Isha L'Isha - Feminist Newsletter

2012-02-12T14:43:00.006+02:00

THE JOY OF BOOKS

…especially the joy of the ones from the library of Isha L'Isha!

A reminder for those who are already familiar with the library and for those who haven’t heard yet about the books of Isha: In the rooms of the Women's coalition in Arlozorov 118 you can find a cozy but well kept library.

The library contains – in Hebrew as well as in English- the following topics:

Feminist theory
Gender roles
Gender and Education
Psychology
Lesbianism
Politics of Sex
Violence against Women
Women in Israel
Jewish Women
Reproductive rights
Poetry
Fiction
Biography

… and many more!

To give you a good reason, why books are called a moving reason of doing thing, enjoy the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKVcQnyEIT8&feature=player_embedded

Come around and join the world of words– we are waiting for you :)
If there any questions left, please contact the library under ishalibrary@gmail.com

To lend the books you have to be a member of Isha L'Isha

2012-01-22T14:47:00.006+02:00

Dear friends,

This entry is about research and theory - topics which are discussed in the feminist research center composed of a library and an archive. Enjoy reading - and come around if you are interested! (the organizers can be contacted via the office of Isha).

The center serves the entire community as well as researchers who wish to expand their knowledge on issues from a feminist perspective. Members of Isha L’Isha, many of whom are researchers, use our library on a regular basis to complement their academic research. Periodically, lectures and workshops are held in the library on a variety of issues.

Currently, the following groups are being held at the research center:

Tuesdays with Theory

An evening of learning and theorizing between activists, scholars and anyone who is interested in understanding the world from a feminist point of view. Each Tuesday a different group meets, thus creating four different groups whereby each group meets once a month. So far two groups have already begun working:

(a) Feminist research

A group of feminist academics that meet in order to discuss dilemmas in feminist academic research, such as: is there a different school of thinking and doing research that is directly connect to feminism, why do we need feminist research, which research are feminists doing, and more.

(b) HomoNationalism

This group discusses issues such as: what are the ways in which the state is using gays and lesbians to its own propaganda campaigns, how is nationalism being used in order to recruit the LGBT communities and pursue them to demand equal rights to conform to the hetronormative status quo.

"Old Patterns, New Ideas" - Women and Medical Technologies

2011-07-28T23:17:00.000+03:00

"Great advances have been made in reproductive technologies in recent decades; however, those advances also gave rise to new problems and vulnerabilities. The variety of possibilities and access to reproductive assistance for people who wish to become parents, including purchase of eggs and surrogacy, raises questions about the ways medical technologies influence our society and especially the health and status of women all over the world."

This is the opening paragraph of a short article written by Hedva Eyal, Isha L'Isha's coordinator of the Women and Medical Technologies project. The article, "Old Patterns, New Ideas," is published on GeneWatch, Council for Responsible Genetics.

Israel is leading the World in In Vitro Fertilization

2011-07-19T19:01:00.008+03:00

Let us present a new NY Times article about controversies over unlimited (and state-paid) IVF Treatment in Israel, with comments by Hedva Eyal, the project coordinator of Women and Medical Technologies.

Egg Donation and Surrogacy Laws

2011-07-03T18:59:00.000+03:00

The Biopolitical Times, the weblog of the Center for Genetics and Society has published a short article about our work in the Women and Medical Technologies project: Israeli Feminists Weigh in on Egg Donation and Surrogacy Laws

New Publications - Women and Medical Technologies

2011-06-01T23:56:00.001+03:00

We are exited to share with you Isha L'Isha's most recent publications in the framework of our Women and Medical Technologies project.

(1) Egg Donation in Israel - Action Research, 2009-2010
During 2009-2010, we conducted a research examining different approaches to egg donation. The research was conducted in order to map the needs of the different parties in this field, in an attempt to create dialogue between people - particularly women – who meet at this juncture of egg donation.
Read the full report.

(2) Surrogacy in Israel - Status Report 2010 and Proposals for Legislative Amendment
This report examines the Israeli Embryo Carrying Agreement law of 1996 and its implementation in the 14 years since its
legislation.
Read the full report.

The reports are also available in Hebrew and Arabic. To obtain copies of the Arabic and/or Hebrew, please contact Hedva Eyal, the project coordinator, at wmt.isha@gmail.com.

On this occasion, we would like to express our thanks to the donors who are supporting this project for your belief and trust in our work.

Annual Activity Report 2010

2011-06-01T21:49:00.001+03:00

We are pleased to present you with our annual activity report for the year 2010.
Read the full report.

