The haredin (orthodox Jews) who crowd Tel Aviv brothels on Friday mornings

[Guest guest]

David is on a roll and there is no stopping him.

 

" With prostitution you have no rapes. You bring in these women and

innocent girls are not raped. That is why I believe in prostitution

and would very much like to see it legalized everywhere. I believe

because of it a lot of rapes are prevented. Men, because of the way

we are built, our sexual will, our potential, our necessity, we need

to do this. We need sex. "

 

While he blathers on about the important service he provides for his

brothers, there are many people in Israel who are deeply disturbed by

what's happening on the side streets and back of their country. In a

modest apartment in a comfortable section of Tel Aviv, far from the

red-light district, Leah Gruenpeter-Gold and Nissan Ben-Ami shake

their heads in disgust at the opening of so many brothels and the

wholesale trafficking of young Natashas. Leah and Nissan are co-

directors of the Awareness Centre - a non-governmental group that

specializes in research on trafficking in women and prostitution in

Israel.

 

" Israeli men have simple grown up to the idea that women can be

bought, " Gruenpeter-Gold began. " Both married and single women no

longer want to work at relationships. For them it is easier to

purchase sex when they want it. "

 

" On the Jewish New year, I went down to the old bus station area to

see what was happening, " Ben-Ami recalled. " there were young men

queuing outside each brothel. When you look into the reception area

you could see all these sad and upset women, and when they see you,

they suddenly look up and smile. They are happy to see you because

they have to be happy or else. "

 

What particularly offends Ben-Ami is the haredin (orthodox Jews) who

crowd the Tel Aviv brothels on Friday mornings and afternoons for a

pre-Shabbat tumble.

 

When you go to the area of the Stock Exchange or the Diamond

Exchange, you see a lot of prostitution and a lot of very, very

religious men - because these men need sex but the women in their

society cannot give it to them when they want it. They also cannot

masturbate because they cannot waste their sperm. So they have to do

it with a women. These men also do not use condoms, therefore they

must pay the pimps more. So in order to satisfy the needs of these

men, we have to sacrifice these women.

 

" Because these women are not human beings, " Greunpeter-Gold said

indignantly. " They are foreign women. The religious prefer it to be

with foreign women because then they don't wrong Jewish women. "

 

" Yet officially, " Ben-Ami said, " the religious are very much against

trafficking and prostitution. So, on one hand, many religious are

against these brothels and, on the other hand, they need sex. "

 

" It is all very hypocritical, " Gruenpater-Gold added.

 

 

Victor Malarek, The Natashas; The New Global Sex Trade,

Viking Canada, pg. 76-8