abroad appearing in the local newspapers. One-third of the women interviewed for this study claimed that they did not know that the job advertised was prostitution; they reported that they had answered job offers to work as waitresses, cleaning workers, child carers and the like. The remainder knew that they were to be employed in prostitution, but the working conditions promised them were entirely different from those they encountered in practice: a salary of a thousand dollars a month, a limited number of clients a day, and the possibility of leaving their employers after paying back the cost of bringing them to Israel.

The victims

Statistical data

Because of the criminal nature of the phenomenon and the fact that it takes place in the underworld, estimating the total number of victims of trafficking of women in Israel is a tricky business, and even more so estimating the number of women who enter Israel every year for this purpose. Estimates of the Israel Police and other official bodies and agencies put the number of trafficked women in Israel at between 1,000 and 3,000. In the past, human rights organizations have estimated that these figures relate to the number of women brought in every year, and not to their total number. According to figures presented by a lawyer representing women traffickers, some 6,000 women arrive in Israel every year. The difficulty of corroborating these estimates is compounded by the way that the sex industry is divided up between brothels which are clearly visible to everyone, "escort agencies" which send women out to the customer's home or hotel, and "discreet meeting places" installed in apartment buildings throughout the entire country. As a result, it is in fact impossible to estimate the number of victims of trafficking. The only precise figure available is the number of trafficked women arrested on the grounds of being in the country illegally and expelled from Israel.

Countries of origin

Most of the victims of trafficking who were arrested and expelled between 2000 and 2002 came from Eastern European countries, primarily Russia, Moldova, and the Ukraine. In the past year the number of women arrested from the Ukraine and Russia has declined, but there has been a marked increase in the number of women from Uzbekistan. While there are only five Uzbek women included in the interviews, their numbers in detention centers and among prosecution witnesses are rising steadily. On February 25, 2003 the Hadera detention facility housed 79 women, of whom 19 were from Uzbekistan. Of the 38 women housed at the prosecution witness hostel in Tel Aviv on the same day, 13 were Uzbeks. These figures indicate, in our opinion, an upward trend in the recruitment of victims from Uzbekistan.

Age, education, and marital status

The ages of victims of trafficking in detention at the Neve Tirza Women's Prison in 2001-2002 ranged from 16 to 45; the average age was 23. Most were in their twenties, but exceptions were encountered: Hotline volunteers were asked by an organization from the country of origin to help to locate a 52-year-old victim. At the other end of the scale, 11 interviewees reported that one or more minors were employed in prostitution with them. The total number of minors brought into Israel is not known. It is difficult to identify them, since most of them arrive with forged documents. According to the report of the interministerial task force, there is no deliberate recruiting of minors, although they are in great demand. The interviews indicate that traffickers have sometimes panicked upon discovering a minor and hurriedly sold her, apparently in fear of the police who are compelled to take action in the case of under-age prostitution, which is illegal. Since 2001 the Elem (acronym for Youth in Distress in Israel) Association, which also deals with the sexual exploitation of minors, has located seven under-age girls who were victims of trafficking - the youngest of them just 11 years old.

Ten percent of the women interviewed were university graduates, 15% were university students, and 15% were taking vocational courses. The vast majority, 71%, were unmarried. Divorced women and widows comprised 15%, and just 6% were married. Sixty-nine percent had no children, while 20% had one child and 5% two children. Although the women who were interviewed were not asked directly about their parents, many women explained that their fathers had left home when they were small and that their mothers had brought them up on their own.

Employment

Contrary to the widespread myth, only 9% of the women reported that they had engaged in prostitution in the past. Twenty-nine percent of the women reported that they had been out of work in their country of origin, and those who had been employed reported that they had worked in a variety of jobs: as secretaries, shop assistants, teachers, seamstresses, hairdressers, and in other occupations. Their average wage in their country of origin was 38 dollars a month. This makes it easy to understand the attraction of the promise of a salary of a thousand dollars a month. A woman does a simple calculation: if she works outside her own country, even in prostitution, within a year she will be able to accumulate what looks to her like an enormous amount of money - $12,000 - and break out of the vicious circle of poverty. If she does not take up this opportunity, the only thing shecan expect is a subsistencewage and bringing up hechildren under the same conditions of poverty and deprivation that she experienced herself. It is very much a question of the devil and the deep blue sea - a classic case of "Hobson's choice."