Highlights from the report:

* Within the framework of our "Fighting against Trafficking and Forced Prostitution in Women," we were able to set a number of precedents, such as obtaining child benefits for a woman without a legal status.

* Rita Chaikin, the project coordinator, gave testimony in the Russian Military Court in one of the biggest international trafficking cases.

* In the framework of our "Women and Medical Technologies" project, we further established ourselves as experts on issues related to fertility technologies.

* Hedva Eyal, the project coordinator, attended an international network seminar in New York and took part in a session on Reproductive and Genetic Tourism.

* In our "Women, Peace and Security" project, we help a learning group on feminist security and citizenship.

* A workshop was held on independent media, specifically on digital storytelling.

* Isha L'Isha's team of volunteers from the Archive and Library have been compiling women's stories on their path to feminism and activism at Isha L'Isha, with the aim of publishing them as a book for the organization's 30th anniversary in 2013.

We wish to thank all our members, volunteers and activists for their dedicated work and contribution to our efforts in advancing women's rights.

On behalf of all of us at Isha L'Isha, we extend our thanks to our supporters for your trust and belief in our work.

To discuss ways of supporting our work, please contact us at khulud.kh@gmail.com

Visit our website at www.isha.org.il to stay updated on our activities.
Join us on Facebook.

Rita receives award from Ministry of Justice and testimony in trafficking case

2010-12-21T22:58:00.000+02:00

Dear friends and supporters,

We are very excited to share with you two major achievements in our Fighting Against Trafficking in Women project. Rita Chaikin, the project coordinator, has been awarded a decoration by the Ministry of Justice for her work in fighting trafficking in women for the sex industry. The festive award ceremony was held on December 2nd, the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, at the house of President Peres. This award marks the state’s recognition of Isha L’Isha’s work in the fight to abolish trafficking in women for the sex industry. Since the project’s inception in 2002 Rita, along with project’s volunteers, assisted more than 1,600 women victims and survivors of trafficking. Our staff and volunteers began working in the field in 2002 with only limited resources, and today Isha L'Isha is considered a professional body both locally as well as internationally on all aspects of trafficking, especially in the field of policy change. Both governmental and non-governmental bodies seek our consultation on different aspects of the phenomenon.

Earlier this year, Rita was summoned by the military court in Russia to testify in one of the largest trafficking in women cases in the history of Russia, where 13 traffickers are being charged with the most serious crimes of trafficking in women. Please find below Rita’s reflections on this complex experience, and a letter of appreciation from the Tel Aviv police unit.

From all of us at Isha L’Isha, we wish Rita and all the women involved in this important project the best of success in future efforts in the fight against trafficking and forced prostitution in women.

We wish to thank all the foundations and individual donors who have supported Isha L'Isha's anti-trafficking project since its inception in 2002. It is your generous support and belief in our work that has enabled us to attain these achievements and to advocate for the rights of victims and survivors of trafficking.

Warmest regards from all of us at Isha L'Isha

*****

“Experiences from Moscow - Testifying at the Trial of Women Traffickers”
by Rita Chaikin

In September 2010, I was summoned by the military court of Moscow to testify in one of the largest cases of trafficking in women in Russian history. I was summoned in order to promote this extremely complex case and aid in overcoming the obstacles facing the prosecution.

This international case has been ongoing for over three years, beginning in 2007, with trial proceedings commencing in 2008 in Moscow's Regional Court in the outskirts of Moscow, in close cooperation with the Israeli Police Central Unit operating against organized crime (based in Tel Aviv) and in cooperation with Russian security forces, the Russian Military Attorney, the Ukrainian Police, and Belarus Police who have provided the international network for trafficking in women, headed by Israeli citizens.

As a result of an intensive investigation, thirteen traffickers were arrested in Russia, six in the Ukraine, three in Belarus and eleven in Israel, including the ringleaders. Those accused face exceptionally severe charges, which include trafficking in women, forging documents, abduction, rape and extortion through the use of threats and violence. As a result, the largest network of trafficking in women in Europe has ceased to exist, a network that was responsible for a large majority of women in forced prostitution in Israel and Europe. The effects of this court case had immediate implications, with regards to revoking visas from Russia to Israel.

Two of the suspects that appeared in the Military Attorney's case in Russia are Rami Saban, arrested in 2009 by the Israeli police, and Avi Yanai, arrested in Moscow. Rami Saban is suspected of having exercised complete control over the passage of all women trafficked to Israel through the Egyptian border. Avi Yanai is suspected of being responsible for organizing the trafficked women and selling them to traffickers in a Moscow apartment.

