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If you want to talk to
Nomi Levenkron, be prepared to endanger her life.
More than likely she’ll be on the road when you
call, pressing her cell phone to her ear as she
speeds towards a women’s lock-up in Haifa, or to a
Knesset hearing in Jerusalem, or to the trial of a
sex trafficker in Eilat. She’ll tell you she’s happy
to talk but is in a rush. Could you call again in a
few hours?
As legal director for the Migrant Worker’s
Hotline—an organization that battles the scourge of
trafficking in women for prostitution—Nomi’s workday
often starts at 5 A.M. She carries two cell phones
on her at all times. And she talks fast. Her fluent
English outpaces most native speakers. When she
switches to Hebrew, she seems to forgo drawing
breath.
Nomi’s days are spent crisscrossing the country,
encouraging victims to take the stand against their
traffickers, lobbying the authorities to take more
action, and suing dangerous men for compensation on
behalf of the women they brutalized. Once, after she
filed suit in the case of a young Moldovan who had
passed through the hands of six violent traffickers,
friends came to Nomi’s home to say goodbye, assuming
it was the last time they would see her.
During her first six months on the job, Nomi worked
full time without salary. She admits it’s an
addiction. "You don’t really choose this kind of
work," she says. "It’s like heroin." Perhaps only an
addict could spend 18 hours a day pursuing brutal
criminals through the courts, have government
officials call her a traitor for exposing Israel’s
dark side, and still not be discouraged when
thousands more women are sold into sex slavery in
her country every year. When she finally pulls up to
the Hotline’s offices in Downtown Tel Aviv, it’s
already ten at night. Nomi releases her seatbelt
buckle and the belt slides up across her bulging
belly. She is five months pregnant.
Tel Aviv’s red light district is only a short walk
from Nomi’s office on Rehov Ha Hashmal. Most of the
brothel-lined streets are filthy, the buildings
run-down. Trails of red arrows painted on the walls
lead customers to "health clubs" and "massage
parlors," all marked out by twinkling strips of
colored lights that flash their patterns like
cuttlefish enticing their prey.
The billboard for "5 Star Peep Show" on Rehov Neve
Sha’anan features the silhouette of a naked woman
balanced precariously on the end of a dollar sign.
She sits astride the bottom curve of the "S,"
straddling its final phallus-shaped curl. The
silhouettes are everywhere. On Rehov Fin—better
known as "Rehov Pin" or "Penis" —a reclining nude
beckons clients into "Club Viagra." On Rehov Yesod
Ha Ma’ale the floating nude in one "Health Club"
window tilts her head back as though in the throes
of ecstasy, her feet pointed in the direction of a
neighboring falafel stand.
The real women don’t seem quite so eager. Through
open doorways one can spot them glumly applying
make-up or styling their hair. Sometimes they can be
seen in brothel windows, chatting to each other and
looking out onto the street as they smoke a
cigarette. Most of the windows have bars on them.
"In the majority of the brothels in Tel Aviv," says
Meir Cohen, Head of Investigations for the Israeli
National Police, "there is no question that most of
the women there are trafficked."
The vast majority of women trafficked to Israel come
from Romania and the countries of the former Soviet
Union. Seduced by agents of organized crime, they
agree to be smuggled into Israel, hoping to make
good money. The women are usually young girls, like
"Anna" (her real name has been suppressed) a
23-year-old Romanian who testified about her
experience to an Israeli court in 2002.
Anna says that in 2001 she was approached in her
hometown by an Israeli girl named Shula, who
promised to get her work caring for the elderly in
Tel Aviv. Shula booked Anna on a plane leaving from
Bucharest, but Anna had no idea where it would land.
When it touched down in Cairo, she thought she was
in Israel. Collected by a liaison, she and a group
of other women were driven across the desert in an
open car, escorted by masked Bedouin armed with
automatic weapons. At two in the morning, they left
the cars and walked for several hours, then crawled
on their stomachs under a chain-link fence.
Often, it is the Bedouin who are the first to tell
victims of trafficking they will be working as
prostitutes, as justification for sexually
assaulting them. "As early as Egypt I found out that
I was going to engage in prostitution in Eilat," one
woman told the Hotline. "I tried to run away but a
Bedouin got hold of me and beat me. In the evening,
four Bedouin raped me, one after the other….I was
bleeding and I couldn’t walk, it hurt me so much
between my legs….I wanted to die."
Since Anna was "lucky" enough not to be raped in
transit, she still had no idea what awaited her.
After crossing the border she was picked up by a man
identified in court records as George Ben-Abraham
Yosef, who drove her to Tel Aviv. There, Yosef took
Anna to a hotel, and ordered her to strip in front
of a roomful of men.
The ordeal is known as an "auction." Like traders in
a cattle market, the traffickers inspect the "goods"
and bid for the women they want to buy. "[The woman]
is made to stand naked in the middle of a room," a
female trafficker told Maariv. "[The traffickers]
touch her breast, her ass….They check her tongue,
her teeth, to see if she’s healthy. They touch her
private parts….They tell her, ‘walk forward,
backwards, strike poses like a model, wiggle it
honey, bend over. Lower. Let’s see what you’re
worth.’" Traffickers are not necessarily picky about
the venue of an auction. In one case a woman was
stripped, inspected, and sold for $6,000 in the
men’s room of a McDonald’s.
