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

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 TEL AVIV 000916 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR G/TIP: GAYATRI PATEL; NEA/IPA: JOSHUA DAVIS; 
NEA/RA: JOHN MENARD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KCRM PHUM KWMN SMIG KFRD ASEC PREF ELAB IS ISRAELI SOCIETY GOI INTERNAL
SUBJECT: ISRAEL: SIXTH ANNUAL TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT 
(4 OF 4) 
 
REF: A. SECSTATE 03836 
     ¶B. TEL AVIV 596 
 
(SBU) This cable forms the fourth part of a four-part message 
in response to reftel A.  Embassy point of contact is poloff 
James Miller, phone (972)3-519-7437, fax (972)3-519-7484. 
 
-- C.  Is there a screening and referral process in place, 
when appropriate, to transfer victims detained, arrested or 
placed in protective custody by law enforcement authorities 
to NGO's that provide short- or long-term care? 
 
-- Sex Trafficking: 
 
Detained foreign nationals suspected of violating immigration 
law undergo several screening and monitoring procedures. 
After arresting a foreign national, a police officer, 
accompanied by an official from the Interior Ministry, 
conducts a hearing, during which the officer and official 
determine whether to send the suspect to an immigrant 
detention center.  NGOs claim that, during the year, the 
officials did not usually provide interpreters at these 
hearings, which they frequently conducted in Hebrew. 
 
If the officer and official decide to send a suspect to the 
detention facility, a judge of the Tribunal for Detention 
Review then interviews the detainee at the detention facility 
to evaluate the merits of the case and to determine whether 
or not to deport him/her.  Both the GOI and NGOs reported 
that the government consistently provided foreign nationals 
an immigration hearing before a tribunal judge within four 
days of detention. 
 
At any point during this process, an official who identifies 
a trafficking victim can contact the police, who can 
investigate trafficking charges, obtain information from the 
victim, and/or send her to the shelter.  The GOI and NGOs 
noted that this procedure, during 2005, began to take hold 
and consistently functioned effectively.  NGOs observed, 
however, that the procedure relied heavily on a few effective 
policemen who responded rapidly and humanely to referrals of 
trafficked women.  Since the government has not created a 
clearly documented and official referral process, the 
procedure may suffer if key individuals leave their current 
positions. 
 
The IA claims that it referred minors staying illegally in 
Israel to NGOs or local social service agencies for 
assistance instead of detaining them.  Post interviewed 
several minors from western Africa whom officals at the 
Tzochar Detention Center, who reported that due to 
difficulties with their travel documents they had been 
detained for several months.  They explained that they 
traveled illegally to Israel in search of work. 
 
NGOs aver that officials at the detention centers often 
deport victims before referring them to police officers. 
NGOs also claim that while officials do conduct these 
hearings systematically, the interviewers do not receive 
adequate training on TIP and do not consistently refer 
victims with health problems to the appropriate 
professionals.  Also, according to NGOs, officials at the 
detention centers fail to follow-up individual cases 
consistently. 
 
The IA generally grants NGO representatives access to 
detention facilities, where they can assist victims. 
 
-- Labor trafficking: 
 
The procedures described above apply equally to victims 
trafficked for prostitution and for labor, as police officers 
send all foreign nationals to the same detention centers. 
 
The GOI says that an ITL Ministry inspector conducts an 
additional interview for laborers, to determine whether their 
employers owe them money and, if so, to facilitate its 
collection.  They have the right to, but, in practice, no 
guarantee of, legal representation.  Workers may contest 
deportation orders, but they often lacked the fluency in 
Hebrew, placing them at a considerable disadvantage. 
Deportation tribunal judges reported three times during the 
year that the lack of interpreting services hindered the 
judicial process.  On September 25, in response to an NGO 
petition to the Supreme Court, the government indicated that 
work continued on the draft of a tender for interpreting 
services.  According to NGOs, the government has spent three 
years drafting the tender, and at year,s end, had still not 
completed it. 
 
According to NGOs, the IA rarely released foreign detainees 
pending judicial determination of their status.  Moreover, if 
the detainee,s country of origin had no diplomatic or 
consular representation, detention could last months, 
particularly when the detainee needed new travel documents. 
During the year, according to NGOs, the police detained and 
deported legal foreign workers to meet so-called quotas to 
reduce the foreign worker population.  The Hotline claimed 
that IA police often detained properly documented asylum 
seekers, but did not specify how many times the police did so. 
 