During the investigation, as Russian investigators questioned women who were trafficked and brought to Israel (and subsequently returned to Russia) they heard the name Rita Chaikin mentioned, as well as other women, when describing their experiences in the Israeli detention facilities. But it was only in 2008, when Israeli Police representatives came to Moscow for the judicial inquiry that they identified Rita Chaikin and the reason why she, I, was present at the detention facilities.

Beginning in 2002 and continuing through 2007, together with Russian speaking volunteers, I visited the detention facilities for foreign women on behalf of Isha L'Isha in order to explain their rights, to bring them basic provisions, support them, and communicate requests to testify or assist the women in returning safely to their country of origin by mediating between them and the partner organizations of this project in their countries of origin.

The next step of the investigation for the Russian investigators was to come to Israel and investigate the circumstances of the case; the traffickers already in detention in Israel, women who had been trafficked and were in Israel, and also to investigate me. They met with me in May 2008 and collected information for their investigation. Since the trial is not over yet, I unfortunately cannot elaborate. Among other things, I described the sexual slavery conditions of women in forced prostitution as well as the abuses and traumas these women suffered.

At the end of August 2010, after the end of collecting testimonies in the case, I was requested to testify in the military court in Moscow. According to the new laws in Russia, the court is composed of a judge and jury and the trial takes place behind closed doors. In the court, thirteen traffickers, accused of various crimes were present, the twelve members of jury, thirteen lawyers, three military prosecutors, security guards and the judge.

My testimony began on the same day of my arrival in Russia. I didn't have enough time to say everything I had planned, but I felt that I left a good impression, and it seemed that I was able to convey the enormity of the trauma experienced by women forced into the sex industry. Two days later I continued with my testimony, where I stressed again the effects and implications of sexual exploitation of women. During my testimony I presented unequivocal evidence regarding the enormous trafficking of women during 2003 through 2005, which originated from the East Russian town of Khabarovsk and neighboring areas. I also presented letters addressed to the Khabarovsk police as well as to the then President Vladimir Putin, in which I demanded they address this network of trafficking. I also presented the opinion of professionals on the harm done to one of the women who testified in court in Moscow in June 2010.

Police officers from the Tel Aviv Central Unit for Investigations and Intelligence arrived with me in Moscow, and they also provided testimonies on the traffickers and the scope of trafficking in Israel. I believe we succeeded in impressing the lawyers and the jury, and it seems the lawyers will now have a difficult time proving the innocence of their clients as well as acquitting them.

I left the courtroom feeling optimistic. It was a day of closure for me; an opportunity to testify against those who the women in detention centers told me about. It is almost unfathomable to comprehend how much a human being can harm another. From my experience in working with survivors of prostitution, I know how many of these trafficked women are unable to bare children, how many of them have contracted diseases, and how many (in my opinion all of them) will live with this trauma all their lives. They will always remember their past, the abuse and humiliation they lived through. I want to believe in law and justice and that each of the traffickers will receive the punishment they deserve for all the pain and trauma they have caused these women. I also want to believe that the women will receive the compensation they are entitled to.

I left Russia with mixed feelings, but was satisfied with my testimony and hope that I succeeded in influencing a few people in the system to break down some stereotypes they have of social change organizations, in order to recommend actions the state can take to benefit individuals.

In this optimistic tone, I wish to thank all the foundations and individual donors who have supported Isha L’Isha’s anti-trafficking project since its inception in 2002. It is your support that has enabled us to attain these achievements and to advocate for the rights of victims and survivors of trafficking.

*****

To:
Attorney Rachel Gershuni
National Coordinator of the Battle against Trafficking in Persons
State Attorney's Office

From:
Superintendent Eduard Plinar
Investigations, Tel Aviv Regional Police

Subject: Letter of Appreciation - Ms. Rita Chaikin

1. Allow me to express my deep appreciation to Ms. Rita Chaikin, the coordinator of the Fighting Against Trafficking in Women project from "Isha L’Isha – Haifa Feminist Center,” for her assistance in the international investigation procedures that lasted three years in close cooperation with the Russian Security Service, Russian Military Attorney's Office, Ukrainian Police and Belarus Police departments against the international network of women traffickers, headed by Israeli citizens.
2. As a result of the intensive investigation, 13 traffickers of women were arrested in Russia, six in the Ukraine, three in Belarus and 11 in Israel; among them the heads of the network. They were charged with the most severe indictments that included charges of trafficking, kidnapping, rape, extortion using threats and brute force and document forgery. As a result, the largest network of trafficking in women in Europe that had trafficked the greatest number of victims of prostitution to Israel and Europe ceased to exist, with an instantly felt effect. This has even led to the cancelation of the requirement for Visas from Russia to Israel.
3. As part of the close cooperation with law enforcement authorities in Russia in September 2010, the staff and Ms. Rita Chaikin were summoned to testify at the trial conducted in Moscow in order to significantly advance the procedures of the trial in a highly complex case and overcome the difficulties encountered by the Russian prosecutors.
4. It must be noted that many witnesses in the trial in Russia faced attempts by the criminals to influence them, as well as threats of personal injury.
5. During her testimony in the trial in Moscow, which was of crucial importance to prove the defendants guilty of the charges against them, Ms. Rita Chaikin exhibited great courage. She testified for two days on the witness stand, facing the 13 dangerous criminals, who would not spare any means to disrupt the legal procedure and escape justice. For this Ms. Rita Chaikin deserves the full appreciation and honor from the law enforcement officials.