When the Hotline first contacted Nomi five years ago
to ask for her help, trafficking in women was not
even a crime under Israeli law. Nomi, then in law
school, wasn’t interested. She had studied
criminology and was more intrigued by criminals than
victims. But she had one skill that was crucial to
the Hotline—she spoke Romanian.
"Although I had a very hard childhood [in Romania],
I’m very grateful for it now," says Nomi. Without
Romanian, she would never have gotten involved. The
Hotline convinced her to volunteer for just a few
hours, speaking to detained women in prison. What
Nomi heard from them—the brutality they suffered
from both criminals and police—shocked her into a
new consciousness: "I started to say to myself,
‘something is really wrong with this country on this
issue.’" Two hours of volunteering a week became two
hours a day, then 18 hours a day, until finally Nomi
was getting only four hours of sleep. When she
slept, she dreamt about work.
The plight of the Moldovan sold to six different
traffickers proved a watershed for Nomi. The woman
wanted to testify but the police wouldn’t listen. At
the time, women who had been trafficked weren’t
considered victims. "A prostitute was considered as
a partner in crime," says Meir Cohen, the police
investigator. Instead of testifying, victims were
simply arrested and deported. Police were instructed
not to intervene in brothels. The authorities
preferred to use pimps as intelligence sources for
other underworld investigations.
The police in Beersheba told Nomi that her client
was lying, that it wasn’t important. So she sued the
traffickers in civil court. She sued the police for
not investigating. She even sued the ministry of
interior for not issuing the woman a visa. Suddenly,
the police began to pay attention. More than 50 men
were arrested almost immediately. "It was funny,"
says Nomi. "There were almost no men left in
Beersheba."
In May of 2000, Amnesty International had published
an embarrassing report that condemned Israel for its
cavalier attitude towards sex slavery. The resulting
public clamor forced the Knesset to make trafficking
in women an explicit crime with a maximum penalty of
16 years in prison. Enforcing the new law was
another matter.
"No one wanted to deal with the problem," says
Member of Knesset Marina Solodkin, who sits on the
Parliamentary Inquiry Committee on Female
Trafficking. "It was easier to just pretend that
these women were new immigrants from the FSU and
were not being trafficked into Israel." But efforts
by Nomi and other activists to publicize the issue
finally paid off when, in 2001, the U.S. State
Department placed Israel on a "blacklist," among
countries that were failing to combat trafficking in
women.
The State Department’s report was not simply a stain
on Israel’s reputation. United States law forbids
the government from providing non-humanitarian aid
to countries put on the blacklist. Washington had
jerked back the economic reins. The Israeli
government was forced to do a complete about-face. A
national police unit was established to investigate
the sex trade. And officials insist their entire
approach has changed. "Today, one of the central
elements of the war against organized crime is
trafficking in women," says Cohen.
The challenge is daunting. Demand for prostitution
in Israel is enormous, with an estimated one million
visits to brothels every month. Human rights
organizations estimate that 3,000 women are brought
into the country as sex slaves every year. The women
come primarily from Russia, Moldova, and the
Ukraine, where the collapse of social safety nets in
post-communist economies has created a ready supply
of destitute women.
In a Hotline survey of trafficked women conducted at
Neve Tirza women’s prison, one third said that they,
like Anna, had no idea they would be engaging in
prostitution when they came to Israel. Others knew
they would be prostitutes, but were promised good
conditions by the traffickers. They were told they
would have to take only a limited number of
customers each day and that they would earn a
thousand dollars a month (a massive sum in most
Eastern European countries). Eventually, the
traffickers said, they would be able to leave the
brothels.
In the parlor, laughter is forbidden. Girls must
always smile and sit straight. "I would sit there
wearing thin pantyhose and freezing in the air
conditioning," "Natasha," a Russian victim of
trafficking told the Hotline. "Laughing was not
allowed because the client might think he was being
made fun of and leave."
When Anna was first taken to a brothel, she didn’t
know what it was. Yosef had put her in the hands of
a man identified in court records as Yuri
Ben-Michael Gur. "Yuri told me that he had bought me
for a lot of money and I had to do what he said—to
do prostitution," Anna testified. "That’s how I
realized that I had been sold like an animal."
Anna was given tight, see-through clothes and told
to put them on. Then she was ordered into a room
with a man identified in court records as Menasha
Ben-Avraham Faraj. Another girl had already told
Anna that this was the man who visited the brothel
whenever a new girl arrived. As the other men stood
outside and laughed, Faraj raped and sodomized her.
The "right" to have sex, including by force and
without a condom, with an acquired woman, is taken
for granted by most traffickers.
After her horrific initiation, Anna was forced to
take clients whenever they selected her. Customers
paid 150 shekels, which Anna had to give to Gur’s
underlings. For each client they would give her back
only 20 shekels, with which she had to pay for food
and contraceptives. In the end she was always left
with nothing.
According to other women interviewed by the Hotline,
brothel owners made them work seven days a week and
an average of 13 hours a day. They had to work
during their periods, using diaphragms to prevent
blood from leaking. "The meetings with the clients
were short—just 15 minutes," according to Natasha.