-- D. Are the rights of victims respected, or are victims 
also treated as criminals?  Are victims detained, jailed, or 
deported?   If detained or jailed, for how long?  Are victims 
fined?  Are victims prosecuted for violations of other laws, 
such as those governing immigration or prostitution? 
 
NGOs report that police and immigration authorities often 
treated victims of trafficking as illegal foreign workers and 
quickly detained and deported them.  The GOI acknowledges 
that it failed to identify some victims before deporting 
them.  The government did not fine trafficking victims, 
according to both NGOs and the government.  Except in two 
instances, described below, police and prosecutors did not 
indict TIP victims for crimes integral to their trafficking. 
 
-- Sex trafficking:  During the year, prosecutors indicted 
for the crime of illegal entry two trafficking victims, after 
these victims returned several times to Israel.  In response 
to the indictments, the de facto coordinator requested that 
the government re-examine this policy.  The government 
decided that as a rule victims should not be indicted on 
crimes integral to their trafficking, even if they have 
returned to Israel several times.  In addition, the 
government decided that women meeting certain minimum 
criteria of trafficking victims should be considered victims 
even if they did not so admit. 
 
According to GOI and NGO sources, the government deported 
many sex trafficking victims soon after their discovery.  The 
government reports that it deported a total of at least 682 
women who met the minimum criteria of trafficked women, a 
total which, officials claim, amounts to fewer identified 
victims than it did in previous years. 
 
-- Labor trafficking: Government officials deported most 
labor trafficking victims for violations of immigration laws, 
but did not prosecute them.  The IA detained most workers for 
an average of two weeks before deporting them.  During the 
year, the government deported 7,235 workers.  In many cases, 
according to GOI and NGO contacts, the government subsidized 
the workers' airline tickets home.  NGOs noted that the 
government deported most victims of labor trafficking before 
identifying them as victims or allowing them to testify 
against their traffickers. 
 
-- E. Does the government encourage victims to assist in the 
investigation and prosecution of trafficking? 
 
-- Sex trafficking:  Police say that they always try to 
convince victims of sex trafficking to testify.  NGOs claim, 
however, that the police often fail to identify trafficking 
victims as such, deporting most before they have a chance to 
testify, thereby losing valuable evidence against 
traffickers.  The government estimates that at least 682 
women in detention centers during the year met the minimum 
criteria to be classified as cases of trafficking victims, 
even if they did not so admit. 
 
Police claim that because traffickers have begun to realize 
that the police encourage women to testify against them, and 
because women are increasingly inclined to do so, the 
traffickers refrain from extremely violent abuse of women 
that might cause the women to seek to escape from their 
captors and complain to the police. 
In a letter dated January 27, 2005, the state attorney 
instructed prosecutors to maintain close channels of 
communication with the residents and staff in the shelter, 
keeping them apprised, for example, of developments in the 
trials of their traffickers.  On August 30, the state 
attorney,s trafficking liaison officer visited the shelter 
to meet the victims and to improve communication between 
prosecutors and the shelter. 
 
-- Labor trafficking:  Police say that they also try to 
convince victims of labor trafficking to testify.  NGOs 
dispute this claim, and maintain that the general requirement 
to remain in the detention center during the course of the 
trial deters labor trafficking victims from testifying 
against their traffickers. 
 
-- May victims file civil suits or seek legal action against 
the traffickers?  Does anyone impede the victims' access to 
such legal redress? 
 
Trafficking victims have a legal right to initiate civil 
suits against their traffickers, including suits in labor 
courts for labor law violations and suits in civil courts for 
contract and tort violations. 
 
NGOs say that in practice victims face obstacles to legal 
action.  Many victims do not have access to legal 
representation and therefore do not know that they may file 
suit.  The necessity of remaining in Israel to conclude 
lawsuits deters many from filing an action in the first 
place. 
 
-- Sex trafficking:  Between the opening of the shelter in 
September 2004 and November 2005, Legal Aid lawyers assisted 
64 women in civil legal proceedings, 11 victims waived the 
assistance, and 27 cases are pending before the courts. 
Victims also have the right to initiate petitions to the 
Supreme Court against government agencies.  They have 
initiated several such petitions. 
 
The attorney general decided during the year to support an 
appeal against awarding an accident victim, suffering from 
sexual malfunction, compensation in the form of permission to 
visit a brothel (in the case of Perdo v. Migdal Insurance Co. 
et al. (Supreme Court)).  He cited in the decision his 
concern about the connection between trafficking and houses 
of prostitution.  (Note: The Attorney General, as a matter of 
policy, intervenes in private cases only when he believes 
they involve an issue of public importance.  End note.) 
 