Eduard Pliner, Superintendent
Head, Interrogation Section & Head Special Investigation Team,
Special Intelligence Unit for Organized Crimes Investigations
Tel-Aviv District

Representation Dilemma in Militaristic Societies - Interview with Slava Greenberg

2010-10-20T04:45:00.004+02:00

Photo by Linda Forsell, taken from the Kvinna till Kvinna website.

Read an interview with Slava Greenberg about the dilemma of representation in militaristic societies and the work of Isha L'Isha around United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security.

Ongoing Activities

2010-08-26T19:10:00.002+03:00

Dear friends,

Please find below some of Isha L'Isha's ongoing activities. Feel free to share with us your comments and ideas. You can either post your comments at the end of each post or, alternately, you can contact us at isha.haifa@gmail.com.

Feminist Education
Last year, Isha L'Isha's collective decided on creating a steering committee which will take on the issue of Feminism and Education. The group has been meeting for more than a year now - gathering information, learning, and discussing salient issues. Issues the committee has been dealing with include learning about feminism and education, critical pedagogy, feminist pedagogy, philosophy and education from a feminist perspective, and mapping educational alternatives available in Israel. The group formed the guidelines of feminist pedagogy according to Isha L'Isha's principles which will be implemented in future workshops. The group has recently embarked on compiling a curriculum with lesson plans for workshops aimed at students, teachers and parents. The committee is now busy offering the workshops to local high-schools, both Arab and Jews.

Meeting leading Queer theorists and activists
This year, Aswat Palestinian Gay women and Isha L'Isha had the honour of hosting two leading Queer theorists in our house. The Israeli yearly queer conference “Other Sex,” held at Tel Aviv University invited Sarah Schulman to be the key speaker and she had refused because she is boycotting Israeli academia. Heather Love has agreed to speak instead of her. They both (separately) came to meet with us as a part of their alternative tour of Israel-Palestine. Sarah Schulman, a lesbian feminist novelist, historian and playwright, was active during the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and 1990s, and co-founded the Lesbian Avengers, a direct action organization. During her lecture, she shares her experiences in utilizing direct actions and unusual protest methods to promote social-change. She also discussed her newest book "Ties that Bind: Familial Homophobia and Its Consequences," which deals with the most unspoken form of homophobia, the one within the family. Heather Love, a professor at Penn University, who accepted the invitation to speak at Other Sex, shared her dilemmas concerning the conference with the activists of Isha L'Isha and Aswat. She talked about San Francisco's radical GLBTQI community and their struggles to end the Israeli occupation.

Feminist Newsletter
In an all too sexist and racist media environment, Isha L'Isha issues a bi-lingual (Arabic and Hebrew) alternative feminist newsletter. The newsletter deals with various feminist issues and is sent to the homes of 2,700 women around the country once in every three months - free of charge. A committee of diverse feminist activists from Isha L'Isha meets and picks topics which concern them on a personal and political level. They then ask various women within and outside the community to share their thoughts on that topic. It is an opportunity to enable ideas which otherwise would not have been heard to reach women who otherwise would have not been able to hear them. We are facing an age of huge digital gap which grow wider, we still try not to leave women behind, by sending a newspaper through snail-mail. Some of the topics we dealt with this year were: capitalism and feminism, language and feminism, art, activism and feminism. Unfortunately, due to financial difficulties, we have not been able to send the last issue of the newsletter to the homes of women. Thus the last issue is available in a digital form on our website and was sent also sent out through our large organizational mailing list. However, we took this opportunity of the digital format and included articles in two additional languages: Russian and English. We hope that in 2011 we will raise the necessary funds to be able to print the newsletter and send it out to all the women who don’t have access to the internet.