The trafficking chain

Recruitment in the country of origin

Women are recruited into prostitution outside their own countries in a variety of ways: advertisements in the newspaper, personnel agencies, friends and acquaintances, women who have engaged in prostitution abroad and returned. Recruitment may be overt, as when the recruiters are upfront in suggesting to the women that they engage in prostitution, or covert, when women answer job adverts for positions as shop assistants, waitresses, models, etc., and are transported to brothels abroad under false pretences. The interview statistics indicate that 66% of the trafficked women came to Israel in response to information from acquaintances. H.A. from Uzbekistan gave the following description of the circumstances which brought her to Israel: "This year we had a baby, he's seven months old now. I wasn't working, I was just looking after the baby. My husband would bring us food once a month. When he stopped coming, I had nothing to eat. My milk dried up and I couldn't breastfeed the baby any more, and he was hungry. I was desperate. My sister told me that there are people who arrange cleaning work and that I'd earn a thousand dollars a month. I thought that with that kind of money, within six months I'd be financially secure for a few years. If I'd known that I would be sold into prostitution in Israel, I'd rather have starved to death together with my baby." In another case: "My step-father beat me all the time. One day, after he'd given me a beating, I was crying in the park. A young woman came up to me and asked what was wrong. I told her, and she said that she had an excellent suggestion for me, which would enable me to earn a lot of money and not see my parents for a long time."

The trip to Israel

Until 2000, trafficked women entered Israel in a variety of ways. Many of them came in via the airport or harbor, as tourists or immigrants (olim), using forged documents or forged marriage certificates. Tightened controls of these gateways have brought about a change in the routes used by the women to enter the country, but a few of them - according to the interviews, 17% - are still brought over by plane. According to the report of the interministerial task force, the reasons for this are to be found in "loopholes in the supervisory mechanisms at border crossings... border officers who do not have the requisite skills, and who use out-of-date technical equipment." On the other hand, sometimes controls are over-zealous, resulting in embarrassing incidents, such as denying entry to a 14-year-old girl from Poland who had come to visit her grandmother in Israel, the authorities claiming that she had come to engage in prostitution. Most victims of trafficking are smuggled into Israel through one or more countries of transit. The most common country of transit is Egypt, through which 72% of the women interviewed transited. Of them, 51% landed in Hurghada, 7% in Sharm el-Sheikh, and 3% in Cairo. From there they were transferred to Israel via the Sinai desert. Women from Moldova and Uzbekistan sometimes transit via Moscow and from there continue on to Egypt.

From the airport, the women are transferred to a hotel until the arrival of a man who gives them a prearranged code word, at which point they are supposed to follow him. The use of a code is intended to prevent "misunderstandings" between smuggling networks: "They organize things in such a way as to prevent one of them 'stealing,' as they call it, girls from another... Naturally there are a lot of disputes, there have already been murders, arson attacks." "Stealing" women was described at the trial of Suleiman Abu-Shalibi, accused of trafficking in women and additional offenses. In this case a double abduction occurred: the women were abducted by another man smuggler, and then returned to the "original" trafficker. The trafficker made arrangements "with a man from Moldova to transfer a group of people, including a number of women who were being sent for the purpose of prostitution, from the meeting place at Sharm el-Sheikh to Israel. As soon as the appellant found out that the group had been taken by taxi by smugglers not working on his behalf, he instructed his agent in Egypt to repossess the group, and the agent did in fact manage, by threat of arms, do so and transfer them to his vehicle."

Entering Israel via Egypt

Women are smuggled into Israel across the Egyptian border together with goods, drugs, weapons, and migrant workers. Cross-border smuggling is done in groups of between three and 48 women. It can take between 10 minutes and two weeks to cross the border, depending on the smugglers' skill and the military's level of vigilance at the crossing points. A trafficking victim described the smuggling process as follows: "We were arranged in Indian file, one after the other. They counted us, like you count sheep. Later I found out why. They got a thousand dollars for every girl who got through. We walked like that for half an hour, once we sat down, once we ran, once they told us to lie down. It was March and the sand was cold. We came to a barbed wire fence and they told us to climb over it. A jeep came by on the other side and they told us to get in. But the jeep didn't stop. We had to jump into it as it was moving. They covered us with a tarpaulin and there was no air. Some of the girls passed out." In contrast to the stringent - sometimes over-stringent - controls at airports and seaports, the Egyptian border is fairly porous and the military catch only a small percentage of the smuggling operations. The ease with which the victims are smuggled into Israel is contrary to the United Nations Protocol, which stipulates in Article 11 that countries must strengthen their border controls in order to prevent trafficking in persons.

