There’s a moment in every rehabilitation story that doesn’t make it into the inspirational quotes. It’s not the first day sober, or the first job interview, or even the first night of safe sleep. It’s the moment a person realizes the past hasn’t just hurt them, it’s still billing them.
For one woman, a survivor of the sex trade, that bill came in the form of 77 fines totaling about 100,000 shekels. Not a “mistake,” not a single misstep—an accumulated record of survival under conditions most of us are lucky never to face. A teenager subjected to severe sexual assault. A descent into prostitution, drug dependence, and life on the street. And then, against the odds, a decision to climb out.
She did what we demand people do when we speak about “responsibility.” She sought help. With the support of a mobile clinic operated through the Haifa Health Bureau, she got clean. She started looking for work. She began the slow, grinding work of rebuilding a life.
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2024 was our busiest and most impactful year since our founding 20 years ago. With your help, in 2024, JIJ provided FREE legal aid to 2,733 survivors of terrorism, human trafficking, and discrimination, including: 32 wounded Israeli soldiers, 40 survivors of human trafficking, 17 survivors of the October 7th massacre, 68 families seeking Israeli citizenship or residency, 112 refugees from Ukraine, Russia, and Eritrea, 120 Israeli families displaced from their homes on the Gaza & Lebanon borders, 500 wounded soldiers.
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The Jerusalem Institute of Justice is making a substantial impact; read the quarterly highlights. Your continued support enables us to carry out our mission of protecting human rights, promoting the rule of law, and advocating on behalf of Israel.
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The Israel Justice Ministry’s Governmental Unit for Coordinating the Fight Against Human Trafficking has published its first activity report, in which it was revealed that Israel has identified 325 victims of human trafficking in the last five years (2017-2021).
The report revealed that 71% of the 325 human trafficking victims were women, and one percent were minors. It also showed that 40% of the victims were trafficked for the sake of sexual exploitation, 44% were held under the conditions of slavery and 16% were trafficked for other reasons. It was also reported that the Israel Police conducted 789 interrogations of suspects of human trafficking, out of which only 155 were indicted and 99 were convicted.
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