After the client finished, she would rush to the
tepid showers, then back down to the freezing lobby.
The customers who frequent these brothels are
regular Israelis. Soldiers in uniform get discounts.
Orthodox Jews stuff their skullcaps into their
pockets when they enter, then replace them when they
leave. If a customer is dissatisfied, the girl is
beaten. But as one 18-year-old victim told Hotline
volunteers, "they beat you so as not to leave any
marks, because clients don’t like to see a woman
with bruises." If a woman gets ill or pregnant, she
is taken to a veterinarian or a back-alley
abortionist.
About half the women interviewed by Hotline
volunteers said they had been incarcerated in locked
brothels. "Try and escape," one of Gur’s employees
told Anna, "and I’ll crush your head in the door."
In one notorious case, two women were tied up in a
cage on Tel Aviv’s Rehov Pin and forced to provide
sexual services. But even if the doors aren’t
locked, the women are always prisoners. Their
traffickers confiscate their passports and threaten
their loved ones. "The Russian mob knows exactly how
to get to their families," says Nomi. "It is enough
for them to say to the prostitutes, ‘if you don’t
want to see your grandmother’s house burned down or
your 12-year old sister taken as a prostitute, you
better do what we tell you.’"
At a conference on prostitution in August 2002,
Police Major General Moshe Mizrahi stepped to the
podium and stated the obvious: "Trafficking in women
here is run by organized crime." Though his
announcement was no revelation, Mizrahi’s
willingness to make it was unusual. For years,
Israeli officials have consistently denied or
downplayed the existence of organized crime groups
within Israel’s borders. But faced with a
multi-billion-dollar sex-slaving trade and its
serious political implications, the elephant in the
room has become too dangerous to ignore.
According to a report by Nomi and her staff,
trafficking in Israel is made possible by "an
international network of criminal organizations,
most of whose members are from the countries of the
former Soviet Union." Almost 80 percent of the women
Nomi interviewed said their traffickers were
Israelis whose origins are in Russia or other FSU
countries. Their language skills and local
connections give such traffickers a professional
advantage.
"The Russians do quality work in crime….That’s
Russian education for you," says Police
Superintendent and Spokesperson Gil Kleiman. Kleiman
believes the trafficking networks are so successful
because they are made up of individuals who grew up
and served in prison together. Their connections and
experience allow them to coordinate the complex
arrangement of recruiters, bribes, intermediaries,
and buyers that an international smuggling operation
requires. "It’s always a ‘Sasha,’" says Nomi. "One
‘Sasha’ recruits them in Moldova, another ‘Sasha’ is
waiting for them in Egypt, another meets them when
they arrive in Israel….it’s organized perfectly."
Once the women get to the brothels, traffickers use
intimidation and violence to keep them enslaved, and
to ensure that those who escape do not testify. One
former prostitute recounted how her trafficker drove
her to a beach and threatened to drown her if she
caused any trouble. When Anna refused to work and
stayed in her room to pray, her pimp beat her with
her own bible, screaming "this is not a church."
Traffickers prefer not to murder their prostitutes,
since killing them would mean a loss of
"merchandise." But sometimes examples are made of
woman who break "house rules." In June 2002, police
found the body of a woman dressed in revealing
clothes, who had been strangled and dumped in the
street of Eilat’s red light district. In October of
that year, 42-year-old prostitute Svetlana Lukatzky
was bound, beaten, and stabbed to death.
Trafficked woman also find themselves the victims of
turf battles between organized crime groups. To
assert dominance, traffickers will abduct women from
their competitors, as in the case of one call girl
who was ordered to a customer’s hotel room only to
be thrown in the trunk of a car and driven to her
new owner. In other cases, brothels have been
firebombed as part of gangland feuds, leaving women
burned and maimed.
Fear and corruption outside the brothel combine to
keep victims of trafficking enslaved. "People are
scared," says Nomi. "When we try to convince them to
go to the police to complain about the brothels
operating in their neighborhood, they say, ‘What are
you joking? The traffickers will kill me.’ There is
a lot of fear in Israel of the Russian mob."
If citizens do screw up the courage to complain to
the police, they are quite likely to be met with
indifference. "In Tel Aviv [the police] understand
what is going on," says Nomi. But in most places
"it’s a different story. They couldn’t care less and
they don’t see [trafficking] as a serious
crime….they think these women really enjoy what
they’re doing."
Nomi acknowledges that the police today do listen
much more. "In the beginning we had to sue for every
victim. It was hard. But after two or three cases,
they learned—don’t mess with them." Nomi says
enforcement has been improving since the state
department’s report. But she blames the police for
creating the crisis by ignoring trafficking in the
nineties. For her, the new efforts are far too
little and much too late.
Even in Tel Aviv, Meir Cohen admits, most brothels
operate freely. He says the law does not allow
police to shut them down without proof that the
women have been trafficked and kept there against
their will. Since most women are too terrified to
complain, the system favors the traffickers.