A fair number of women are raped on the way by the Bedouin smugglers, who see a woman who is destined to engage in prostitution as fair game and public property. Y.B. testified as follows: "I was promised that I would work in Israel as a dancer, but as early as Egypt I found out that I was going to engage in prostitution at a parlor in Eilat. I tried to run away but a Bedouin got hold of me and beat me. In the evening, four Bedouin raped me, one after the other... After the second one, I didn't feel anything. They came back in a number of rounds. I lost consciousness and didn't come round until the morning when I found myself in a tent with other women. The girls tried to support me and said that the Bedouin had brought me into the tent, half-naked, and told them to look after me. I was bleeding and I couldn't walk, it hurt so much between my legs... I wanted to die. I didn't believe that this was happening to me. Other women helped to drag me along until we reached the border." The women's via dolorosa does not come to an end when they enter Israel. In the case of Suleiman Abu-Shalibi mentioned above, if the trafficker for whom the smuggling was carried out did not pay, the accused used to keep back women under his control "as a guarantee that payment would be made in full."

Selling the victims

The sale is one of the most salient expressions of the women's status as sex slaves. There are a number of methods. At least 16% of the women interviewed were auctioned off. Traffickers are invited to the auction - in an apartment, at a hotel, or at a brothel, in order to check out the female merchandise, and then they bid against each other. The women gave accounts of the examinations they had to endure, including poking around in their private parts and inspecting their teeth, like the slave auctions of old. A women trafficker corroborated these accounts: "She's made to stand naked in the middle of the room... They touch her breasts, her ass, in order to see if she has anything to grab. They check her tongue, her teeth, to see if she's healthy. They touch her private parts... They tell her, 'walk forward,backwards, strike poses a model, wiggle it honey, bend over it. Lower. Let's see what you're worth. And dance. Like a belly dancer.'" There is also a more private sale between seller and buyer, which according to the interviews at least 24% of the women had experienced. H.A. gave an account of the sale: "I didn't understand where they were taking us in the middle of the night, but when I saw a lot of naked women in the apartment it began to dawn on me... They asked me to strip... I was so terrified, I wet my pants." In the course of the sale, the traffickers maintain tight security to make sure that the women do not escape.

Thirty percent of the women interviewed were bought while they were still in their countries of origin, and when they arrived in Israel they already knew which pimp they belonged to. This is particularly common among women returning to Israel for the second time. There has also developed in Israel the phenomenon of "petty entrepreneurs" who buy a woman, keep her in their homes and insist that she engage in both prostitution and domestic work. V.B. testified that she was sold to a private individual in Upper Nazareth: "He used to arrange about 25 customers a day for me. I had to prepare food for him. If I didn't prepare meat for him, his favorite food, he'd shout at me and beat me. When I came home, worn out from all the clients, he would say to me: 'It doesn't matter how many customers you've had today, I'll always be your last customer.' He came to my room every night and raped me. He loved hearing me screaming with pain." A less common method involves transferring the ownership of a woman "as an inheritance," for example if the pimp died. Many victims of trafficking were sold and bought more than once and experienced different methods of sale.

The point of the sales was to "acclimatize" the women who had just arrived in Israel and to "refresh" the supply of women, because "the clients want fresh meat." As a result, another sales method has been devised - that of "bartering" between traffickers. A women trafficker who testified spoke of another trafficker who asked "whether I know someone involved with girls and want to swap one for another. I remembered Sasha, who told me that if I hear that somebody's selling or swapping a girl, I should contact him." Sometimes the trafficker acquires more than one woman in what is known as a "package deal." The price of a woman in the sex industry is not fixed; it varies between $5,000 and $10,000. The price depends on a large number of factors, such as appearance, age, and the quality of her forged documentation. Interviews identified additional factors that influence the price, including scars, prominent moles, birth marks, and experience. Traffickers who cannot afford to buy a "whole" woman establish "joint ownership" and divide up her earnings between them. The women are sometimes hired out from one brothel to another, generally for the sum of 500 shekels a day.

