In an article by Ravit Hecht entitled, When The Customer Is Always Wrong, Hecht talks about the hundreds
of thousands of young women forced into prostitution every year in Israel. Hecht
starts the article with a premiere screening in Israel of the film "TheWhistleblower" , about an American policewoman who served with the United
Nations peace force in Bosnia after the war in Yugoslavia. She exposed an
international network that smuggled teenage girls for sexual exploitation. They
would smuggle these young girls from "backwards countries" in Eastern
Europe to the demilitarized zones in Bosnia for UN soldiers. These young girls
were between the ages of 15-16. Hecht goes on to mention the audiences reaction
to the film. Many could not look at the screen, some walked out, others buried
their head in their hands. The fragments of testimonies from spoke of rape,
starvation, incarceration, and plunder.
Israel law forbids pimping, soliciting prostitution, and
maintaining a property that houses prostitution. In 2000 the law was amended to
include a ban on human trafficking, yet the law continues to focus on
entrepreneurs, agents, kidnappers, traders, and those who solicit. The
customers, who Hecht feels are the "whole reason this problem
exists", are rarely ever the ones jailed. Hecht goes on to mention a study
conducted by the Hotline for Migrant Workers and the Clinic for Combating
Trafficking in Women at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2005, called
"The Missing Factor." The Missing Factor describes how clients of
prostitutes in Israel are ignored by the authorities and "reflects a sort
of forgiveness extended to those whose money fuels the industry, and thus
perpetuates the victims' tragic fate."
Hecht also silences false myths of female students who pay
for their tuition the "easy way" and that anyone who reads
testimonies from women in the Israel sex industry will find that not one chose
it. Many girls in prostitution in Israel are coerced and tricked by the promise
of economic opportunity. Most are from poor countries, or poor areas in
countries, that lack social services or jobs.
Some are escaping from families of physical abuse or sexual abuse.
Hecht talks about Sweden becoming the first country to pass
a law incriminating clients in 1999. Since then, prostitution has declined 80%.
Israel tried to push a similar law but a preliminary survey showed that the
adult public preferred to continue with the existing situation. More than 80%
of the poll said that clients should not be tried, and prostitutes should not
be placed on trial.
In the Rosenthal book, an estimated 700 massage brothels are
in operation, with 250 in Tel Aviv alone. "The sex-for-trade is blatant
and lucrative" (Rosenthal pg. 371). There are ads for massage parlors,
escort services, etc, in prestigious Hebrew newspapers and billboards in
cemeteries and synagogues. According to police, about twenty-five thousand paid
sexual transactions take place daily. Prostitutes claim that a fifth or more of
their clientele are very religious Jews. For most haredim, prostitution is
impure. In 2000, a wave of arson with a number of brothels and sex shops being
burned down. Four prostitutes died from being trapped in their rooms.
Transmission of Aids and venereal disease has skyrocketed. The Ministry of
Health checks known prostitutes and some carry their latest results in their
purse for clients, but others who are mainly addicted to drugs do not get
tested (Rosenthal pg. 371). The chapter mentions a sixteen year old runaway who
escaped from a drug rehab center. She is now a prostitute and says "If
they don't want to wear condoms, I don't care. They're the ones who have to
explain things to their wives." There is a huge increase of Russian mafia
taking over the prostitution business and trafficking young women from other
countries by luring them with false ads of economic promise (Rosenthal pg.
372). Natalia was an unemployed single mother from Moldova, tricked by an ad
promising $1,000 a month as a masseur. She accepted a seven month job and was
sent to holiday in Egypt were she was raped and kidnapped by a Bedouin who made
$1,000 off of every woman he smuggled. She was sold to a man who brought her to
midtown Tel Aviv. She was immediately
put to work with two other Moldova women. After a raid on the brothel, she
testified as a witness against the pimps and then deported. Many women who
testify receive death threats and are even found and killed. That is why few
prostitutes file charges or testify against their pimps (Rosenthal pg. 376).
At the end of Hecht's article, she goes on to use the example
of the film "Pretty Woman" that starred Julia Roberts and Richard
Gere. The two end up falling in and the prostitute abandons the lifestyle for
some happy ending story, although the reality is more like "The
Whistleblower", which send viewers scurrying out of the movie theater. The
author is clearly giving her opinion at the very end. It is clear that she is
against prostitution, and even more so, faulting the client as a major
responsibility in why these young women are trafficked. She does a good job in
showing the attitudes about prostitution in the "Missing Factor"
survey, but has absolutely no link to see the information, only her own
overview. She humanizes the prostitutes by making it clear that they are
tricked, lied to, and kidnapped; not lazy students trying to find a quick way
to pay their tuition. She does a good job in using Sweden as an example of a
country successfully making a law that goes after the client, reduces
prostitution. What she lacked were more first-hand testimonies from
prostitutes. Their voices would have spoke volumes and been a first-hand source. The
article was clearly an opinionated one. Her side of what she believes may be
the problem with the rising increase and demand for prostitution. She does give
some concise examples but it is still too focused on opinion.
Rosenthal did a great job in having first-hand testimonies
from prostitutes. There are many different stories of how each girl ended up
where she was at. All of them different, painting a clearer picture to truth
than a piece that is one's own opinion. In one example a girl was a drug addict
who ran away from a rehab center. Another was a single mother tricked into
prostitution by being kidnapped. Rosenthal does a great job showing that
everyone is guilty, not only Russian mafia. From religious Jews to advertisers
and marketing ads, it seems that places like Tel Aviv have built a very popular
and lucrative business in prostitution. Rosenthal shows the facts.
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