KNESSET SUBCOMITTEE ON COMBATING TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001578 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PTER PGOV KWBG IS SUBJECT: KNESSET SUBCOMITTEE ON COMBATING TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN DISCUSSES 2007 STATE DEPARTMENT REPORT ON TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS -------------- SUMMARY AND INTRODUCTION -------------- ¶1. (SBU) Chairperson Zahava Gal-On (Meretz) convened July 2 the Knesset subcommittee on Trafficking in Women for its annual hearing on the findings of the State Department's Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report for 2007. Discussion focused on new developments in trafficking in women: specifically NGO reports that Israel is a source country and that internal trafficking constitutes a phenomenon. While the hearing was in agreement that the TIP report was fair and balanced, the session heard a call from the State Attorney's office for further verification of the findings in regard to internal trafficking and Israel's source country status. Chairperson Gal-On expressed frustration with the lack of progress on forced labor, which was not within the committee's purview. She urged new thinking by the GOI and legislative initiatives by the committee to combat the changing aspects of trafficking in women in Israel. ¶2. (SBU) The subcommittee meets regularly throughout the year, often inviting key government officials to testify on anti-trafficking initiatives. Ahead of the session on the TIP report, Justice Ministry Director-General Moshe Shilo was invited to address the committee on the work of the inter-ministerial committee that he heads. Other participants included: committee member MK Maria Solodkin (Kadima); representatives of the Israel Police, the Immigration Authority, representatives of Israel government agencies; and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Director General Shilo noted that the TIP report is an important tool in combating trafficking in persons but that there are other important tools that Israel should use, including international agreements, noting that the GOI recently ratified the 2000 UN Protocol on June 19, 2008. Shilo conceded that while Israel had improved its record on combating trafficking in women, this was not the case in regard to the problems of foreign workers and forced labor. "More must be done on enforcement regarding trafficking for labor purposes, and we are working with the Israel Police and the State Attorney's office on this," Shilo said. ¶3. (SBU) The Director General also commented on the issue of the lack of testimony by women victims of trafficking in the Tel Aviv shelter, saying that this was possibly aggravated by the backlog in the courts. He was responding to a comment by Anat Hulata of the State Attorney's office, who noted that none of the 32 inmates of the Tel Aviv shelter had agreed to testify. Ada Pliel Trosman of the Welfare Ministry responded that this was the result of a policy that gave the women access to the shelter and to all benefits from the GOI regardless of whether they testified or not. ¶4. (SBU) MK Marina Solodkin spoke briefly but forcefully on what she called "the new phase" of trafficking Israel: a phase of organized crime. Trafficking, Solodkin affirmed, was now part of a much bigger picture and needed to be treated accordingly. In this connection she also flagged the Interior Ministry decision to waive the visa requirement for Russian nationals, which will go into effect in late September. ¶5. (SBU) The TIP Report's mention of internal trafficking and Israel as a source country for trafficked women was discussed by Anat Hulata, the State Attorney's Office representative. She took issue with the State Department report on both matters. "We do not recognize the phenomenon of internal trafficking as referred to in the report, and we do not have reports of it from the various bodies and agencies which provide us with information and data," she said. Regarding NGO reports of Israel's status as a "source country" for trafficked women, Hulata said the State Attorney's office only knew of isolated cases and did not have evidence that constituted a phenomenon. While the hearing was almost entirely devoted to the report on Israel, criticism was voiced of the Tier 1 placing of countries that have legalized prostitution. Idit Harel Shemesh of the Toda'a Institute, an NGO which works extensively with international NGOs, expressed her frustration by labeling the report "disappointing and irrelevant" for its Tier 1 placing of Holland and Germany. She was not challenged by any other speaker on her blurring of the lines between trafficking and prostitution. ¶6. (SBU) MK Gal-On called on the Israel Police representative, Chief Inspector Yael Aharonovitch, to report to the committee, and specifically requested statistics on indictments and arrests. Aharonovitch reported a decline in numbers on both counts: 76 arrests on charges of trafficking in women in 2007 as compared with 83 in 2006. Indictments for the same period were down by 41 percent. Aharonovitch said stepped-up enforcement accounted for the decline in arrests and indictments, but noted a proliferation in the operation of brothels and an increase in the number of cases of pimping and prostitution files, with 250 new cases in 2007 as compared with 200 in 2006. Superintendent David Peretz, who heads the Investigations Division of the Immigration Authority, asked to report on the work of his department in regard to foreign workers, but Chairperson Gal-On regretted that it was not within the purview of her committee and asked that he do so before the Knesset Committee on the problem of Foreign Workers. ¶7. (SBU) Summing up the hearing, and comments on the TIP report, Gal-On expressed some personal frustration with the disparity between Israel's record on combating trafficking in women and its enforcement regarding forced labor and foreign workers. "It is possible," she ventured, "that were it not for the forced labor issue" we would be in Tier 1 ..." At the same time, Gal-On acknowledged that there are new developments to confront: "Israel for the first time figures as a source of trafficked women. This is a new development...and the NGOs fighting trafficking in persons report classic sexual slavery. This requires more indictments and the TIP report raises the need for some new thinking by the GOI. We will have to give thought to the question of incriminating clients of the sex industry and the issue of sex service advertising and we will be doing that in the next parliamentary session. ¶8. (U) In conversation after the hearing, we asked Gal-On why last year's joint session to review the TIP report, which had been held with the Committee on Foreign Workers, was not repeated this year to facilitate discussion of the full TIP report. Gal-On said she had approached the Committee chairperson, Ran Cohen (Meretz),to suggest that they hold a joint session that she would chair but he had declined. "We are from the same political party but we approach trafficking from wholly different perspectives," Gal-On said. "The committee on Foreign Workers is interested solely in the economic aspects of the issue. I approach it in terms of human rights." (Comment: the two committees enjoy a different status: As a subcommittee, Gal-On's committee has a lesser status and inferior leverage in various aspects of parliamentary activity. A merging of the two committees would redress this imbalance and possibly benefit the work of the Committee on Foreign Workers in the field of combating trafficking in persons. End Comment. MORENO