The Taskforce Against Human Trafficking today petitioned the High Court of Justice to order the Israel Police to open an investigation against the publishers of Hebrew dailies "Ma'ariv" and "Haaretz", Ofer Nimrodi and Amos Schocken, respectively, for publishing ads for sexual services in their national or local papers.
The Taskforce Against Human Trafficking is a joint venture set up by the NPO Justice Works and Kabiri Nevo Keidar Attorneys at Law.
The petitioners claim that while the State Prosecutor ordered the Police to investigate prostitution related crimes, the Police is not acting against the advertising of sex services in the newspapers. "The advertisements turn the newspapers into behind the scenes pimps and as someone who regularly creates contact between potential customers and victims of the sex industry and traffickers in women and their victims," states the petition.
The Taskforce Against Human Trafficking says that there are more than one million visits to prostitutes in Israel every month, and that many of these visits are the results of the advertising efforts by prostitution services appearing in "Ma'ariv" and its chain of local papers, and the local paper "Ha'Ir", owned by the Schocken Group.
The petitioners add, "For thousands of women, teenagers, and girls, this is the continuing reality of a life of violence, darkness, cruelty, and humiliation that includes rape, being held in degrading conditions under the rubric of "discrete apartments" and dark intersections. The newspapers, flagships of democracy, provide a living and distribution services for an industry that brutally tramples every principle of equality and dignity."
A clause in the Penal Law (5758-1998) stipulates that advertising sexual services is a crime. In 2004, a court convicted newspaper owners in plea bargain in which they paid a fine and promised to stop publishing the ads.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 20, 2010
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