The sale frequently ends up with the woman being raped by her new owners. The "right" to have sex, including by force and without a condom, with the women they have acquired, is taken for granted by the traffickers. Some justify this on the grounds of "trying out the merchandise," or "giving lessons in prostitution," and there are some who simply do with the women as they wish, since after all they belong to them. Here is A.N.'s testimony about the first night: "He took me to a room and explained to me that he had to teach me to work because I'd never been a prostitute. He put a blue film in the VCR and ordered me to give him a blow job. I refused, but I had no choice. Afterwards he insisted that I have sex with him. I didn't want to. He told me that I have to, otherwise he'll send me back and sell me to a far worse place. I was forced to do it. When I left the room, crying, he brought in the girl who had had 'the lesson' in the morning." And this is how things look in the eyes of the brothel owner from Netanya, who became an agent for the police: "When the girl comes, her boss immediately has sex with her. He has to be the first to check her out. Maybe she just doesn't know how to work? Maybe she doesn't know how to pamper the client, make him feel good?"

Among pimps, a distinction is made between selling, which is considered "legitimate," and abduction. According to the report of the interministerial task force, abductions occur when gangs are fighting over areas of operation, or during disputes. It is interesting to note that when trafficked women talk about their abductions, they say that they were "stolen," even though the word "abduction" exists in Russian and Romanian. This reveals that they have internalized the attitude toward them as objects or goods. A.K. recounts her abduction in the following terms: "I was ordered to a hotel in Tel Aviv. Three men were waiting for me in a room. They forced me to go down to the parking lot with them, put me in the trunk of the car and drove off. I don't know where, but later I realized I'd been taken to Haifa, and they told me that a certain man was my new owner. This man explained to me in our first conversation that he doesn't buy women, he only steals them, and that from now on I will work for him." The abduction of women is dealt with very severely by the courts: "The abduction was carried out by exploiting the problematic status of the girls who were illegally present in Israel and who were afraid ... to complain to the police about what was going on... The threat of 'stealing' the girls is also... characteristic of an inhuman approach, which relates to people as if they are objects which can be stolen, violating their freedom, and all for the sake of avarice."

Daily "life" at the brothel

The daily reality of victims of trafficking in brothels consists of servitude, humiliation, violence, abuse, and deceit. This section presents its main components, but it is not an exhaustive account of the daily regime to which they are subjected. To this very day.

Servitude, deceit and abuse

As explained above, the process by which the trafficked women are enslaved begins when they are recruited, irrespective of whether they were duped with promises of other work or "chose" to engage in prostitution. The process of their enslavement continues when they are sold and in the fact that they are treated as property. The most widespread method of perpetuating their servitude is by creating a "debt" - hence the term "debt bondage." When they come to Israel, they are charged for the cost of being brought into the country and acquired. The trafficker makes it clear to the woman that she has to work for free or for a paltry sum until she has paid off her debt. Although most of the women cover their "debt" in the first month and sometimes as early as the first week, the debt will remain forever, because of exponential rates of interest on the original debt, demands that the women contribute to the costs of running the brothel (rent, food, and contraceptives), or "fines" imposed on them for offenses supposedly committed. Being sold to another trafficker generates a new debt, and when the woman is close to having paid it off in full, she is resold, and so it goes on. The women have little chance of getting full payment out of the trafficker and of being released from their debt bondage.

Another expression of the servitude or enslavement of women is the confiscation of their passports or other identifying documents by the traffickers. The confiscation of such documents means depriving them of an identity, limiting their freedom, and creating an obstacle to escape. Most of the women interviewed had no identifying documentation whatsoever. Forty-one percent had forged papers while they were engaged in prostitution. Some of the women told how they were forced to acquire their papers from the pimps and the price was added to their "debt." Depriving the trafficked women of their freedom also includes controlling their food. Eight percent of the women interviewed reported being starved. In a trial involving a woman from Hungary who was brought to Israel on the pretext that she would be empas a d, but was instead forced engage in prostitution, the judge noted in his ruling that "even the food that was provided to her was not sufficient in quantity." Limiting or withholding food is normally imposed as a punishment, or if the woman's proportions are not to the pimp's taste. A woman from Moldova recounted that she weighed 64 kilos (around 141 pounds or 10 stone) when she came to Israel. The pimp thought she was too plump, and imposed a draconian diet consisting exclusively of tomatoes, cucumbers, and diet soft drinks.

