This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 TEL AVIV 001679 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
FOR G/TIP SALLY NEUMANN; NEA/RA JOHN MENARD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM KWMN KCRM SMIG EG IS GOI INTERNAL ISRAELI SOCIETY
SUBJECT: TRAFFICKING NGOS WEIGH IN ON WHERE THE SYSTEM IS 
FAILING AND SUCCEEDING 
 
REF: A. TEL AVIV 1336-1338 (THREE-PART REPORT) 
 
     ¶B. 04 STATE 273089 
 
(U)  Note: In addition to Post's earlier extensive 
submissions in connection with the annual Trafficking in 
Persons report, Post offers the following abbreviated summary 
of comments received from NGO and GOI representatives in the 
process of compiling the Ref (A) submissions and on which Ref 
(A) submissions were based. 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary: Representatives of Israeli NGOs against 
Trafficking in Persons (TIP) say that the GOI, while 
inflicting stricter sentencing of traffickers and 
implementing other improvements, still falls short in some 
areas in its efforts to combat TIP.  NGO representatives 
charge that: 
 
-- Smuggling women into Israel for prostitution remains too 
easy; 
 
-- The absence of laws against prostitution hamper efforts to 
fight trafficking; 
 
-- The police often fail to distinguish trafficking victims 
from other foreigners illegally in Israel, and therefore rush 
to deport them before they can testify against traffickers. 
 
-- Court congestion delays trials of traffickers for up to a 
year, thus lessening the chances that TIP victims will be 
available to testify. 
 
-- Israel's sole shelter for trafficked women is operating 
below full capacity because police are referring only those 
willing to testify against traffickers. 
 
-- Women in the shelter complain of restrictions on time they 
can spend outside the shelter. 
 
NGOs also say, however, that the government has improved 
certain aspects of its efforts to combat TIP, some of which 
include: 
 
-- Better TIP-related training for government investigators 
and police. 
 
-- Despite often rushed deportations of trafficking victims, 
improved GOI efforts to obtain testimony from trafficking 
victims for prosecuting traffickers. 
 
-- The closure of brothels, where many trafficking victims 
for prostitution work; and 
 
-- The implementation of a new public awareness campaign in 
source countries to educate women about the dangers of coming 
to work in Israel as prostitutes.  End Summary. 
 
--------------------------------------------- 
Getting Into Israel: Easier Than It Should Be 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) NGO contacts and GOI officials contended in both 
introductory and follow-on meetings with Poloff that 
anecdotal evidence indicates women continue to be easily 
trafficked into Israel to work as prostitutes.  The GOI says, 
however, that the number of women trafficked for prostitution 
during 2004 decreased to 1,000-1,500 from 2,000-3000 in 2003. 
 NGO contacts said, for example, that some women who enter 
with visas are able to obtain the visas without personal 
interviews or by use of fraudulent documents indicating that 
they are Jewish.  The GOI has also indicated that this latter 
problem exists, particularly with women from Ukraine, but 
neither the government nor NGOs could provide estimates. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) In 2003, the GOI established the Border Police 
Ramon Unit to patrol along the Egypt-Israel border, which 
Israeli officials say is the prime route for smuggling women, 
drugs and weapons into Israel.  Several NGOs charge that the 
new unit has not been effective in preventing people from 
illegally crossing the border, based on the number of 
trafficked women still entering Israel.  The Ramon Unit's 
Foreign Press spokesperson rejected this criticism in a 
conversation with Poloff, but acknowledged that the Unit's 
successes have primarily been in the interception of tobacco 
and drugs, and some weapons.  During 2004, according to the 
GOI, the Unit interdicted 43 women attempting to cross the 
border, all presumed to be trafficking victims. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Deterring victims from trying to enter Israel is 
the first step to blocking TIP, say many NGO activists, who 
thus advocate educating potential victims before they travel. 
 As part of an ongoing public awareness/prevention campaign, 
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in November 2003 
that it would begin distributing Russian-language brochures 
-- for use in TIP source countries such as Russia, Uzbekistan 
and Moldova -- that warn women of the dangers of going to 
Israel to work as prostitutes, an effort spearheaded by the 
NGO Isha L'isha (Woman to Woman).  Other NGOs have applauded 
this governmental effort to prevent TIP in source countries 
and predicted that it will be effective in deterring many 
women from coming to Israel.  No such campaign, however, 
targets the victims once they are already working in Israel, 
which could educate the women on where to get help and how to 
contact law enforcement officials without fear.  Although the 
information might not reach trafficking victims living in 
conditions of bondage, one NGO suggested using creative 
outlets for disseminating such information, such as taxi 
drivers. 
---------------------------------------- 
The Law: Does It Deter Or Encourage TIP? 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Because Israeli law does not prohibit prostitution, 
the Israeli legal system indirectly encourages TIP, asserted 
Uri Sadeh of the Hotline for Migrant Workers.  The Israeli 
Parliament (Knesset), however, has considered "criminalizing 
the client."  Several NGO contacts said they believe that 
legally prohibiting solicitation, and/or use of the services 
of a prostitute would decrease demand for prostitution, and 
thus TIP.  Sadeh noted that such legislation has not yet been 
introduced and predicted that it would encounter fierce 
opposition, if it were, because it would criminalize an 
activity that is quietly tolerated.  Ministry of Justice 
lawyer Rochelle Gershoni told Poloff that a February 2004 MOJ 
legal opinion concluded that criminalizing the client would 
only be effective if the government conducted a public 
education campaign in advance to "prepare the public."  She 
noted that this law is still being considered, but could not 
give a timeframe for any further action. 
 
