In January , Israel become one of the first countries to enforce a ban on the use of prostitutes, and also announced a program to cancel the criminal records of convicted prostitutes. The new law bans the use of prostitutes and imposes heavy fines on clients who purchase their services, criminalizing all who are involved in the criminal chain of prostitution, trafficking and sexual exploitation.
The law forbidding the use of prostitutes in Israel is a temporary law that will take effect for five years, allowing for its impact to be studied. It also requires the state to offer rehabilitation to people trapped in the prostitution industry, encouraging them to seek other sources of income to restore their dignity.
Also included in the new law is the opportunity for offenders to accept treatment for their addiction to the use of prostitutes. Israeli law does not criminalize prostitutes but regards them as victims in the eyes of the law.
This may tip the balance of power in their favor and enable them to use the law against abusive clients and pimps. Sex for pay is not about sexual relations. Sex for pay is an exploitative relationship that has no place in our society — a society that values equality and respect for every man and woman from every sector and every part of society. Fighting the use of sex services is part of the fight against violence against women, part of the fight against the notion that people can use the body and soul of someone else, of women, and do with them what they will as if they were objects to be purchased for money.
To break this cycle of pain, which sometimes seems never-ending, with no horizon, requires enormous mental strength. Even though rehabilitation and reentering the workforce may be a difficult task fraught with trauma and stigma, those who want to flee the degrading cycle of human trafficking will take the opportunity to have their crimes erased and begin new lives.