The women's weakness and their massive dependence on the traffickers make them victims of fraud and abuse which are designed to extract maximum profits from them. The work regime imposed on them reflects this very clearly. All the women interviewed worked in prostitution seven days a week, having at most one day off a month. Thirty-four percent of the women reported that they worked during their menstrual periods, against their wills, using diaphragms to prevent leakage of blood. Sometimes they were only given one diaphragm, and were told to take it out after each sexual contact, rinse it, and put it back. This is how M.P. described her treatment: "The woman pimp made it quite clear to me right from the outset that I wouldn't be allowed time off during my period, because I already owed them a great deal of money and it would take me a lot of time to repay the debt. She gave me a diaphragm and explained to me how to use it in order to prevent the blood from leaking out. One day I was with a client and I had a particularly heavy period. I began to bleed and the client got annoyed and yelled at me. After he'd gone, the woman pimp came to me and I hoped that she'd let me off working until the end of my period. Instead, she screamed at me for 20 minutes non-stop, and told me to use two diaphragms next time and not just one."

The women reported that they worked up to 20 hours a day, with the average being 13 hours. Ten of the interviewees spoke of being required to be on standby round the clock and to be ready for a client with just a few minutes' notice. Between each client they were forced to do all sorts of things, such as washing towels and bedclothes by hand, preparing food for the pimp and his family, and washing the brothel floors. Although the sex industry has a vast cash turnover, the women who provide the sex services receive very little. According to the interviews, traffickers charge between 100 and 600 shekels for a sexual encounter, depending on time and type. The charge for anal sex or orgies is higher. On average the women receive around 40 shekels an hour, about 20 shekels a client. Thirteen percent of the women interviewed did not receive a penny from their pimps. This is how a trafficking victim described her conditions of pay: "The woman pimp paid us only 10 shekels per client. She said that she wouldn't waste even a cent on us and that she was losing money hand over fist because of us. She forced me to take part in orgies together with other girls when the clients wanted this and said that she'd go bust if she had to pay us more."

Often even the tiny payment that the women receive finds its way back into the pimps' pockets, normally through the imposition of fines. The "fine" is set by the pimp according to the severity of the "offense" committed by the woman: leaving the brothel or receiving a phone call without permission, a dissatisfied customer, what he considers unsatisfactory make-up, use of chewing gum, and so on and so forth. The level of the "fines" varies between $100 and thousands of dollars, the latter an enormous sum indicating that the whole purpose of the "fines" is to avoid paying the women, or reducing the amount paid as much as possible. From the testimony of a trafficking victim: "I came to the hotel, but the client wasn't in the mood and asked me to go back to the [massage] parlor. I cried and begged him not to do it, because the pimp would think that the client wasn't satisfied with me and I'd get a fine. He told me not to worry, called the [massage] parlor and explained that it wasn't my fault and asked them not to fine me. Just because of this - me telling somebody that we get fined - I got a fine of $3,000."

Charging inflated prices for services and products is another standard way of exploiting the victims of trafficking. Because most of the women have no passports, they are forced to use the pimps in order to transfer money to their countries of origin, and the pimps charge them a commission for this service. Inflated payments are also charged for airline tickets. Pimps and traffickers, who customarily incarcerate the women, sometimes charge enormous sums for contraceptives they buy for them. This forces women to choose between risking their lives, or paying vastly inflated prices for contraceptives whose real cost is minimal. The most widespread method to avoid paying the women is to sell them. The sale generates a new debt to the pimp who bought the woman, who then has to once more work without pay until she has paid off her "debt." These sales between brothels serve a number of additional purposes. The sale disconnects women from the supportive ties that they have built up among themselves, thereby increasing their dependence on the traffickers. "Refreshing" the supply of women that the brothel offers its clientele is also intended to increase demand for their services.