------------------------------------------- 
The Police: Insensitive to Trafficked Women 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Compounding problems, the Israeli police, Sadeh 
charged, pay inadequate attention to trafficking, although 
police claim that their closure of a number of brothels 
during 2004 has helped deter trafficking for prostitution in 
Israel.  The police, Sadeh said, often fail to identify 
detainees as trafficking victims, and thereby do not obtain 
valuable testimony from them that could be used to prosecute 
their traffickers.  He said that many victims who could 
benefit from the protection of Israel's only trafficking 
shelter (The USG helped to underwrite construction of the 
shelter) never get there because most referrals are done by 
the police, who fail to distinguish trafficking victims from 
others in Israel's larger population of illegal foreign 
workers. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) To underscore the point, Sadeh brought Poloff in 
February to the Ma'asiyahu detention facility to meet and 
interview detainees he identified as trafficking victims. 
All were detained in the wing housing illegal foreign 
workers.  Sadeh asserted that most trafficking victims 
detained by police are ultimately deported without anyone 
realizing that they were trafficked.  If such detainees are 
identified as trafficking victims, they are asked to testify 
and, if they agree, are sent to the trafficking shelter.  The 
GOI, in a written report to the Embassy about TIP, said its 
police officers are doing more to encourage TIP victims to 
testify.  The government says "it is a matter of police 
policy to encourage victims of trafficking to testify against 
traffickers and to try to ensure that traffickers will be 
prosecuted."  Sadeh's colleague at the Hotline for Migrant 
Workers, Shevy Korzen, said the authorities sometimes do not 
communicate news of the pending deportation of trafficking 
victims to NGOs.  Were the authorities to do so, the NGOs 
could contact counterpart NGOs in the source countries, that 
help rehabilitate and reintegrate the returning trafficking 
victims.  Korzen acknowledged, however, that police do 
initiate this NGO contact in many cases, but could not 
provide numerical estimates. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) An Israeli police intelligence commander told 
Poloff that the police refer to the shelter only those 
trafficking victims who agree to testify because of the 
shelter's limited capacity and as an inducement for victims 
to provide evidence against traffickers.  The police referred 
108 trafficking victims for prostitution to the shelter, 
according to police sources, who also claimed that the police 
have instituted better training for its officers to recognize 
TIP and identify its victims.  For example, the School of 
Continuing Education for Police conducted two programs on 
trafficking in December 2004 and February 2005 for police. 
One training session focused on trafficking rings, and how to 
identify, investigate and gather evidence for, prosecution 
of trafficking cases; the other was an overview of 
trafficking generally.  In 2004, the police also reportedly 
organized for its officers 20 lectures by guest speakers on 
trafficking, including the state's overall policy regarding 
prevention, prosecution, investigation and protection. 
Several NGO contacts agreed that governmental efforts to 
improve training law enforcement officials to combat TIP have 
been effective, although some have charged that the training 
did not reach enough officers. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Sadeh also criticized police for sometimes 
pressuring TIP victims to buy their own airline tickets home, 
under threat of deportation to Egypt.  Sadeh called the 
threat of deportation to Egypt coercive although he 
acknowledged that Israeli law allows the authorities to ask 
prospective deportees to purchase their own airline tickets. 
 
