HUMAN TRAFFICKING WATCH · DISPATCH
Uneven Enforcement, Unsteady Protection
Israel’s comptroller finds concentrated policing and visa barriers that undermine anti-trafficking goals.
A state audit found Israel’s enforcement against buyers of prostitution clustered in a few stations, key intelligence left idle, and visa practices that risk pushing victims back into exploitation—leaving the national plan’s finish line in sight but unfinished.
Matanyahu Englman, the State Comptroller, released a months‑long audit of Israel’s response to prostitution purchasing and sex‑trafficking crimes, covering December 2024 through July 2025; the numbers were clear and lopsided—police issued 3,004 fines in 2022, 902 in 2023, 378 in 2024, and 1,061 in 2025, with roughly ninety‑nine percent clustered in the Tel Aviv, Central, and Coastal districts, almost exclusively by the Zevulun, Rishon Lezion, and Sharett stations, while the Southern, Northern, and Jerusalem districts issued none in 2024 despite internal lists of suspected venues (BEN-NUN, n.d.; The Jerusalem Post, n.d.; Ynetnews, n.d.).
Behind the disparities sat underused intelligence and limited follow‑through: in 2024 police had mapped more than 1,300 suspected addresses nationwide, about forty percent in the Tel Aviv District, yet only 13 brothels were closed that year and 29 in 2025—60 closures total across 2022–2025—while courts, using a 2017 authority, ordered 95 website shutdowns for solicitation and advertising; national targets for fines were set only beginning in 2025, and just 111 of 5,345 fined purchasers—about two percent—completed the rehabilitative alternative program (BEN-NUN, n.d.; The Jerusalem Post, n.d.; Ynetnews, n.d.).
Capacity and organization dragged as well: the national police cell for human‑trafficking cases, by July 2025, counted only one officer; Tel Aviv was the lone district with a dedicated department for trafficking and related crimes, opening 13 significant cases between 2022 and 2024—including matters that reached convictions—while the Coastal, Central, and Judea and Samaria districts resolved none during those years despite a combined target of eight; plans to replicate Tel Aviv’s model in Central and Coastal, decided in September 2023 and formally ordered in February 2025, remained incomplete as of August 2025 (BEN-NUN, n.d.; The Jerusalem Post, n.d.).
The audit also faulted the Population and Immigration Authority for practices that complicated victim protection: conditioning some returns to Israel on exceptional financial guarantees, issuing limited residence visas inconsistent with procedures for witnesses, requiring reassessment of victim status after police files closed, and dispatching inspectors to check if victims had returned to prostitution—steps the report said exceeded their mandate; disputes with the Justice Ministry’s Legal Aid Department produced appeals and tort claims, and the ministry’s anti‑trafficking coordinator warned that systematic denial of work permits risks pushing victims back into exploitation, weakening prosecutions, and damaging Israel’s Tier‑2 standing in the U.S. Trafficking in Persons Report, where it has remained since 2020 (BEN-NUN, n.d.; The Jerusalem Post, n.d.).
Coordination lagged at the system’s seams: cooperation between police and the authority’s Enforcement and Foreigners Administration lacked a regulating procedure; an online public hotline processed only 47 inquiries from 2022 through 2024; as of May 2026 there was still no structured annual interministerial training plan, and arrangements to fund transportation to shelters remained unsettled—though the Welfare Ministry covered costs in practice during 2025; Levinsky Clinics, which treated 3,453 people in 2023–2024, shared information only partially across districts, prompting the comptroller to urge privacy‑protected data‑sharing mechanisms (BEN-NUN, n.d.; The Jerusalem Post, n.d.; Ynetnews, n.d.).
The backdrop is sobering: Israel’s law banning purchase of prostitution services took effect in 2020 as a five‑year order, extended in 2025; a national survey cited by the audit estimated about 12,000 people in prostitution in 2014—95% women, including 1,300 minors—while professionals in 2025 placed the number of boys and girls between 3,000 and 5,000; with the five‑year national plan to combat trafficking expiring in late 2026 and several tasks still open, Englman urged police to even out enforcement, use intelligence and public reports more fully, and examine privacy‑protected collaboration with Levinsky Clinics, and called on the Population and Immigration Authority to issue visas according to its powers and procedures—benchmarks that will be measured in broader, steadier protection beyond Tel Aviv (Ynetnews, n.d.; BEN-NUN, n.d.; The Jerusalem Post, n.d.).
Locations: Israel, Tel Aviv District, Central District, Coastal District, Southern District, Southern District, Jerusalem District, Mass. and Cass
Tags: policy, investigation, state, online