Sex workers fall victim to Israeli government paralysis
Due to the paralysis of successive transitional governments in Israel, millions of shekels allocated to the Welfare Ministry to help sex workers get out of the business have gone unused and might therefore be returned to the Finance Ministry.
That a transitional government has been running Israel for a year has led to paralysis in the delivery of some government services. Government officials are supposed, among other things, to implement decisions that have been approved and budgeted. Those people most harmed by the current state of affairs are the weakest, who hardly have anyone fighting for them. The Knesset, which is supposed to supervise the work of the government and to debate in the plenary and in committees, is not functional either. The failure to implement a government program to “rehabilitate” sex workers and to reduce procurement of sex services attests to the damage caused to the citizenry as a result of Israel's political stalemate.
In August, Haaretz found that the Welfare Ministry has not been using some NIS 21 million ($6 million) disbursed to it by the Finance Ministry to implement a program stemming from a law penalizing the procurement of sex services. Aliza Lavi (Yesh Atid) and Shuly Moalem-Refaeli (formerly of Habayit HaYehudi and now the New Right) had submitted the relevant bill, which was brought before the Knesset in December 2018. The law, which the government supported, will go into force in July 2020, making it a civil misdemeanor to use prostitution services or be in a place used for prostitution, such as a brothel, with the aim of procuring sex. Violations carry a fine of up to 75,000 NIS ($21,000) in extreme cases.