But fear of reprisals is not the only reason
prostitutes do not go to the police. According to a
Hotline survey, 40 percent of the ex-prostitutes
interviewed said policemen were clients at their
brothels. And some reported seeing money change
hands between pimps and police officers. In one
case, a woman said the police tipped her pimp off
about an impending raid. And in another a woman
claimed the police dragged an escaped prostitute
back to their brothel.
Police officials angrily dismiss such claims. "These
allegations are bullshit!" fumes Police
Superintendent Gil Kleiman. But they are not without
proven precedent. In one noted case, a police
officer named Oskar Siss was not only a customer but
cooperated with traffickers to buy and sell women
and coerce them into prostitution. "Without a doubt,
there exists collaboration between the police and
the pimps," says MK Solodkin.
Though seeking the help of the police might seem
risky to many women trapped in prostitution, their
only other hope for freedom— buying it back—is a
chimera. When a woman is trafficked to Israel, she
is charged both for the cost of being smuggled and,
paradoxically, for the price of being acquired. But
while the traffickers make back the purchase price
on a woman they buy in a matter of weeks through the
money clients pay for her services, the woman
herself is paid almost nothing. And her debt is
compounded both by exponential rates of interest and
numerous fines for invented "infractions," from
refusing a client to chewing gum.
The debt, of course, is never meant to end. Being
sold to another trafficker generates a new debt, and
if a woman ever comes close to repaying it she is
sold once again. "They are traded and sold from one
trafficker to another like a piece of merchandise,"
says Cohen. And so the victim remains in bondage.
Anna was lucky. Shortly after Yosef picked her up,
when she still thought she was being taken to her
job as an elder-care worker, they stopped at Lod
airport on the way to Tel Aviv. Yosef briefly left
her alone in the car to run an errand. As she sat in
the passenger seat smoking a cigarette, a security
guard approached her and asked her to move the car.
"She spoke no Hebrew at all," says Nomi. "So she
said to him in Romanian, ‘Leave me alone.’ And he
replied in Romanian so they started talking. He made
her take his cell phone number because he thought
something was wrong. She said that everything was
okay."
After three weeks in the brothel, Anna happened to
get a Romanian client. She asked him where exactly
she was, then sneaked a call to the security guard
on one of the employees’ unattended cell phones. The
security guard received the message and went to see
her, posing as a customer. He then went straight to
Tel Aviv’s main police station and insisted on
seeing the head of the vice unit. Within 48 hours,
the police stormed the brothel and arrested Yosef
and Gur.
Most victims of trafficking don’t get the chance to
orchestrate a police raid from within a brothel. A
few pluck up the courage to flee (Nomi notes that
most of those who do come to the Hotline, not the
police). Others are arrested in chance raids. Either
way, the women are detained as illegal immigrants
and scheduled for deportation.
Nomi is a regular at the detention centers,
informing the women of their rights and urging them
to testify against the men who trafficked them.
Convincing a former prostitute to take the stand
after all she’s experienced is a tough sell. But
"big court cases" aren’t always so crucial. "If you
told her a joke and made her smile, that’s enough
for me," says Nomi. "Just make those women laugh.
It’s just as important."
Those who do decide to testify are put up by the
police in unguarded hostels. Galit Saporta, who
works with the Hotline, regularly takes a team of
volunteers to one such hostel in Tel Aviv (to ensure
the women’s safety, Nomi and Galit insisted its
location not be published). "There are approximately
40 women staying in the hotel waiting to testify,"
says Galit, who despite being eight months pregnant
still visits the hostel each week. She makes sure
the women are aware of their rights and are
receiving the medical care and 150 shekels a week in
pocket money (spent entirely on cigarettes) they are
entitled to.
Galit’s visits have another, unspoken purpose. Women
in line to testify against traffickers have a habit
of "disappearing" from the hostels. If Galit can
account for all the girls she knows are among the
hostel’s guests, she can ensure they’re safe. Still,
women can wait up to a year to testify, giving the
traffickers plenty of time to find out where they’re
staying. One day in the hostel, Anna’s roommate
handed her a cell phone. On the other end was a man
who spoke Romanian. He said Gur and Yosef had paid
him to hurt her family. If she didn’t withdraw the
complaint, he’d set her parents on fire.
In April 2002, Anna took the stand and testified
against Gur, Yosef, and Faraj. Gur and Yosef were
both found guilty of trafficking in women and were
each sentenced to eight years in prison. Faraj
received a two-and-a-half year term for rape. The
convictions are one more sign that Nomi’s hard work
is paying off. Since the beginning of 2002, Tel Aviv
police have busted five major prostitution networks,
culminating in the arrest and conviction of Mark
Gaman, who police believe is the country’s leading
sex racketeer. Gaman- the owner of several massage
parlors and gambling clubs – survived a car bombing
in 1996 that left numerous shrapnel scars on his
body. Those distinctive mob markings allowed many of
his victims to identify him to the police. Gaman was
convicted and sentenced to ten years hard labor.
Whenever they lecture, the prosecutors say ‘look at
Mark Gaman,’" says Nomi. She is standing by the
bulletin board in her little office on the Hotline’s
floor, staring at a picture of the victim with whom
she grew closest. She was forty years old with a
child waiting back home and the main witness against
Gaman. Six months after the trial she committed
suicide. "Very few people know about it," says Nomi.