Violence toward the victims of trafficking in women

When the true state of affairs in which the trafficked women have become embroiled becomes clear to them, many of them want out, since even if they knew that they would be engaged in prostitution, they did not imagine it would be under such conditions. A complex set of threats and violence, both physical and mental, is then brought to bear on them, to prevent them from leaving. The threat to harm them and their families in their countries of origin is common. In Israel, the traffickers dissuade women from going to the police for help, boasting of their connections with them. They also threaten the women that if they do contact the police, they will receive long prison sentences, because being illegally in the country and engaging in prostitution are serious offenses in Israel (even though this is not actually the case). The women, who are unfamiliar with the local law, tend to believe these threats because they coincide with their ideas of the legal authorities in their own countries. Traffickers also regularly warn the women that if they try to run away, they will be caught and sold to a far worse place, in the West Bank, where they will not survive because of the abuse they will suffer in the hands of the Arabs.

Traffickers' threats have also been made public in the testimonies given in court by victims of trafficking. In one case, a woman was warned that if she tried to run away, she would be sold to "an Arab village," and they would track her down in Israel as well as abroad. And in another case: "when one of the complainants called 'Janna' refused to accept clients, Accused No. 2 drove her to the beach and threatened to drive her to the Georgians, and then 'you'll see what bad is.' On the beach Accused No. 2 showed Janna the pillars on the breakwater and threatened to tie her to a pillar, leave her there all night, and then in the morning decide whether or not to drown her. As a result of the threats of Accused No. 2, Janna ceased her resistance to working in the [massage] parlor." In another case a woman related that she knew about a "headhunter" who went out looking for women who had run away and returned them to their pimps. This phenomenon does indeed exist for migrant workers, and advertisements about "runaway" migrant workers, with their photos and a promised monetary reward are to be found on advertising columns all over Israel; in the past they used to appear in the Romanian papers.

The interviews with victims of trafficking indicated that threats are extremely effective. Although the traffickers do employ security measures, including guards, 52% of the women interviewed reported that the brothel was not locked and that thcould leave , although they had to ask perand report to the pimp exactly where they were going. Forty percent of the women talked about incarceration, locked doors and barred windows. The incarceration of women was described in the trial of woman trafficker Valery Guntov: "The entire time she was there, the appellant incarcerated her: in the [massage] parlor in the morning, and in the evening in her apartment. During these four months the appellant beat Complainant No. 1 all over her body, shouted at her and cursed her." In another case, one of the accused "was among those who incarcerated the women, locked them in the apartment, and took away the key, leaving them without any possibility whatsoever of contacting the outside world." The court held that "incarceration was intended to prevent the women from terminating their activities at any given moment, holding on to the traffickers' 'investment.'"

Victims of trafficking are also exposed to manifestations of physical violence. Twenty percent of the women interviewed reported violence on the part of the pimp, while 9% reported violence on the part of the clients. Four percent reported violence on the part of both pimps and clients. Violence is also used toward the women by other people working at the brothel, as shown by L.N.'s testimony: "The cashier who worked at the parlor used drugs. One day, after a row, he went to the kitchen and came back with an enormous knife. I managed to grab a pillow and used it to protect myself. He stabbed the pillow and all its stuffing spilled out. I tried to hide and he came up to me and started to beat me with the knife handle. I've never been beaten like that. I had a lot of injuries. He wasn't fired, and it wasn't until he attacked another woman that he was thrown out. He continued coming to the parlor as a client, abused us, hit and humiliated us." Another piece of testimony: "I came to Israel at the age of 18 to work as a cleaner. They sent me to work in prostitution, 18 hours a day. The quota was 30 clients a day. No fewer. If I accepted even one client less, they beat me, but they beat you so as not to leave any marks, because clients don't like to see a woman with bruises."