-- Labor trafficking:  NGO representatives reported that they 
have provided legal representation to labor trafficking 
victims and other foreign workers who have suffered physical 
or economic abuse at the hands of employers.  They claim to 
have won cases for about 300 foreign workers a year in recent 
years, with judgments for all their clients combined totaling 
$500,000 to $1 million each year. 
 
-- Does anyone impede the victims' access to such legal 
Redress? 
 
No, although NGOS point out that the government deports many 
victims before the victims have the opportunity to seek legal 
redress. 
 
-- If a victim is a material witness in a court case against 
the former employer, is the victim permitted to obtain other 
employment or to leave the country? 
 
Please see answer, above, to question A in the section on 
protection and assistance to victims. 
-- Is there a victim restitution program? 
 
The government does not operate a victim restitution program, 
but victims may seek redress in the court system.  Section 77 
of the Penal Law includes among its sanctions compensation 
for the victim of a crime up to the sum of approximately 
$50,000 (228,000 NIS) for each crime. 
 
In letters to prosecutors dated January 27 and February 9, 
2005, the state attorney stressed the importance of 
requesting criminal compensation for victims of trafficking 
according to section 77 of the Penal Law.  During the year, 
criminal courts awarded financial compensation to victims in 
sex trafficking cases.  In one notable case, on February 23, 
2006, a court awarded a victim $66,000 (300,000 NIS).  In 
another case, the court ordered the two defendants to pay the 
sum of approximately $9,000 (40,000 NIS) to each of their 
trafficking victims.  On March 3, 2005, the Labor Court of 
Beer Sheva obligated a company to pay its Nigerian foreign 
worker full remuneration for overtime, annual leave and 
recuperation benefit totaling approximately $84,000 (354,185 
NIS).  The government provided summaries of 18 cases in which 
judges ordered traffickers to pay compensation to their 
victims.   In addition, foreign workers may file petitions 
directly to the Supreme Court.  In four major cases during 
2005, foreign workers filed suit against the Interior 
Ministry, IA, and the GOI.  The cases are still pending. 
 
NGOs claim that the state attorney does not make victim 
compensation a priority, and thus victims often receive 
either no compensation or very low sums (equal to the 
profits, NGO workers claim, earned through one week of 
exploiting the victim).  NGOs also note that it proved very 
difficult for victims awarded compensation actually to 
receive the money because their lack of suitable 
identification prevented them from opening Israeli bank 
accounts, into which the state has always deposited 
compensation payments. 
 
In response to NGO and victim complaints, the de facto 
coordinator worked with the director of the Courts 
Administration to allow payment of criminal compensation to 
trafficking victims by means of checks which are not &for 
deposit only.8  The resolution of this technical issue at 
the end of 2005 has greatly enhanced the ability of victims 
to receive both criminal and civil compensation, according to 
NGOs and the GOI. 
 
-- F. What kind of protection is the government able to 
provide for victims and witnesses?  Does it provide these 
protections in practice?  What type of shelter or services 
does the government provide? Does it provide shelter or any 
other benefits to victims for housing or other resources in 
order to aid the victims in rebuilding their lives? Where are 
child victims placed (e.g. in shelters, foster-care type 
systems or juvenile justice detention centers)? 
 
The police report that they provide physical and legal 
protection to approximately 100 witnesses in trafficking 
cases per year.  On July 25, 2002, the state attorney and the 
Commissioner of police appointed an inter-ministerial 
committee, headed by the former district attorney of 
Jerusalem, to develop a witness protection plan.  The 
inter-ministerial committee issued a recommendation in 
September 2004 that the government establish an authority to 
protect witnesses.  On January 1, 2006, the GOI created the 
Authority for the Protection of Witnesses in Israel, to 
protect witnesses in utmost peril and, at the same time, 
allocated the responsibility for protecting witnesses not in 
such peril to the INP.  The Authority will also be 
responsible for initiating legislation necessary to its 
functions and encourage international cooperation in this 
area. 
 
The IA usually places in the Tsohar Detention Center detained 
persons identified as minors.  Such detainees do not receive 
special attention from social workers or psychologists. 
Moreover, trafficking victims must prove to officials that 
they are minors; generally, NGOs facilitate this process by 
contacting the relevant embassies and consulates for 
confirmation of the detainees, age.  When this process 
fails, IA officials send the minors for a bone check, which 
they claim serves as a reliable tool for age confirmation. 
Since 2004, NGOs report, they have come across 77 minors in 
the immigrant detention centers. 
 