Other stories have happier endings. Nomi often gets
invited to weddings of former sex workers who
married Israelis. She points to a picture of another
woman on the bulletin board. "The one in white is
already a mother," says Nomi. "She was told by a
gynecologist that she would never be able to have a
child. But now she has a son."
Further along is a small wedding photo, a happy
couple. The woman is Anna, smiling in her wedding
gown. After testifying, she and the security guard
who rescued her fell in love. "It was worth
everything just to meet him," she told Nomi. "Divine
intervention, of course," Nomi comments dryly. Nomi
and her boyfriend recently got married themselves.
But when people say "Mazel Tov" on hearing the news,
she waves off their congratulations. "Ach," says
Nomi. "We only did it so that my parents wouldn’t
say they had a prostitute in the family."
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خانم نوی لونکسرن، به
عنوان مدیر حقوقی سازمان مایگرنت که در راستای مبارزه
با تجارت زنان به فعالیت مشغول است، روز کاری خود را
معمولاً از ساعت پنج صبح آغاز میکند. همواره دو گوشی
موبایل همراه خود دارد و به سرعت صحبت میکند. لهجه
فصیح انگلیسیاش، حتی از بسیاری از انگلیسی زبانان هم
بهتر است و هنگامی هم که به زبان عبری صحبت میکند، به
قدری تند صحبت میکند که گویا، فراموش کرده که باید
نفس بکشد.
تمام روز را در این طرف و آن طرف کشورش میگذراند. از
سویی قربانیان تجارت زنان را تشویق میکند تا علیه
قاچاقچیان خود اقامه دعوا کنند و از سویی دیگر به
مقامات فشار میآورد تا دست به اقدامات عملی در این
زمینه بزنند. جدای از این فعالیتها، از جانب زنان
بسیاری که قربانی وحشیگری و خشونت مردان شدهاند، در
دادگاه حاضر میشود. یک بار پس از آنکه شکایت زنی
مولداویایی را که از چنگال شش قاچاقچی گریخته بود
عهدهدار شد، دوستانش به منزل او آمدند تا با وی برای
همیشه خداحافظی کنند، چرا که تصور میکردند این آخرین
باری است که او را میبینند.
در شش ماه آغاز فعالیتاش هیچ دستمزدی دریافت نکرد و
کارش را نوعی اعتیاد میدانست. وی در این باره
میگوید: «واقعاً آدمی خود نمیتواند شغل خود را
انتخاب کند و کار من هم مانند هروئینی است که آدمی به
آن معتاد میگردد.» شاید تنها یک فرد معتاد به کار خود
است که بتواند هیجده ساعت در روز پیگیر بررسی جرمهای
وحشیانه در دادگاهها شود و تا حدی فعالیت نماید که
مقامات اسرائیلی، وی را به خاطر افشای جنبههای شوم
جامعه اسرائیل، یک خائن بخوانند. به رغم آنکه وی
سالانه شاهد قاچاق هزاران زن به جامعه خود میباشد،
اما هنوز مأیوس نشده و به تلاشهای خود ادامه میدهد.
امروزه چهره فاحشه خانههای اسرائیل، شکل خاصی به
خیابانهای شهرهای این کشور و به ویژه تلآویو داده
است. عمده خیابانهایی که این فاحشهخانهها در آن
قرار دارد، خیابانهایی کثیف و ساختمانهای آن مخروبه
و قدیمی است. فلشهای قرمز رنگ بر روی دیوارهای این
مناطق، مشتریان را به این مکانها كه با نام «باشگاه
سلامت» یا «سالن ماساژ» خوانده میشوند، هدایت میکند.
تصاویر زنان برهنه در کنار علامت دلار در جای جای این
خیابانها به چشم میخورد، اما در داخل این
فاحشهخانهها، زنان فاحشه چندان هم مایل و راغب به
نظر نمیرسند. از کنار درهای باز فاحشهخانهها که
میگذریم، میتوانیم اکراه را در نحوه آرایش صورت و
موهایشان ببینیم. از کنار پنجرهها که میگذریم، شاهد
صحبت کردن آنها و سیگار کشیدنشان با یکدیگر در داخل
فاحشهخانههاییم.
میرکوهن، رییس بخش تحقیقات پلیس ملی اسرائیل، در این
باره میگوید: «در عمدهی فاحشهخانههای تلآویو هیچ
بررسیای از زنان حاضر در آنجا که عمدهشان به این
کشور قاچاق شدهاند، صورت نمیگیرد.»
عمده زنانی که به اسرائیل قاچاق میشوند، از رومانی و
یا کشورهای تازه استقلال یافته به این کشور آمدهاند.
این زنان که توسط عاملین جرمهای سازمان یافته، اغوا
میشوند، عمدتاً با امید رسیدن به پولهای هنگفت قاچاق
میشوند. عمدهی این افراد را دختران جوانی همچون آنا
23 ساله یعنی دختر رومانیایی که در سال 2002 پایش به
یکی از دادگاههای اسرائیل باز شد، تشکیل میدهد.
آنا در اینباره در دادگاه گفت: در سال 2001، در
زادگاهش با دختری اسرائیلی به نام شولا آشنا شد. شولا
به وی قول داد که در تلآویو میتواند با نگهداری از
افراد مسن و از کار افتاده، پول خوبی به دست آورد.