Women are known to have been murdered in the sex industry in Israel, but it is not always clear whether the women who were murdered were victims of trafficking. It would appear that the murder of a woman by a pimp means a loss of "merchandise, " a source of revenue. Nevertheless, this does happen sometimes, even if it is a question of "making an example of somebody" so that the other women will know what awaits anyone who breaks the "house rules." In October 2002. 42-year-old Svetlana Lukatzky was knifed to death. Her body bore the signs of extreme violence: she had been beaten, bound, and stabbed. In June 2002 the Israel Police (Northern District) asked the Isha L'Isha Feminist Center for its help in identifying the body of a woman who had died of strangulation. The corpse had been found dumped in an area where there was known to be a lively sex trade, and the garments worn were indicative of the possibility that the woman had engaged in prostitution. There were no identifying documents. To this day, her identity has not been established.

Trafficked women are also victims of "indirect" violence, which is not carried out against them personally. An example is the arson attacks on brothels which occurred against a background of underworld settling of scores, or as a result of the activities of religious fanatics like Yariv Baruhim, tried on charges of murder and arson Baruhim decided to stamp out prostitution in Tel Aviv, and on the night of August 15, 2000 he set fire to a brothel at 51 Golomb Street, causing the deaths of four women. Two have never been identified, probably because they were victims of trafficking. After a number of months, another brothel was opened in the very same apartment, but the police closed it down. The Israeli Coalition against Trafficking in Women holds an annual memorial service at this location for the women who died in the fire. In an arson attack on a brothel in Be'ersheva on December 21, 2001, two women sustained severe burns over 60% of their bodies. In the wake of a request by Advocate Ahuva Salzberg and the "Physicians for Human Rights" organization to the Israel National Insurance Institute, it was decided to recognize the arson attack as a "work accident" and to award the two women compensation.

All the women who work in prostitution and the victims of trafficking in women can also be robbed with ease. Moreover, because the women are present in Israel illegally they are afraid to make a complaint to the police, and their pimps do not exactly tend to request the assistance of the police with any alacrity. In the sentence handed down against a man who had robbed brothels, the court commented: "The places targeted for carrying out the crimes as well as the victims were selected with premeditation. They were escort service premises, whose personnel hesitate to complain to the police for all sorts of reasons, including being in the country unlawfully and fearing harsh punishment by the criminals if they make a complaint against them. As for the clients whose money was stolen, some of them will decline to complain, so that their families will not find out what their loved ones do by way of recreation."

The mental and physical health of the victims of trafficking in women

Numerous studies point to the damage caused to women engaged in prostitution. Such damage is greater in the case of trafficked women, and this should come as no surprise given the terrible experiences described above. Professor Julie Cwikel of Ben-Gurion University has examined the mental health of 55 women engaged in prostitution in brothels in Israel. Because 82% of them came to Israel illegally, it may be deduced that they are victims of trafficking. Symptoms of depression were diagnosed in a third of the women examined, and 19% were found to be suffering from clinical depression requiring treatment. Symptoms of post-traumatic stress were found in 26%. Some of the post-traumatic symptoms were manifestly related to the conditions of their employment, to sexual attacks, systematic abuse, and rape. Thirty-two percent of the women interviewed reported that they received no medical care whatsoever when they fell ill. Women who become pregnant are dependent on the benevolence of the pimp - whether he lets them have an abortion, at their own expense, of course, and allows them to continue working, or sends them back to their country of origin. Some of the women were forced to continue working in prostitution even after they discovered they were pregnant.

Because the women are not entitled to state health care, they are sometimes forced to use the services of medically unqualified persons, or of individuals who are qualified to treat - animals: "When I said I wanted a doctor, they laughed at me. After a month, they brought a doctor and I told him that I hadn't had my period for three months. The doctor claimed that I was pregnant and made an appointment for me to have an abortion. I said that I couldn't be pregnant because I was careful. He stubbornly insisted, saying he could feel the fetus and demanded a thousand shekels from me. I resisted, and they had to use force to take me to him, but fortunately that day I got my period. Afterwards I found out that the doctor who checks the women at the parlor is a veterinarian." Most of the women explained in the interviews that they were allowed to use a condom, but nine women said that they were ordered to have sexual relations without a condom. V.G. testified: "One day a client arrived. The pimp's wife said do everything to make sure that he doesn't ask for his money back. I started to put a condom on him and he objected. I was scared of the pimp's wife who warned that they'd sell me to a place where I'd have to pay back a debt for a whole year. As I had no choice, I did it." In most cases in which oral sex takes place, no condom is used.

