VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTV #1578/01 2050407
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 230407Z JUL 08
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7627
INFO RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM PRIORITY 0136
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO PRIORITY 2486
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN PRIORITY 4486

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