CHAPTER 5
Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories
They succeeded in executing their plot by exploiting, for their own profit, the economic and social distress of their victims.
—BASSEM KANDALAFT, ATTORNEY OF THE NORTHERN DISTRICT PROSECUTION IN ISRAEL
Israel’s Anti-Trafficking Law of 2006 prohibits all forms of human trafficking. The strength of the legislation is its breadth of application: it does not require the means of trafficking to be identified (UNODC, 2009). The weakness in the law is that it imposes significantly more stringent sentencing on sex traffickers than on labor traffickers. Violators under the law face up to 16 years’ imprisonment for the sex trafficking of an adult, up to 20 years’ imprisonment for the sex trafficking of a child, up to 16 years’ imprisonment for slavery, and up to 7 years’ imprisonment for forced labor (U.S. Department of State, 2009). In the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), anti-trafficking law is fragmented. The drafting of a new criminal code is in progress, but for now the Egyptian penal law of 1960 and the Jordanian penal law of 1937 prevail in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, respectively (SAWA/UNIFEM, 2008). Overall, the current legal framework in the OPT is a jumble of Egyptian, Jordanian, Palestinian, Ottoman, and British laws. It also includes Israeli military orders. Even more confusing is that, generally speaking, different laws apply to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which results in the lack of a unified legal framework, inconsistencies, and gaps in the current legislation. Furthermore, these laws do not reflect President Mahmoud Abbas’s 2009 significant endorsement of CEDAW, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (WCLAC & DCAF, 2012). What is consistent is that the applicable penal laws in the OPT do not provide sufficient protection to women and girls, especially in instances of gender-based violence. The laws in the OPT as they relate to human trafficking result in sentencing that is far less stringent than in Israel. Traffickers who force persons into prostitution by using threats, drugs, or deceit face a prison sentence ranging from 1 to 3 years. In order to deter the use of forced marriage as a means of human trafficking, in 2008 Tayseer Tamimi, a Palestinian judge and chief of the High Council of Sharia Jurisdictions, issued an order to all judicial courts and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs. The order stipulates that in order for a marriage to transpire the woman must consent, she must be more than 18 years of age, the couple must have secured a residence to live in after they are married, all medical examinations required for the marriage should be completed and the man should not have AIDS, and there must be no legal or religious conditions hindering a marriage (SAWA/UNIFEM, 2008).
As is the case in many nations, obtaining accurate statistics on human trafficking in Israel and the OPT is challenging. Human trafficking is often investigated under other offenses such as soliciting prostitution, kidnapping, causing a person to engage in prostitution, and pandering. As a result, these crimes are reported separately and not included in trafficking statistics (UNODC, 2009). One concern in obtaining an accurate picture of human trafficking in Israel and the OPT is the Israeli government’s attempt to limit the presence of NGOs. In September 2009 the Interior Ministry stopped granting work permits to foreign nationals working in NGOs operating in East Jerusalem and the OPT. Instead, the NGOs were granted tourist visas that prevented them from working. Some of the groups adversely affected were Save the Children, Doctors Without Borders, and Oxfam International (Hass, 2010a). In March 2010 the Interior Ministry stopped issuing the restrictive tourist visas and stated that the previous system would be restored temporarily. Historically, NGO workers in the region registered with the International Relations Department at the Social Affairs Ministry and were issued B1 visas—temporary unrestricted work visas—by the Interior Ministry. The Interior Ministry now aims to make the Ministry of Defense responsible for international NGOs in the territories. NGOs argue that this move would subjugate them to the Israeli military, in direct conflict with the intent and purpose of the NGOs (Hass, 2010b).
