Israel

Is selling sex criminalised?
Selling sex is legal in Israel although there are strict brothel-keeping laws that make it impossible to work indoors without breaking the law. Soliciting on the streets is legal. In a recent case a judge appeared to suggest that it is legal for individual sex workers to work indoors or for collective working situations as this prevented them working on the streets. This is open to appeal and it may well be as this was a lower court.
Is buying sex criminalised?
Yes. The final bill, “Penal Code (Amendment No. 137), 5769, (230-236) 2019” was passed by the Knesset on 31st December 2018. The law came into force on 10th July 2020, after implementation was delayed. Under the new law, clients will be liable to a 2,000 shekels ($530) fine and a repeated offence will lead to a fine of 4,000 shekels ($1060). The fines will be imposed by police officers who “see the offence being committed”. In the case of several offences it will be possible to serve a criminal indictment which could involve a fine of 75,300 shekels ($20,000). Reports in September 2021 showed that the police are actively enforcing the new law against buying sex. The implementation was delayed to allow time for ‘rehabilitation’ programmes for sex workers (removed from the original bill due to pressure from abolitionists and therefore not legislated for) to be implemented. At the time of implementation, 70% of funds allocated for this purpose had not been used. Israeli sex worker organisations and their allies have been highly critical of the nature of these ‘rehabilitation’ schemes. See extra information below.
Is organising/managing criminalised?
Yes - brothel-keeping is criminalised as is "pimping"
Is there mandatory HIV/STI testing?
No
Is there mandatory registration?
No
Is sex work recognised as work?
No
Is sex work decriminalised with limited regulation?
No
Extra info
Grassroots sex worker organisations Argaman Alliance and Transiyot Israel’s statement on the implementation of the law on 10th July 2020: https://www.sexworkeurope.org/news/news-region/argaman-alliance-and-transiyot-israel-statement-sex-buyer-law-israel Excerpt: “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. The final bill, which passed in the Knesset on Dec. 31, 2018, criminalizes the purchase of sex, and offers rehabilitation programs only to clients. The “rehabilitation” program for sex workers was announced in a government decision. Legislators acknowledged that “rehabilitation” programs for sex workers are a necessary precondition for implementing the ban on clients. Therefore, the law was scheduled to come into effect only 18 months after it passed in the Knesset in order to allow the government to implement the “rehabilitation” programs before police enforcement begins. However, to this day, most of these programs have not been carried out. 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. First, Argaman and Transiyot Israel – local grassroots organizations of sex workers of all faiths, colors, genders, and citizenship status - have not been consulted. Second, relatedly, the “rehabilitation” programs do not address the most urgent needs of the majority of sex workers in Israel: housing, living income, access to healthcare, health services that meet our needs, and protection from police brutality. While there is a national program “to end prostitution” there is no program to end transphobia, racism, ageism, ableism, and apartheid. The rehabilitation program offers nothing to trans* sex workers whereas undocumented sex workers, including Palestinian LGBTQ sex workers, are completely excluded from the services offered under the “rehabilitation” program.”
Contact
If you have something to add, please email communications@nswp.org