شولا وی را با هواپیمایی از بخارست از کشور خارج نمود
و این در حالی بود که آنا واقعاً نمیدانست که در کجا
فرود خواهد آمد. زمانی که هواپیما در قاهره به زمین
نشست، آنا تصور میکرد که در اسرائیل است. پس از آن
بود که به همراه گروهی از دیگر دختران، با ماشینی
روباز خود را در بیابانهای مصر یافت و این در حالی
بود که افرادی با چهرهای پوشیده و مسلح به سلاحهای
خودکار، آنها را همراهی میکردند. ساعت دو نیمه شب
بود که آنها ماشین را ترک کرده و پس از چند ساعت
پیادهروی، سینهخیز از حصارهای سیمخاردار، عبور
کردند.
معمولاً همین افراد هستند که برای نخستینبار به آنها
میگویند که قربانی قاچاق انسانی شدهاند و باید از
این به بعد به عنوان فاحشه به کار بپردازند. یکی دیگر
از این قربانیان گفت: «در ابتدای ورودم به مصر تصور
کردم که باید در همین کشور به فاحشگی بپردازم و از
همین رو تلاش کردم تا از آن معرکه بگریزم، اما توسط
یکی از همان افراد دستگیر شدم و در غروب آن روز بود که
چهار نفر یکی پس از دیگری به نحوی وحشیانه به من تجاوز
کردند و در این رفتار وحشیانه بود که به قدری خونریزی
نمودم که دیگر قادر به راه رفتن نبودم و خود را در
آستانه مرگ دیدم.»
اگر چه آنا این شانس را داشت که در حین انتقال به
تلآویو، مورد تجاوز جنسی قرار نگیرد اما آن زمان
نمیدانست که چه در انتظارش است. پس از عبور از مرز
بود که توسط مردی به نام جرجبن آبراهام یوسف به
تلآویو برده شد. در هتلی در تلآویو بود که یوسف به
او دستور داد تا در یک اتاق پر از مرد، لخت مادرزاد
شود.
این عذاب چیزی جز یک «حراج» خوانده نمیشود، همانند
خریداران بازار احشام. این قاچاقچیان مشتری خود را
ورانداز نموده و قیمتی برایش پیشنهاد میکنند. ماریو
که از جمله قاچاقچیان زن این عرصه است، میگوید: «زنان
باید لخت لخت وسط اتاق بایستند. قاچاقچیان هم با لمس
سینهها، باسن و نگاه به زبان، دندان و دیگر نقاط بدن،
وضعیت سلامت آنها را بررسی میکنند. علاوه بر بررسی
اندام جنسی، از آنها میخواهند تا جلو و عقب بروند،
خم شوند و در حالات مختلف قرار گیرند. البته قاچاقچیان
هم نسبت به ارزش مورد معامله خیلی سختگیر نیستند. حتی
در یک مورد، زنی که در یکی از اتاقهای فروشگاه
مکدونالد، به مشتریان عرضه شد به قیمت هزار دلار به
فروش رفت.»
پنج سال پیش، زمانی که مؤسسههاتلاین از نومی درخواست
کمک و همکاری نمود، براساس قوانین اسرائیل، قاچاق زنان
حتی جرم هم محسوب نمیشد. و در ابتدا نومی که در
دانشگاه حقوق به فعالیت مشغول بود، علاقهای برای
همکاری از خود نشان نداد. تا آن زمان که وی به حوزه
جرمشناسی علاقهمند بود، بیش از آنکه با قربانیان
برخورد داشته باشد، با مجرمین برخورد داشت. اما
عمدهترین امتیاز و مهارت نومی که سبب درخواست کمک از
سوی مؤسساتهاتلاین شد، توانایی وی در صحبت به زبان
رومانیایی بود.
خود در این باره میگوید: «اگر چه دوران بسیار سخت و
مشقتباری را در رومانی گذراندم اما امروزه خیلی از
این قضیه خوشحالم چرا که بدون دانستن زبان رومانیایی،
الان نمیتوانستم تا این حد تأثیر گذار باشم.»
در ابتدا مؤسسه مذکور از وی خواست که داوطلبانه چند
ساعتی با آنها همکاری نماید و با قربانیان این تجارت
که عمدتاً رومانیایی هستند، صحبت کند. آن چه که نومی
از آنها شنید، وحشیگریهایی بود که از سوی مجرمین و
پلیس بر آنها وارد شده بود و وی را سخت به خود آورد.
دو ساعت کار دواطلبانه در هفته به دو ساعت کار
داوطلبانه در روز تبدیل شد و سپس به هیجده ساعت در روز
رسید تا جایی که امروزه تنها چهار ساعت میخوابد و حتی
به قول خودش وقتی هم که میخوابد، خواب کارهایش را
میبیند.
مصیبت آن دختر مولداویایی که به شش قاچاقچی فروخته شده
بود، به نقطه عطفی در تلاشهای نومی تبدیل شد. دختری
که خواست علیه قاچاقچیان شهادت دهد و پلیس هیچ توجهی
به وی نکرد. حتی در آن زمان چنین افرادی به عنوان
قربانی شناخته نمیشدند و به قول میرکوهن، بازجوی پلیس
اسرائیلی، این زنان به عنوان شریک جرم شناخته میشدند.