ISRAEL AS A PRIMARY DESTINATION
Persons from China, India, Nepal, the Philippines, Romania, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Turkey voluntarily and legally migrate to Israel for low-skilled contract labor in the areas of construction, agriculture, and health care. The Knesset reported that as of December 31, 2010, 33,439 “infiltrators” had entered Israel from Egypt, 26,164 of whom received a temporary residence 2(a)(5) permit (Knesset, 2011a). This is the most common permit given to anyone residing in Israel who holds no other permit and is not in detention. Most asylum seekers in Israel hold this permit. The visa gives the holder no legal or social rights, but it does allow employers to hire asylum seekers. However, it is not considered a work permit (Dickman, 2011). The majority of these “infiltrator” migrants were from Eritrea (18,262) and Sudan (7,992). The numbers of persons entering Israel from Egypt is on the rise—13,686 in 2010 compared to 4,827 in 2009 (Knesset, 2011a). Upon arrival in Israel, some migrant workers face forced labor, their passports and travel documents are withheld, and their movements restricted. They also encounter nonpayment, threats, and physical intimidation and abuse. Others are charged exorbitant fees by recruitment agencies (between $1,000 and $10,000) that place them in a position of debt bondage. The national origins of Israel’s forced laborers vary by employment sector. The largest identified groups of labor-trafficking victims are Thai agricultural workers, Chinese construction workers, and Filipino, Indian, Nepalese, and Sri Lankan domestic and nursing care workers. Caregivers are particularly vulnerable to retracted visa status when employers fail to arrange their visas. Persons are also trafficked from Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Belarus, China, and Mongolia for sexual exploitation. Typically, organized crime groups engage in this type of trafficking and traffic the victims from Egypt into Israel (U.S. Department of State, 2009, 2010a).
Historically, more sex-trafficking victims are identified and receive shelter than forced-labor victims. For instance, from 2005 through 2007, of victims who received shelter, 258 were sex-trafficking victims and 6 had been trafficked for forced labor (UNODC, 2009). Although all the forced-labor victims in the statistic received shelter in the year following passage of the 2006 law, none of them were men; it seems clear not only that forced-labor victims remained highly unidentified but also that male victims had little access to services and shelter. This is changing. In 2009–2010, 21 male victims of slavery and forced labor were housed in the 35-bed Atlas shelter for male trafficking victims; in 2010, 63 men were referred to the shelter; and as of December 2010, 13 men were housed there. As of the same date, 20 women were housed in the Maagan shelter, a 35-bed shelter for female trafficking victims. The number of persons referred to the two shelters by law enforcement and judicial officials remained similar in 2011 for female but not male victims. That year 16 women and 10 men were referred to the Maagan and Atlas shelters, respectively (UNODC, 2009; U.S. Department of State, 2010b, 2011, 2012). Victims who received shelter in 2005 and 2006 were from Ukraine (31), Moldova (18), Russia (13), Uzbekistan (7), China (5), South Asia (3), other countries of eastern Europe and Central Asia (2), and South America (1). The 6 victims of forced labor who received shelter in 2007 were from Sri Lanka, China, Nepal, and Ukraine (UNODC, 2009).
The largest account of human trafficking to be discovered in Israel is that of an organized crime syndicate whose members were arrested in Tel Aviv in March 2009. In a two-year period, the ring allegedly trafficked more than 2,000 women from Belarus, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan to Israel for commercial sexual exploitation (IRIN, 2009; Goren, 2009). According to Chief Superintendent Pini Avraham of the Tel Aviv Police’s Central Unit, “The suspects essentially went on a shopping spree for women throughout the former Soviet Union” (Goren, 2009). “We are talking about over 2,000 women who, we suspect, were forced to work as prostitutes via threats and violence, in Israel and Cyprus and, later, in Belgium and England as well.”
The primary suspect in the case is Rami Saban, a mobster who is allegedly closely related to one of Israel’s mafia families, the Abutbul crime organization (IRIN, 2009; Goren, 2009). Saban was previously under investigation for smuggling hired killers from Belarus to assassinate Nissim Alperon, a leading Israeli mobster figure and a member of the rival Alperon clan. He allegedly ran the intricate trafficking network by utilizing agents in nations such as Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova. Over 20 suspects in several other countries—such as Russia and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus—were also arrested in relation to this case (Goren, 2009). The key players in the trafficking ring each earned between $267,952.85 and $803,858.55. The victims were offered employment as waitresses or caretakers (Jerusalem Post, 2009). After they were flown to Egypt and smuggled into Israel, the women faced harsh and violent conditions (Goren, 2009). Forced into debt bondage, the women had to prostitute without pay until the pimps’ payments were met (IRIN, 2009). While the ring initially focused on trafficking women to Israel, they moved the operation to Cyprus when some of their Israeli and Russian partners were arrested in 2008. “There, they opened strip joints that employed dozens of women as prostitutes using threats and violence,” Avraham said (Goren, 2009).
