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Israel: Granting the right to a call girl
By Nomi Levenkron
January 3, 2005
A young man of 19, Y., was injured in a car accident and filed a claim with his
insurance company. Thousands of these sorts of claims are submitted each year
and receive no publicity. However, Y.'s affair received wide publicity and
struck a chord in the media in particular, and Israeli society in general.
The special interest had to do with one of the sections of the subsequent court
verdict: Aside from various types of monetary compensation, the court also
ruled in favor of human compensation for Y. The Tel Aviv District Court ruled
that the claimant would be entitled to receive medication against impotence
once a week, and that "in addition, he will be entitled to visit a brothel once
a week."
Prior to stating the sum to be allocated to this compensation category, the
verdict offers a few relevant details: the fact that the plaintiff's girlfriend
left him after a lengthy relationship and that he was hospitalized in a
psychiatric ward due the development of a psychotic condition that he claimed
was brought on by the split; in the post-accident period he had a few partners,
but was able to have sex during this period "only with call girls." As such,
the court essentially puts its stamp of approval on the plaintiff's contention
that he has only one recourse - to pay for sex services.
This assertion leaves certain things concealed from the eyes of the court. One,
that women are not a form of "compensation" that may be handed down in a
verdict to a person, no matter what his condition; two, that brothels have been
prohibited by the lawmaker, and only the blatant incompetence of law
enforcement authorities caused this section to become a dead letter; and three,
that according to police testimony presented December 22 to a session of a
parliamentary committee of investigation chaired by MK Zahava Gal-On, 99
percent of all the women engaged in prostitution in Israel are victims of
trafficking.
In other words, there is a 99 percent chance that in the weekly visit to a
house of prostitution granted to him by the court, Y. will be having sexual
relations with a victim of human trafficking and contributing the insurance
company's money directly to organized crime, all with the blessing and assent
of the district court.
Israeli society, which has clear patriarchal characteristics, had over the
years provided men nearly unlimited access to women: rape victims were raped a
second time by the enforcement authorities; women who experienced sexual
harassment and complained were systematically persecuted by colleagues and
superiors; rape of women by their husbands was not considered a crime until the
late 1970s; and victims of trafficking were defined here as prostitutes who
came to Israel of their own volition, and not as women whose human rights were
violated in every possible way. Now the court comes and takes it a step further
- a more extreme step - by legitimizing this access.
Prostitution services are only one section of the court verdict, along with
future loss of livelihood, medications, sports activity required by the
plaintiff, telephone and housing expenses, etc. One section of the verdict
debates the plaintiff's claim that as a result of the accident he has begun to
"smoke like a chimney" and is seeking the insurance company's funding for his
increased smoking expenses. The court states that smoking is harmful to health,
and that as part of the psychiatric treatment to be given him, "it would be
appropriate for an effort to be made to cure the plaintiff of this habit."
From this passage we learn that the court is concerned with the plaintiff's
health and feels that smoking is unhealthful, but prostitution is healthful.
Nevertheless, the verdict devotes not one word to the health, dignity or
freedom of the victim of trafficking that will be compelled to serve as a
"consolation prize" for Y.'s condition of impotence.
The court awarded Y. a sum of NIS 150,000 for the "impotence treatment" section
of the claim. The victim of trafficking, purchased by a dealer in Israel's meat
market, is bought for between $4,000 and $6,000. A quick calculation
demonstrates that through the amount that Y. will be funneling to organized
crime, its minions will be able to buy between five and eight additional women.
One wonders about the court's moral authority to hear indictments filed against
traffickers in women at a time that deplorable court verdicts like this
essentially promote trafficking and ensure its prosperity.
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