به جای آنکه این افراد شهادت دهند، صرفاً دستگیر و از
اسرائیل اخراج میشدند. همچنین به پلیس گفته شده بود
که به هیچوجه در کار فاحشه خانهها دخالت نکنند و حتی
مقامات ترجیح میدادند تا از این دلالان به عنوان
منابع اطلاعاتی هم استفاده کنند.
پلیس بئرشبا به نومی گفت که موکل مولداویایی دروغ
میگوید و مسأله ابداً اینگونه نیست و اصلاً موضوعی
مهم نیست. از اینرو بود که نومی از قاچاقچیان به
دادگاه مدنی شکایت کرد و بعد از آن هم از پلیس به خاطر
عدم بررسی موضوع به دادگاه شکایت کرد. حتی وی از وزیر
کشور به خاطر عدم صدور ویزا برای این زن شکایت نمود.
ناگهان پلیس به خود آمد، چرا که پنجاه نفر در این
ماجرا دستگیر شدند. نومی گفت: «جالب بود، دیگر تقریباً
مردی در این شهر نبود که دستگیر نشده باشد.»
در ماه میسال 2000، سازمان عفو بینالملل، گزارش
تکاندهندهای منتشر نمود که در آن اسرائیل را به خاطر
نگاه بیتوجهانهاش به موضوع بردگی سکس محکوم نمود. در
نتیجه هیاهوهای شکل گرفته در جامعه اسراییل بود که
موجب شد مجلس این کشور قاچاق زنان را یک جرم آشکار
بداند و برای آن حداکثر شانزده سال حبس در نظر بگیرد،
اما ماجرای این قانون هم خود به موضوعی جدید تبدیل شد.
مارین سولدکین از اعضای مجلس اسراییل در این باره
میگوید: «هیچکس نمیخواهد به این مشکل توجهی کند.
راحتترین کار آن است که صرفاً وانمود شود که این زنان
نه مهاجرند و نه به اسراییل قاچاق شدهاند.» اما در
سایه تلاشهای نومی و دیگر فعالان این عرصه بود که حتی
ایالات متحده در سال 2001 اسراییل را در فهرست سیاه
کشورهایی قرار داد که تلاشی در راستای مبارزه با قاچاق
زنان انجام نمیدهند.
اسراییل با چالشی جدی روبرو شد. در کشوری که تقاضا
برای فاحشهخانهها سرسامآور است، یعنی در هر ماه یک
میلیون مراجعه ثبت میشود، هرگونه واکنشی سخت مینمود.
سازمانهای حقوق بشر هم برآوردشان بر آن است که همه
ساله حداقل سه هزار زن برای تجارت سکس به این کشور
قاچاق میشوند. جدای از رومانی، این زنان از روسیه،
مولداوی و اوکراین یعنی کشورهایی که سقوط نظام
تأمیناجتماعی ناشی از اقتصادهای پس از کمونیسم را
تجربه کردهاند، به این کشور قاچاق میشوند.
در بررسی صورت گرفته توسط سازمانهاتلاین که در زندان
زنان نواترزا انجام گرفت، مشخص شد که یک سوم زنان
همانند آنا هنگام ورودشان به اسراییل از حرفه
آیندهشان یعنی فاحشگی اطلاعی نداشتند. بقیه هم از
ماجرا اطلاع داشتند، از قاچاقچیان خود قول گرفته بودند
که در اسراییل وضعیت خوبی داشته باشند. قاچاقچیان هم
به آنها گفته بودند که هر روز مشتریان آنها محدود
بوده و ماهانه چند هزار دلار درآمد خواهند داشت که این
رقم در کشورهای اروپای شرقی میزان قابل توجهی است.
نهایتاً هم قاچاقچیان به آنها گفته بودند که در صورت
نارضایتی میتوانند فاحشهخانهها را ترک کنند، فارغ
از آنکه حتی در این فاحشهخانهها خندیدن هم برای
زنان و دختران فاحشه ممنوع است و تنها باید در جلوی
مشتریان خود صاف بنشینند و لبخند بزنند.
آنا در دادگاه توضیح داد که چگونه همانند یک حیوان
فروخته شد. پس از آنکه در هتل به فروش رفت، لباسهای
تنگ و بدننما به تن کرد و به اتاقی برده شد که مردی
در آن به انتظار وی نشسته بود و بقیه مردان هم بیرون
اتاق ایستاده بودند و نعره میزدند. در آنجا بود که وی
برای نخستینبار وحشیانه مورد تجاوز قرار گرفت. پس از
آن بود که مردان دیگر به ترتیب به سراغ وی آمدند و پس
از هر تجاوزً 150 شکل میپرداختند که این پول هم به
جیب نوچههای یور یعنی فردی که عهدهدار اداره هتل
بود، میرفت و در نهایت تنها 200 شکل به آنا داده شد
که آن هم خرج غذا و قرصهای ضدبارداری او شد.