Trafficking in Women Report 2009 - 2010

2010-08-11T01:19:00.002+03:00

The ultimate aim of the project is to end trafficking in women for the sex industry. The project employs multiple strategies for this end: comprehensive education and awareness-raising campaign for sex costumers, potential sex costumers and the wider public, advocacy work in order to secure social, medical and human rights of trafficking victims, empowerment workshops to help victims rehabilitate, legal consultation for victims, and close networking and coalition-building with other NGOs working in the field.

Isha L'Isha has been on the forefront of the fight against trafficking in women since 2002, and has gained extensive professional expertise in the field. In nine years of anti-trafficking work, we have gained experience in sex client education campaigns, public awareness-raising lectures and workshops, advocacy work, networking with NGOs in source countries to help victims in their safe return home, and in organizing multi-national seminars. We work closely with the police, who consult us on a regular basis in international cases. We are also invited on a regular basis to parliamentary meetings to provide our input on all aspects of trafficking.

Project Accomplishments: May 2009 – April 2010
Advocacy
 The Knesset (Israeli Parliament) was not active until April 2009 due to the elections. We were very disappointed that Ms. Zehava Galon – head of the Subcommittee on Trafficking in Women – was not elected. Ms Galon always helped us in advancing the issues important to us. The committee is now headed by a new Knesset member from the Kadima party, Orit Zuaretz. We sent her a letter expressing our request that we want to investigate why the police is not active in the field and is not doing anything regarding pimps. We demand that the punishment for pimping in local women be equal to the punishment of traffickers in international cases. The project coordinator, Rita Chaikin, met with Ms. Zuaretz in July and discussed these issues with her.

 A legislation proposal was brought to first Knesset reading, which would criminalize sex costumers. Isha L’Isha, along with a number of NGOs, met to discuss the implications of this legislation on women. We also held a panel to which we invited women who work in the sex industry to hear their voices. The women expressed their fears of this law, as it does not provide any protection for women. Should the law pass as it is formulated now, women who work in the sex industry will be even more vulnerable to physical and sexual violence than they already are. Our position on this law is that – alongside criminalizing sex costumers – it has to set provisions of protection of these women. After its first reading, the law was returned for corrections. Isha L’Isha is present at meetings of the Ministry of Justice that discusses this legislation to provide our input from the field. We also formulated a position paper with recommendations for changes in the legislation.

 We continue to advocate for greater government responsiveness to the needs of trafficking victims, focusing on their social, economic and health rights. In this regard, we had a major success with the Ministry of Interior whereby they changed a specific requirement regarding the birth certificate of children born to foreign women without status. Indeed we see this as a major accomplishment, as this will affect not only trafficking victims but also migrant workers and/or foreign women giving birth in Israel.

 Advocating for policy change in the conduct of the police and their treatment of trafficking victims: a total of 124 complaints were filed to the police during the reporting period. In addition, as part of our efforts to educate professionals and provide them skills in identifying and helping victims of trafficking, the Police Academy near Haifa recognizes the importance of NGO field work, and the cooperation between NGOs and police in the fight against trafficking in women. Rita is invited to lecture at every course of the advanced investigators course. In these lectures, she discusses the psychological aspects of trafficking victims and provides a non-governmental field perspective of the phenomenon.

 A tour to the sex-industry areas in Tel Aviv for Members of Knesset to understand the issues and get first-hand experience.

 We continue to advocate at the National Insurance Institute to demand that foreign women receive financial allocations for their children. Here, again, we were successful in establishing precedents whereby a foreign woman receives financial allocations for her children by order of the court. This is a very important development, as it indicates that the state is beginning to recognize these women’s rights.

Direct Intervention
 During the reporting period, we helped in 23 cases of compensation payments for women. We connected most of these women to NGOs in their source countries, and they have begun receiving help. Isha L’Isha has developed a special expertise in locating women entitled to compensation and in cooperating with NGOs in the FSU for this specific purpose. The compensation is in criminal cases, and the highest compensation paid in 2009 was 110,000 NIS.

 In 2009, the Tel-Aviv central police unit uncovered a major case of trafficking in women, and our organization took an active part in accompanying the victims and helping them emotionally. The case received wide media coverage.

 We have been successful in obtaining a “green-lane” at the Department for Legal Aid, where the women we refer for legal aid do not have to go through all the bureaucratic process nor wait for their turn, but rather are immediately served.

 Participation in site-visits to sex-industry areas and provide initial help to victims: our veteran volunteers join the weekly tours of sex-industry areas, which are conducted by the new government project “Women’s Horizon,” with which we fully cooperate. Our trained volunteers contribute from their extensive experience in working with women victims of trafficking. This cooperation has proven very successful in terms of pooling resources, as the “Women’s Horizon” provides the funding and the new volunteers for these tours, and Isha L’Isha provides the trained volunteers who guide the new ones. We hope to continue cooperating with this important government-funded initiative.