NGOs also report that the IA and the Interior Ministry deport 
minors back to their home countries without making 
arrangements for a reliable adult to meet them upon arrival. 
NGOs have petitioned the courts against what they claim is 
the mishandling and irresponsible deportation of minors.  The 
case is still in court. 
 
The GOI reports that it discovered during the year that 
Israeli companies regularly sought to earn illegal 
recruitment fees by defrauding Chinese foreign workers with 
promises of jobs in the nursing sector that proved 
non-existent.  Officials from the ITL Ministry, Interior 
Ministry, and the MFA say they discussed this issue together 
with the Chinese Embassy.  They reportedly reached a joint 
decision that, due to the possibility of trafficking, the GOI 
would no longer allow Chinese workers to be recruited for 
work in the nursing field. 
 
-- G. Does the government provide any specialized training 
for government officials in recognizing trafficking and in 
the provision of assistance to trafficked victims, including 
the special needs of trafficked children?  Does the 
government provide training on protections and assistance to 
its embassies and consulates in foreign countries that are 
destination or transit countries?  Does it urge those 
embassies and consulates to develop ongoing relationships 
with NGOs that serve trafficked victims? 
 
The government provides specialized training in recognizing 
trafficking victims to inspectors of the enforcement division 
of the ITL Ministry, police officers, and investigators in 
government departments that handle trafficking cases.  The 
government provides training on the provision of assistance 
to trafficking victims to officials who work in the Ministry 
of Social Welfare and the IA.  NGOs claim that the government 
offers inadequate training to IA officials who work at the 
detention centers. 
 
For more information on training provided to government 
officials, please see answers, above, to question B in the 
overview section, to question C in the prevention section, 
and to question H in the section on the prosecution and 
investigation of traffickers. 
 
No evidence exists of any child trafficking in Israel. 
Accordingly, the government does not provide specialized 
training to handle trafficked children. 
 
NGOs maintain that inspectors from the ITL Ministry continue 
to improve their ability to investigate allegations of 
trafficking and labor law violations, and that they receive 
adequate training.  NGO representatives charge, however, that 
the Ministry does not have enough inspectors, and that not 
all of them receive the requisite training. 
 
The GOI reports that the de facto coordinator briefed Israeli 
diplomats serving in countries of origin on the issue of 
trafficking in women as part of their pre-departure training. 
 According to the GOI, the ambassadors and consuls serving in 
Tashkent, Almaty and Minsk received this instruction in 2004. 
 During 2005, the coordinator briefed the Israeli ambassadors 
to Moscow and Kiev on the subject.  The MFA reports that it 
decided in 2005 to include the topic of trafficking in 
persons as an integral part of the training course provided 
to all diplomats posted abroad in relevant countries. 
 
MFA officials say that Israeli diplomats abroad raise the 
issue of trafficking in their meetings with relevant foreign 
governmental officials.  The officials report that Israeli 
diplomats aim to reach the highest level of their host 
governments.  They cite, as an example, the success of the 
Israeli Embassy in the Ukraine in persuading the wife of the 
President, Viktor Yuchenko, to become involved in the fight 
against trafficking in women. 
The GOI does not currently conduct training for diplomats on 
protection and assistance at its embassies and consulates in 
transit countries, such as Egypt.  The government did not 
develop relationships with trafficking NGOs in source 
countries, according to government and NGO contacts, although 
government officials met with NGO representatives from the 
Ukraine in a visit sponsored by an Israeli NGO.   MFA 
officials claim, however, to raise the subject of trafficking 
in women regularly with their Egyptian counterparts.  At the 
bi-annual military liaison meeting held in March 2005, in 
which officials from the Egyptian Foreign Ministry also 
participated, the MFA provided their Egyptian guests lectures 
from the INP on the subject of trafficking, and took them on 
a tour of the shelter. 
 
NGOs maintain that the GOI does not coordinate effectively 
with foreign NGOs and governments to reintegrate trafficking 
victims into their home countries.  NGOs say that some 
victims of sex trafficking often return home without money or 
social support to face violence and intimidation, and that 
sometimes traffickers send them back to Israel.  Some victims 
of labor trafficking also return without money or social 
support to face violence from debtors, according to NGOs. 
 