دیگر زنانی که در این مطالعه مورد پرسش قرار گرفته
بودند، ابراز نمودند که مالکان فاحشهخانهها هر هفت
روز هفته و هر روز به طور متوسط سیزده ساعت آنها را
به فاحشگی وامیداشتند و در هنگام قاعدگی نیز باید یا
به کلفتی میپرداختند و یا با استفاده از نوعی از
دیافراگم از خروج قاعدگی جلوگیری میکردند. پس از هر
مشتری باید دوش ولرمی گرفته و دوباره به سالن عرضه باز
گردند.
مشتریان این فاحشهخانهها را اسراییلیها تشکیل
میدهند. سربازان که با لباسهای نظامی مراجعه میکنند
از تخفیف برخوردارند. یهودیان ارتدوکس هم هنگامی که
میخواهند به این مکانها بیایند، ابتدا کلاههای خود
را در جیبشان میگذراند و پس از خروج دوباره آن را بر
سر میگذارند.
در صورتی هم که مشتری از سکس خود راضی نباشد، فاحشه
تنبیه میشود. دختری هجده ساله در این باره گفت که
آنها طوری ما را کتک میزنند که هیچ اثری بر بدن ما
باقی نماند چرا که مشتریان دوست ندارند اثری بر روی
بدن ما باشد. در صورتی هم که هر یک از فاحشهها بیمار
و یا حامله شوند، برای درمان وی یا به دامپزشکها رجوع
میشود و یا به دکترهایی که در مناطق دنج به کورتاژ
اقدام میکنند، برده میشوند.
حدود نیمی از زنانی که مورد بررسی قرار گرفتند، اذعان
نمودند در فاحشهخانهها بارها حبس شدهاند و حتی در
یک مورد دو زن که قصد فرار داشتند، دست و پا بسته داخل
قفسی گذاشته شدند و با همان وضعیت مجبور به سرویسدهی
به مردان شدند.
در کنفرانسی درباره فساد و فحشا در آگوست سال 2002،
ژنرال پلیس موشه نیرراهی در سخنرانی خود گفت: «قاچاق
زنان در اسراییل جرمی سازمان یافته است.» طرح این
موضوع، غیرمعمول به نظر میرسد، چرا که مقامات اسراییل
مدتها بود که به هر نحو ممکن هرگونه وجود جرم سازمان
یافته در مرزهای خود را منکر میشدند، اما دیگر شرایط
به شکلی بود که انکار آن غیرممکن مینمود.
مطابق گزارش نومی و همکارانش، قاچاق در اسراییل توسط
شبکهای هدایت میشود که عمده افرادش یعنی فاحشههایش
از کشورهای استقلال یافته میباشند. حدود هشتاد درصد
زنانی که نومی با آنها مصاحبه میکرد، ابراز نمودند
که قاچاقچیان آنها اسراییلی هستند که اصل و نسبشان
به روسیه و دیگر کشورهای تازه استقلال یافته
بازمیگردد. مهارت زبانی و ارتباط قوی آنها، امتیازی
برای آنها میباشد.
با حضور زنان در فاحشهخانههاست که قاچاقچیان در همان
آغاز به خشونت متوسل میشوند و آنها را متقاعد
میسازند که اگر هم بتوانند از آنجا بگریزند، شهادت یا
هرگونه افشاگری آنها تأثیری ندارد. یکی از فاحشههای
سابق از نحوه بردنش به ساحل دریا و تهدید به غرق شدن
توسط صاحبش، خاطراتی را برای نومی ذکر کرد. آنا هم
تعریف نمود که در ساعات استراحتش در اتاق به عبادت
میپرداخت که صاحب فاحشهخانه با آگاهی از موضوع به
سراغش رفته و با انجیل به صورتش کوبید و به او گفت:
«خیال کردی اینجا کلیسا است!؟»
البته قاچاقچیان هم هیچ تمایلی به کشتن فاحشهها
ندارند چرا که مرگ آنها به منزله از دست رفتن کالاهای
تجاریشان است. اما رقابت قاچاقچیان هم حکایت خاص خود
را دارد؛ دزدیدن زنان، آتش زدن فاحشهخانهها توسط
رقبا و... از مواردی است که در اسراییل شاهدیم.
همین ترس و فساد بیرون از فاحشهخانههاست که سبب
میشود این قربانیان هیچ واکنشی نشان ندهند. نومی
میگوید: زمانی که از مردم شهر میخواهیم که به خاطر
فعالیت فاحشهخانههای محلههایشان شکایت کنند، مردم
میگویند: «شوخی میکنید، آنها ما را خواهند کشت.»
حتی زمانی هم که مردم این جرأت را به خود دهند که به
پلیس شکایت کنند با نوعی بیتفاوتی روبرو میشوند.
نومی میگوید: «پلیس خوب میداند که در تلآویو چه
میگذرد، اما بدان بیتوجه است و آن را به چشم یک جرم
نمیبیند و حتی تصور میکند که زنان از این کار لذت
میبرند.»
اما نکته قابل تأمل دیگر آنکه بر طبق بررسی
مؤسسههاتلاین، چهل درصد فاحشههایی که تن به مصاحبه
دادند، اعتراف نمودند که پلیسها مشتریان ثابت
فاحشهخانهها هستند. |
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