 We continue to provide a telephone support line to victims and referring them to the relevant bodies according to the individual women’s needs and situation. The total number of calls during the reporting period was 520, which includes both first-time and second-time callers.

 Providing an Emergency Humanitarian Fund for victims of sexual exploitation. The fund covers a range of essential and immediate needs and services, such as initial money for reintegration into the community, psychological treatment, medical treatment, medical insurance, medicine, and more.

Art Therapy Group for Victims of Trafficking and Forced Prostitution
In full cooperation with “Women’s Horizon,” a project for women in prostitution run by the Municipality of Haifa, we held a unique art-therapy course for victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation. In this 12-session course, we saw women rehabilitating through art work. We focused on a group of women who are still in prostitution but who want to leave it and are in need of help. Throughout this course we’ve seen the creation of a new language – the language of art – of women in distress. The facilitator of this course, Ms. Tsipa Ziskind, and the project coordinator, Ms. Rita Chaikin, were amazed to see the strong will and determination of participating women to create and talk through their art. Their art helped us understand the different emotional stages of the women as well as identify their different needs. The course was very successful and, as one of the women said, “You brought me back to life, to something I never had in my childhood. Today I allow myself to be in my own world and to create. This is my place of calm, a world in which I feel safe.”

Empowerment course for mothers who are victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation This course was held in cooperation with Itach – Maaki: Women Lawyers for Social Justice. The workshops provide mothers with tools to create a warm, supportive environment for the sound development of the child, listening to the child, feelings of belonging to a family, encouraging the child’s self-expression, and more. These courses are especially important for victims of sexual exploitation, as many of these women suffered from a difficult and abusive childhood without positive parental role models. Thus, they are unable to give their children the love and support they themselves did not receive. It is important to relate to these difficulties so each woman can find the power in herself to provide this support to her own child.

Empowerment and basic life skills course
A third course that began in 2010 for victims of trafficking and forced prostitution is an empowerment course that provides basic life skills for participating women. The contents of the course are designed in a modular way, enabling the facilitator to adapt them to the specific needs that arise throughout the course. The issues in this course include: life purpose and vision; internal and external constraints on the way to attaining goals; personal strengths and abilities that help in overcoming obstacles; defining the terms “self-respect”; doubts and dilemmas – internal conflicts; responsibility and decision-making in life; money, income, expenses, and responsibility; sources of conflicts and solutions; coping with unwanted reality; interpersonal authorities and boundaries and the relationship between them; sources of violence; consultation and seeking for help (internal obstacles for seeking help); from power struggle to cooperation; encouragement as a basis for developing self-confidence and self-worth; coping with stress.

Statistics May 2009 – April 2010
Total number of trafficking victims assisted - 172
No. of calls to hotline - 520
No. of compensation payments made - 23
No. of requests from NGOs in FSU - 21
No. of safe returns home - 7
No. of runaways helped - 33
No. of victims we helped give testimony - 16
No. of complaints to police - 124
No. of media items published - 27
No. of coalition meetings attended - 13
No. of Parliamentary committee meetings attended - 15

Education
We continue with our education campaign, holding lectures and workshops to various groups of population. A total of 25 lectures and workshops were held to 879 participants during the reporting period. Each workshop and lecture is especially designed for the specific target population. Participating groups include: high school girls, groups of women, social work students, graduate students of law, police officers and the wider public.

Consultation
During the reporting period, we continued to provide professional consultation to various governmental and non-governmental bodies and projects on various aspects of the phenomenon of trafficking and prostitution in women both locally and globally.

 The project coordinator, Ms Rita Chaikin, met with NGO representatives – both local and international – and discussed Isha L’Isha’s experience in education campaigns for sex consumers. She provided professional consultation to a number of small projects on how to implement effective advocacy strategies in order to change governmental policies.

 Representatives from La Strada Ukraine and La Strada Moldova visited our center and we exchanged experience and knowledge with them. In addition to the phenomenon of trafficking, they were interested also in the broader issue of violence against women.

 This year, we are providing ongoing consultation to the “Women's Horizon,” part of a comprehensive project of the inter-ministerial plan to help women out of forced prostitution, with which we have also established very good working relations.

 We have consolidated good relations with both the Haifa and Tel Aviv sex clinics. In Haifa, a new project was recently initiated: a mobile unit for treating STDs for at-risk women. We are happy to note that we received a permit to conduct the guidance and training on everything that is related to forced prostitution to the whole staff of this mobile unit.