¶10.  (SBU) The Chief Superintendent of the Israeli police for 
International Operations confirmed to Poloff that the police 
had in the past, sent back to Egypt women who entered Israel 
from Egypt.  In September 2004, however, the Police 
Commander, he said, ordered the police to cease all such 
deportations to Egypt and to interrogate all detained foreign 
prostitutes to determine if they had been trafficked.  Sadeh 
claimed, however, that several trafficking victims he met in 
the Tzohar detention facility in southern Israel during 2005, 
told him that they were threatened with deportation to Egypt 
if they did not buy their own airline tickets home. 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
The Courts: Backlogs Hinder TIP Prosecutions 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Korzen characterized 2004 as a year of marked 
improvement in the prosecution of traffickers, notably 
through the imposition of stiffer sentences, but expressed 
concern that some trafficking victims are not told they can 
testify against traffickers.  Some, who might be inclined to 
testify, she said, do not have a chance to do so because they 
are deported quickly as illegal foreign workers.  "How, she 
questioned, can victims collaborate with the system, if they 
are quickly deported out of the country and not fully 
informed of their options (to testify)?"  Korzen said that 
the Hotline knows of 500 cases of women deported in 2004 and 
450 in 2003, all of whom, she asserted, were trafficked into 
Israel for prostitution, but deported as illegal foreign 
workers.  Korzen said the Hotline received this information 
from the police and the Immigration Administration, but that 
the Hotline was not involved in the processing of the 
deportees. 
 
¶12.  (SBU) The director of the shelter for trafficked women 
in Israel, Rinat Davidovich, echoed Korzen in acknowledging 
progress the judicial system has made in imposing stiffer 
sentences for sentences for traffickers.  Average sentences, 
she said, have increased from 1-3 years to 6-8 years, with 
maximum sentences now reaching 10-12 years.  The lengthy 
judicial process, however, has forced TIP victims who agree 
to testify, she said, to wait up to a full year waiting for a 
trial to begin.  The victims in the shelter all get visas to 
stay in Israel during, and sometimes after, the trial, 
although the government does not provide them with housing or 
employment during or after the trial, but permits them to 
work. 
 
¶13.  (SBU) MOJ attorney Rochelle Gershoni told Poloff that on 
December 29, 2004, the GOI decided to implement this proposal 
and on February 15, the government drafted legislation, which 
is being considered by the Constitutional Law Committee of 
the Knesset.  The change would allow individual judges to 
hear cases, effectively multiplying the capacity to try 
traffickers.  In a separate meeting with Poloff, however, 
Supreme Court Justice Dorit Beinish (protect) expressed 
concern that this proposal would place all judicial 
decision-making with one person, and thus could result in 
arbitrary and erroneous decisions. 
 
----------------------------------------- 
Protecting The Victims: Good News And Bad 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶14.  (SBU) Hotline official Sadeh described the trafficking 
shelter as well-run, a view no NGO representatives 
contradicted.  He blamed the police, however, for failing to 
refer enough women to the shelter, estimating, based on 
frequent conversations with the shelter director, that only 
42 or 43 women reside in the shelter at a time, out of a 
maximum capacity of 50.  The shelter director confirmed to 
Poloff that 42 women and one child are currently residing in 
the shelter.  During 2004, according to the police, 108 women 
were referred to the shelter.  Police contacts confirmed to 
Poloff that their officers refer only those women who agree 
to testify in order to facilitate the prosecution of 
traffickers. 
 
¶15.  (SBU) Even women who make it to the shelter sometimes 
face obstacles from the police, Korzen charged.  Under the 
guise of "protecting the women," the police, she and other 
NGO representatives alleged, control many aspects of the 
trafficked victims' lives, which NGOs assert, should not be 
within police purview.  Korzen told Poloff, for example, that 
police decide which women can leave the shelter in order to 
go to work, and for how long they can leave.  Shelter 
director Davidovich acknowledged that the women often claim 
that they are restricted in their movements.  She clarified, 
however, that the police are not responsible for such 
restrictions, except in those cases where it would be 
dangerous for a woman to have unrestricted movement because 
her pimp or trafficker is searching for her.  The shelter 
itself, she explained, imposes schedule limitations and 
curfews on its residents to instill discipline in the women 
and discourage them from working as prostitutes at night. 
 
 
 
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