Clients, pimps, and traffickers in the sex industry

If the struggle for survival is creates the "su" of trafficked women, then it ithe "clients" who create the "demand" for this female "merchandise." The pimps and women traffickers are the link between these two. In the terms of the "free market economy", women traffickers and pimps may be viewed as "entrepreneurs" in an "industry," taking advantage of a "market segment."

Contrary to widespread myths to the effect that migrant workers are the main source of the large-scale demand for prostitution services, the interviews indicate that the overwhelming majority of the clients are Israelis, with foreigners making up a minority only. The women were able to identify specific characteristics of the clientele. Religiously observant Jewish men were identified as having sidelocks and a yarmulke (skull cap), and the women testified that they remove their yarmulke on entering the brothel and put it back on when they leave. There has been testimony about brothels giving a discount to soldiers in uniform. Another group of clients was identified as Arabic speakers, although it was not clear whether the women could distinguish between Arabic-speaking Israelis, Palestinian citizens of Israel, and Palestinians from the Palestinian Authority. Tourists and migrant workers comprised the smallest group of clients. These findings conflict with the position of the police, according to which foreign workers are to blame for the flourishing of trafficking in women. At a conference held at Beit Berl College in 2001, Israel Police Commander Yossi Sidbon, head of the Tel Aviv police district, explained why trafficking in women had grown: "In the Tel Aviv area today there are about 200,000 foreign workers and tens of thousands of Palestinians who come from the [Palestinian] Authority. What can you do?- they just need sex services." The interviews that we conducted with the women show that these claims are completely unfounded.

The interviews reveal that the clientele include minors, even 11-14 year olds. In one case the visit to a brothel was given as a bar mitzvah present to the 13-year-old "man." Another woman reported the following experience: "The woman pimp sent me to a group of five minors aged 14-16. They were waiting for me in a [bomb] shelter, put a mattress on the floor and raped me. The other minors standing in line watched and laughed... I didn't think that I could feel so humiliated. Even now I don't believe that it happened and I just want to cry. The next day I hurt all over and I couldn't get up. I told the woman pimp that I couldn't work and she said she didn't care. I had to bring her money and not just be there. She treated her dog better." The overwhelming majority of the clients are men, but three women reported women clients. All the victims of trafficking agreed that the worst clients are the drug addicts. The drugs impair their sexual functioning, but they blame the woman for this state of affairs and are sure that if they give her a "good shaking," their sexual potency will increase. The combination of drugged clients and a pimp who does not rush to help has sometimes lead to women sustaining serious injuries.

According to the interviews, women who knew that they would be engaged in prostitution in Israel were promised up to seven clients a day. Nobody prepared them for the real state of affairs of up to 30 clients every single day. True, there were women who reported having three to four clients a day, at least some of the time, but most told of far more, in one case up to as many as 37 clients a day. Here is the testimony of a victim of trafficking: "In Russia I was told that I would have two to three clients a day. When I arrived, the pimp told me as early as the first day that the minimum number of clients a day would be 20. I was horrified. That day I had my period, but I was immediately told that I had to accept 20 clients a day even when I had my period, otherwise I'd be fined or they'd sell me to the occupied territories and it was far worse there." The number of clients depends on the popularity of the sex parlor and of the woman. The way that the men treat the women depends totally on the goodness of their hearts. There are clients who help women to make contact with the outside world and even extricate them from the brothel, but far more prevalent are cruel rapes. Most are indifferent to the women.

Seventy-eight percent of the traffickers of the women interviewed are Israelis who are not native-born; most of them are from the former Soviet Union. It can be assumed that their familiarity with the countries of origin, their connections there, and the fact that they speak Russian and Romanian are a "professional" advantage. Although most of the pimps are men, women also operate as pimps, and there are couples who run a brothel as a "family business" and father and son businesses. The traffickers do not necessarily have a criminal background. Many of them traffic in women at the same time as maintaining regular jobs, or after they have been fired and cannot find another job. The interviews recount the tales of a plumber who ran a brothel at night, a hi-tech worker who was laid off and became a pimp, and a family from the provincial town of Afula in whose house lived an 18-year-old victim of trafficking in women. She shared a room with the couple's four-year-old son. In the morning the father