Knowledge Exchange Trip to Georgia
In July 2009, Rita Chaikin and one of the project volunteers, Olga Medvedovskaja were invited by the Women’s Cultural-Humanitarian Fund Sukhumi to Kutaisi, Georgia. They were asked to talk about the activities of Israeli women's organizations addressing women’s rights in a spectrum of different aspects of life, and about their struggle to end violence against women. During their visit, Rita and Olga shared their experience, and spoke about the history of the struggle for the recognition of women's rights in Israel. In particular, Rita and Olga addressed the following issues:

 The change in attitude in Israel towards the phenomenon of trafficking in women, and the way NGOs influence and shape policies;
 How to fight for women's rights;
 The development of various projects and ideological movements aimed at changing current laws and regulations;
 Methods of working with governmental organizations and entities;
 External sources of influence on the public system;
 The contradictions and difficult aspects of the relationships between governmental and non-governmental organizations, and their impact on cooperation;
 Working with a coalition of non-governmental organizations;
 Lobbying in the Parliament and working within the legal system;
 Monitoring the implementation of laws and regulations, and
 Networking and working with the media.

Uzbekistan Consultation
We are happy to share with you this important trip, as it constitutes part of our ongoing network of consultation. Similar to the trip to Georgia, Rita was invited to provide consultation and share her knowledge and experience in the field of trafficking in women for the sex industry and effective advocacy work to change policies. She met with about 30 representatives of 10 NGOs from the Istiqbolli Avlod Network, where she discussed effective strategies in work with both governmental and non-governmental bodies, dilemmas and working with women victims of trafficking as a marginalized group.

International Workshop on Preventing Trafficking in Human Beings
This international seminar, organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Israel’s National Agency for International Cooperation – MASHAV, in cooperation with International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Center for International Migration and Immigration (CIMI), was held in May. Rita was invited to speak at a panel on “How to Prevent Migrants Becoming Vulnerable to Exploitation and Trafficking Once in Destination Country.” The audience included representatives from NGOs and governmental bodies from different countries.

Seminar: Invisible Women – Women and Girls in Prostitution
The seminar, held in November 2009, was organized in cooperation with “Women’s Horizon” and attended by more than 160 people, most of them social workers and professionals who are engaged in providing assistance to women and girls in forced prostitution. The aim of the seminar was to raise awareness of the fact that women in prostitution have unique needs and to discuss possible ways of dealing with their problems and helping them leave prostitution. This need arose from discussions with the women themselves, where they related that the assistance they received from the welfare departments was not suited or adopted to their specific needs. The seminar further dealt with dilemmas social workers and other professionals deal with when working with women in prostitution. In her opening remarks, Dr. Sarai Aharoni, a board member of Isha L’Isha, stressed the connections between capitalism, forced prostitution and trafficking in women for the sex industry. The seminar was the first of its kind to be held in the North of Israel, and the number of people attending indicates that there is both an interest as well as a need for such a seminar. We received very positive feedback from seminar participants, and we are planning a similar seminar in the upcoming months for professionals from the Tel Aviv area.

Article: Immigration, Women and Prostitution: the Case of Women from the Former Soviet Union in Israel
Rita Chaikin and Dr. Hannah Safran, a feminist researcher who is also a member of Isha L’Isha, wrote an article for a book which will include articles from around the world about prostitution. The name of the book: The Prostitution of Women, Men & Children: A Global Perspective Implications for Research, Policy, Education, and Service. Our article deals with the prostitution of immigrant women from the FSU, and delineates the cultural, social and economic factors alongside difficult adaptation patterns into the new country that played major roles in the deterioration of women into prostitution.

A Woman of Peace Award
We are excited to share with you that at the close of 2009 Rita, the project coordinator, received a Woman of Peace Award from the Women’s Peacepower Foundation for her work. The foundation makes awards to grassroots projects around the world that are working to impact issues of violence against women and their children.

Rita was also nominated for the International Woman of Courage Award which is awarded by the US Department of State, for courage and leadership in advocating for women’s rights and unparalleled commitment to seeking justice for victims of trafficking in persons.

