On July 10, 2020, the law criminalizing the purchase of sexual services came into effect in Israel. The local political campaign for criminalization began over a decade ago. Earlier drafts of the bill included both client criminalization and what is described as “rehabilitation” of sex workers. However, in 2018, the politicians and lobbyists pushing for client criminalization agreed to remove the “rehabilitation” part from the bill in order to get the government on board.
Even if the “rehabilitation” programs were executed to the letter, they only offer some form of assistance to roughly 200 sex workers annually. Moreover, there are major problems with the program.
We have no chance of finding alternative livelihoods when 1 out of every 5 Israelis is unemployed and we have criminal records that mark us as prostitutes. Due to the failure of the government to create welfare and other provisions to minimize the negative effects of the law, many rights groups have joined the call to postpone the start date of the ban. These include all Israeli LGBTQ organizations, feminist groups – Achoti Movement, Isha l'Isha – Haifa Feminist Center, Israel Women’s Forum, aid groups working with sex workers – Elem and HerAcademy, as well as social workers and law professionals. While these groups hold various views on sex work, they all share the concern that under current conditions, the law sentences thousands of sex workers to life-threatening poverty and violence.