
️

JUST IN: Testimonies about children who were raped in cemeteries and forests in Israel:
New and unimaginable evidence of abuse of minors during religious ceremonies was revealed in a Knesset debate - "We were raped while tied up and a whip and an electric shocker were used," said one participant in the debate, Another participant said: "I dropped hints that only a blind person would not see".
About two months after unimaginable evidence was revealed in the Knesset of how girls were raped in religious ceremonies over the years , the Committee for the Advancement of the Status of Women and the Committee for Youth Affairs held a joint follow-up discussion on the subject today (Sunday).
At the beginning of the debate, the chairmen of MK Pnina Tamano-Shata (Blue and White) and MK Naama Lazimi (Democrats) called on the Knesset to prevent the appointment of MK Hanoch Milbitsky as chairman of the Finance Committee. MK Tamano-Shata said: "The Knesset needs to send a very clear message that someone who is suspected and investigated for such serious and serious offenses as sexual offenses, extortion, and obstruction of justice has no place in receiving a powerful appointment."
MK Lazimi said: "The chairman of the Finance Committee cannot be a suspect in such serious and extreme cases. I also don't want to think about the blackmail mechanisms that exist in his being in such a sensitive and important position. It is very, very disturbing that no one from the coalition has said anything about such suspicions."
S., one of the participants in the discussion, told the committee: "I wasn't here last time, but I want to share my testimony because of the importance of the issue. I came with a lot of concerns. I know that I could pay a heavy price for what I'm doing now, and I'm dealing with one of the prohibitions that was imposed on me as a child, that I'm not allowed to tell, but I feel like I'm doing the right thing. I can't sit back and do nothing, because there are children who are being harmed now and maybe we can save them or at least listen to them in real time."
I was a little girl, about 5 years old when it started," continued S. "I was harmed for at least 4 years, an unbearably violent harm. I often ask myself how I could have gotten out of it alive. The level of violence could certainly have made it impossible, physical, sexual and mental violence. The harm was organized, group, with many religious characteristics, and involved educators, religious leaders... It happened in various places - a closed room, a forest, a synagogue, a cemetery and a school."
S. described: "Many of the abuses involved other boys and girls. I can still hear in my head the cries of pain and fear of the boys and girls who were abused near me. They knew how to use the right manipulations, which would make a little girl do whatever they told her. They always made sure to keep saying that I was the bad one, that I was born broken and that this was the way to fix me. If they don't fix me, the world will be damaged. Try to imagine how much weight that little girl had. They used religious terms like the name of the Lord, mikveh, altar, ekida, blessings and prayer. The hierarchy between them was clear. The rabbi who was leading the proceedings was interested, his assistants and the order of the adults who raped me one after the other. They used every way to scare and humiliate me, always without clothes, in every way, using a whip and an electric shocker, raping me in different and strange ways, threatening what would happen if I cried in the middle of the night, and what would happen if I told. They used forbidden substances, punishments if I didn't do what they told me, and they made the abuse seem like a crime. This "A very general description, and a few minutes cannot contain the magnitude of the story, and the intensity of the impact."
MK Tamano-Shata responded: "I hear this brave woman. She remembers ages and I tell you, Israel Police, you must not wait with such testimony. Summon her tomorrow morning." MK Lazimi added: "Provide her with protection as well."
S. responded: "I have quite a few names and can say places. Who would believe a story like that? It's a truth that tears families apart and I'm dealing with this truth. I ask you with all my heart not to stop. Don't let this fall off the agenda."
A., another victim, said in the committee hearing: "I was victimized from the age of 4 to 20. Family violence and later multiple victims. When I was in first grade, I spoke to the coordinator and she turned to the parents. There were cases where the Ministry of Education could help. In seventh grade, they realized something was wrong, and it didn't go any further. I dropped hints that only a blind person would not see. I didn't come to another youth hostel for 4 and a half months and no one looked for me. I was around 15 and I was tied to a torture bed in the basements in the Tel Aviv area. They held a snake and put it inside me and I saw it covered in blood and they slaughtered it into a vessel, mixed my blood with the snake's blood and drank it. They said that now I am a holy gate and door. I think one of my parents was an accomplice. They would pick me up from the youth hostel. In my case, the police were empathetic, but the prosecutor who was accompanying the case closed it. The prosecutor said that they "wasted too much time."
H., another complainant, testified in the committee: "When I sought help, I was 15 years old. I told the teacher that my father was harming me at home. Social services and the police intervened, but after a few months I was returned home. When I returned, the harm continued and the trafficking continued. I filed complaints and the perpetrators are still free. He pimped me and took me to places where they harmed me. Both in the forests and in other houses. I can point out people and places. My father and other people pimped me for years in sadistic networks where rituals were held, some of which took place among well-known people. Media people and politicians. It's hard to explain what happens there. There are children and cameras there, and there is blood and death. My baby didn't survive, I didn't give birth to her in a hospital. A welfare officer gave me 500 shekels to have an abortion."
Orly Rosenthal Neeman, national supervisor for victims of crime at the State Attorney's Office, said at the hearing: "I was at the previous hearing and heard the testimonies. We collected the files to examine what comes up with them. We received a limited number. There is no section in the law that refers to sexual assault. If you want cases about rape or domestic violence, then you have to go through each case. We receive cases at the police station and check what is in front of us. We will go to the Lahav 105 offices to check with them."
MK Sharon Nir: "The basic expectation of all of us is to route data back. There was a revelation here and sexual violence against minors was discovered and there was an earthquake here and there should be a directive for you to receive data back at least 5 years and provide the data."
Rosenthal replied: "We want to investigate in depth. We are collecting files to see the characteristics of the files. Several officials have been invited to a meeting at the police station. We will hold additional meetings with government ministries." MK Oded Forer asked: "How many files are we talking about?" Rosenthal replied: "A few individual files." MK Forer: "I understood the problem with mapping. It's not a push of a button, but there are the offenses and you need to reach a guiding principle."
Asherat Shoham, the Jerusalem District Attorney, said: "We did a retrospective activity. There was an appeal to all attorneys who specialize in this field to think backwards and filter out cases in which there was perhaps some suspicion." MK Lazimi responded: "If you don't recognize the ritualistic feature, then it is destined for failure. The issue of the darknet and the money that is being transferred is not disconnected from the desire to make money from this disaster."
MK Tamano-Shata: "It is clear to me that in the State of Israel, cults are not treated as they should be. Quite a few ritual abuses take place in cults, and children are harmed and smuggled abroad. I appeal to the District Attorney, and in order to deal with this, you need to bring a law on cults. It should be a law of the Ministry of Justice, and it fails every time."
Lt. Col. Anat Yakir Blum, head of the Crime Victims and Family Division, said: "The issue is being handled by Unit 105 at Lahav and there have been several discussions with the head of Lahav, the head of the VIP unit and other commanders in several meetings. We are examining cases that have already been received and closed by the police. We have reached a limited number of cases and have gone back over a decade. Next week there will be a roundtable with the Attorney General's Office, the Ministries of Welfare, Education and Justice."
Ministry of Education representative Iris Ben Yaakov, director of the Child Sexuality Unit, said: "Our unit outlines a policy for locating such children within educational frameworks. We teach education teams how to locate such children and have trained experts on the subject, and in cases where schools are struggling with incidents, we accompany them. We have received approximately 6,000 requests for consultation on the entire spectrum of sexual abuse, including domestic violence and sexual harassment. We have not received a single report of ritual abuse. We guide the educational counselors without prejudice to the investigation."
Mike