-- H. Does the government provide assistance, such as medical 
aid, shelter, or financial help, to its repatriated nationals 
who are victims of trafficking? 
 
Israel is a destination country, not a source country.  The 
Ministry of Foreign Affairs continued an informational 
campaign in most source countries to distribute brochures to 
potential victims of trafficking.  Israeli Embassy and 
Consulate staffs distributed these informational brochures to 
visa applicants whom they suspected might become trafficking 
victims. 
 
-- I. Which international organizations or NGOs, if any, work 
with trafficking victims?  What type services do they 
provide?  What sort of cooperation do they receive from local 
authorities? 
 
The Hotline for Migrant Workers, based in Tel Aviv, provides 
assistance to victims of both sex and labor trafficking 
through legal representation and counseling; coordination of 
their return home; medical services, books and clothing; and 
liaising with the INP and MOJ.  Kav LaOved, also based in Tel 
Aviv, provides legal assistance, translation and interpreting 
services, and advocacy for victims of labor trafficking. 
Isha LaIsha (Woman to Woman) plays an important role in the 
north of Israel, where it assists sex trafficking victims 
through individual case management, visiting detention 
centers, liaising with the government and police, and 
monitoring developments in the field.  Local authorities 
generally cooperated with all of these organizations, 
although NGOs complained that, in some instances, officials 
responded slowly or denied the magnitude of the problem. 
 
The International Organization for Migration has worked with 
the GOI to design a new recruitment program to fight labor 
trafficking.  Amnesty International has taught hundreds of 
high school students about human rights and has begun to 
develop a program to teach about trafficking in persons, 
pending applications for financial support. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
¶7.  (U) NOMINATION OF HEROES AND BEST PRACTICES 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
HEROES.  For the past two TIP Reports, the TIP Report's 
introduction has included a section honoring Anti-Trafficking 
"Heroes" who came to G/TIP's notice during the preceding year 
as individuals or representatives of organizations that 
demonstrate an exceptional commitment to fighting TIP. 
Department would encourage post to nominate such individuals 
for inclusion in a similar section of the 2006 Report. 
Please submit, under a subheading of "TIP Hero(es)," a brief 
description of the individual or organization's work, and 
note that the appropriate individual(s) have been vetted 
through databases available to post (e.g. CLASS and any law 
enforcement systems) to ensure they have no visa 
ineligibilities or other derogatory information. 
 
Rochelle Gershuni has proven that committed individuals can 
lead the fight against trafficking from within the government. 
 
Since 2002, Mrs. Gershuni has tirelessly, resourcefully -- 
and diplomatically -- led the Israeli effort to fight 
trafficking in persons.  She first learned about the issue by 
helping an individual victim to navigate the government 
bureaucracy of which Mrs. Gershuni herself is a part, as a 
lawyer in the MOJ.  While still handling the cases of many 
individual victims, she soon developed into the unofficial, 
or de facto, anti-trafficking coordinator for the entire 
government of Israel. 
 
Mrs. Gershuni helped convince Israeli officials in at least 
ten government departments to perceive trafficked women as 
victims instead of criminals, while simultaneously 
negotiating with these same officials vital changes in 
anti-trafficking policy.  She drafted and amended legislation 
in cooperation with leaders in the parliament.  She developed 
trusting relationships with Israel,s anti-trafficking NGOs, 
filtering their on-the-ground knowledge into sound government 
policy. 
 
In 2005, Mrs. Gershuni persuaded the police intelligence unit 
and the deputy attorney general to conduct risk assessments 
for trafficking victims; the deputy state attorney to change 
the policy on indicting trafficking victims; the Courts 
Administration to enable payment of court-awarded 
compensation to trafficking victims; the Ministry of Justice 
to provide translators in the immigrant detention tribunals; 
and the Ministry of Public welfare, the Immigration 
Administration and the Prisons Service to provide social 
workers in the detention facilities.  This list of 
accomplishments represents only a fraction of the 
coordinator's achievements during the year. 
 
Mrs. Gershuni played a constructive, behind-the-scenes role 
in almost every single anti-trafficking policy of the 
government of Israel during the past three years )- during 
which period Israel moved from Tier 3 to Tier 2. 
 
She changed countless attitudes, shaped countless polices, 
and, most importantly, saved countless lives -- all without 
an official appointment, without an assistant, and while 
holding a full-time job unrelated to her work as the de facto 
anti-trafficking coordinator. 
 
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JONES