Although Israel is primarily a destination nation for international human trafficking, a small number of persons are reportedly trafficked from Israel to Ireland and the United Kingdom for commercial sexual exploitation (U.S. Department of State, 2009).
TRAFFICKING WITHIN ISRAEL AND THE OPT
Criticism by outside nations and NGOs of international sex trafficking in Israel caused the government to take action. The government passed its anti-trafficking law in 2006, and law enforcement has subsequently increased the identification of foreign victims. Victims are often identified when law enforcement finds they are missing visa documents—a red flag that a trafficker or pimp has withheld such documents in order to curtail the victim’s movements, or that the person has been smuggled into the country. While the identification of foreign victims has increased, the demand for prostitution remains the same. Consequently, NGOs estimate that hundreds of Israeli women are trafficked within the nation, primarily in the cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa. “The demand for sex did not change, and the [gap] had to be filled. Israeli women filled it,” Adi Willinger, the trafficking coordinator at Hotline for Migrant Workers, told
Haaretz
. One victim of internal trafficking was drugged, beaten, and raped by her trafficker. The trafficker also threatened to harm her children and family members if she did not comply with his demands. What makes this story particularly unusual is that the trafficker in this case was the victim’s husband. As the victim stated, her husband would say: “You’re mine; I control you. You are not yours. You do not belong to yourself.” Na’ama Ze’evi Rivlin, manager of the state-run Shalit shelter, says many of the traffickers in internal cases of sex trafficking are the husbands of the victims. One issue is that police do not generally recognize the trafficking of Israeli citizens within Israel as human trafficking. As a result, internal trafficking cases are often ignored. “[The police] deny the existence of this phenomenon,” Willinger told
Haaretz
. “They claim there is no such thing as internal trafficking in Israel” (Zebede, 2009).
Palestinian women are also forced into prostitution, particularly in the cities of Jerusalem in Israel and Ramallah in the West Bank (SAWA/ UNIFEM, 2008). For instance, two sisters—ages 13 and 14—were repeatedly sold by their father to Palestinian men inside Israel. Utilizing the temporary Urfimarriage, the father would collect money and then sell the girls again. One of the sisters, now 18 years old, told field researchers that she has married around 12 men under the Urfimarriage:
I ran away from my last marriage, as the wife of my husband knew of my pregnancy and tried to burn me. My baby was put in a kindergarten in Beit Jalla, and I have never seen him. As I turn 18 years old, I will have to leave this safe house, but I cannot return to my family and have no place to go. A year ago, my relatives took me and made me marry my cousin as a mean to protect me, but the judge forced me to get a divorce, as there is no legal evidence of my divorce from my last husband. And after I got the divorce for my last Urfimarriage, my cousin refused to marry me again. (SAWA/ UNIFEM, 2008)
The girl’s sister ran away from their father and returned to search for her last husband. She killed him and is now in a Nablus prison (SAWA/ UNIFEM, 2008).
Factors that increase a person’s vulnerability to human trafficking are poverty, inequity, discrimination, and violence. Palestinian girls and women in the OPT face a range of restrictions and discriminations, not only politically but also culturally (SAWA/UNIFEM, 2008). As with anyone living inside the fractured territories, the movements of girls and women are restricted by numerous checkpoints, barriers, gates, roadblocks, and the 436-mile-long wall. At least 561 physical obstacles restrict the movement of approximately 2.4 million Palestinians to their basic services, places of worship, and families (OCHA, 2007). On account of gender, women in the territories also face obstacles presented by an increasingly conservative culture. As a result, many girls and women avoid leaving their homes not only in order to protect themselves from arrest, harassment (verbal and sexual), and detainment by Israeli officials but also to deter potential negative talk that could incite physical and/or verbal retribution by family members (Menkedick, 2010). Girls and women in the territories face a great deal of violence. A study by the Palestinian Women’s Information and Media Center found that 77.1 percent of Palestinian women and girls in the Gaza Strip have encountered violence of some sort. Fifty-two percent have experienced physical violence, and 15 percent sexual violence. The study indicates that 67 percent are exposed to verbal violence, 71 percent to psychological violence, and 44.6 percent to multiple forms of violence (Kliger, 2009).