A word from Ms. Rita Chaikin, the project coordinator:

Compensation for trafficking victims on a criminal base
“In May 2009, and after a whole year of search, I finally succeeded in locating M from Moldova, who had been trafficked to Israel for purposes of sexual exploitation. M had suffered a very harsh abuse in Israel, and during her testimony she was kidnapped and sent back to Moldova under life threats. The court of law ordered her trafficker to pay a sum of 7,000 NIS to M and her friends. After a number of years, the trafficker suddenly paid his fine. As soon as I found M’s phone number I called her and told her the news that there is compensation money waiting for her and that we can help her receive this money. M’s reaction was very emotional: she did not want anything to do with her trafficker, not even compensation money. I felt that she didn’t believe me and that she was even scared of me. I asked her to think about it before she signs a concession letter, saved her phone number and decided to think about what I want to do.

The following day, I called M again, and after a long conversation, I succeeded in gaining her trust. We contacted our partner IOM in Moldova, who were willing to provide her with the necessary assistance even though five years have passed since the case. They integrated her into a rehabilitation and professional training program in order to prevent her from searching for a “tempting” job abroad under uncertain conditions. Today, M is a mother to a child, lives in Moldova and is unemployed. Soon she will be receiving $ 1,700 that will give her hope and opportunity to begin a new life, and even acquire a profession or higher education.

This year, within the framework of the Fighting against Trafficking and Prostitution in Women, we dealt with 12 cases of compensation for trafficking victims. Since 2002, we helped 52 trafficked women receive compensation. The process of obtaining compensation money is very complex, and sometimes we are unable to locate the entitled women. Some of these women were trafficked in 2002 and were deported, and there is no hint as to her location. In other cases, the women themselves are not willing to receive any money from their traffickers or they do not believe or trust us, as was the initial case with M.

We believe that compensation money will prevent trafficking victims from travelling abroad and falling for suspicious tempting jobs. The compensation money enables them to begin a new life in their own community and to live in dignity.

We would not have been able to help victims receive compensation without our partner organizations in the Former Soviet Union who help us and are willing to sign a power of attorney or identify a trafficking victim. We wish to thank the IOM branches in Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Belarus, local NGOs in Ukraine, ISTIQBOLLI AVLOD - an NGO network in Uzbekistan, the Angel Coalition in Moscow, and WINROCK Khabarovsk and other organizations, all of whom are involved in helping trafficked women receive their compensation and make great efforts in their work. Without their help and fruitful cooperation, we would not succeed in this important work.”

Rita Chaikin, project coordinator

Of course, all of these activities would be impossible to implement without the support of our funders. We would like to take this opportunity to express our thanks and appreciation to the foundations and individuals for their trust in our work.

Financial support is urgently needed for the anti-trafficking Emergency Humanitarian Fund. Through this fund, we provide immediate assistance to victims of trafficking and forced prostitution. The fund covers a range of essential and immediate needs and services, such as issuing documents and passports, initial money for reintegration into the community, individual professional training, plane tickets to country of origin, psychological treatment, medical treatment, medical insurance, medicine, and more. To donate to the Emergency Humanitarian Fund, please contact Khulud Khamis, Isha L’Isha’s Development Coordinator at Khulud.kh@gmail.com

Statement by Isha L'Isha

2010-06-01T22:50:00.001+03:00

We, the women of Isha L'Isha – Haifa Feminist Center, express deep shock at the continuing and deteriorating consequences of the siege on Gaza. We express our solidarity with women peace activists who acted to break the inhuman siege on women, children and men; a siege that has been preventing basic human freedoms, health services and essential materials.

We extend our support to our sisters in the feminist movement, especially those who went out to exercise their right to protest against an outrageous injustice, and found themselves facing a military attack that was a result of a violent state policy.

We call on women and men in Israeli society to resist the assault on the most basic human values, and to join our call – the attack on the peace flotilla is an attack on me. The siege on Gaza endangers us all.

Isha L’Isha – Haifa Feminist Center is a multi-cultural feminist collective established in 1983. Our aim is to bring about social change by promoting values of equal rights and equal opportunities for all women; eradicating discrimination, violence and oppression of women; and fostering solidarity among women.

Annual Activity Report for 2009

2010-03-29T23:20:00.007+03:00

Welcome to the new platform of Isha L'Isha's newsletter.
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We have just completed our Activity Report for the year 2009.
(It takes a few seconds to upload as it's in PDF format).

In the report, read about:
- Art therapy group for victims of trafficking and forced prostitution
- Knowledge exchange trip to Georgia
- Seminar: Invisible women - women and girls in forced prostitution
- our advocacy work regarding the ova donation legislation
- Mapping research on trafficking in ova in Israel
- Research on the Depo Provera contraceptive given systematically to women from the Ethiopian community in Israel
- Anti-racism seminars
and more.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our members for their dedication and activism.
We also thank our friends and donors for supporting us and believing in our causes. Without your financial support, we wouldn't be able to implement all the activities we did.

Sincerely,
Khulud