Content warning: This article contains disturbing references and descriptions of sexual assault. Reader discretion is advised.
Testimonies of rape and sexual assault survivors whose cases were mishandled by the Israeli justice system were heard during a meeting of the Knesset Committee for the Advancement of the Status of Women and Gender Equality on Tuesday.
"I filed a report with the police at the age of 17 against my father, who raped me," said one survivor, identified as "S." "The case was closed due to lack of evidence."
The rape continued for another 13 years, S said, adding that her mother also raped her during that time. At age 30, S became pregnant by her father. The child was born with medical complications and died within a year, during which time S stayed by her daughter's side and got clean from drugs.
"When I came to the investigator [again] in 2016, I told her that I wanted justice...When I went to rehab, the investigator told me to drop the complaint because nothing came of it."
For the last 10 years, S explained, she has been trying to have her case heard, and it has been consistently dismissed. She expressed frustration with the claim that there was not enough evidence to indict, given that DNA testing could have been performed on her infant daughter to prove she was the product of incest.
'Go have a cup of coffee with him'
Another survivor, A, told the committee about her struggle to escape her husband, who sexually abused her and her daughter, when the authorities actively worked against her.
After running away the first time, A recounted, she filed a complaint but eventually dropped it after the police officer refused to believe her.
"For 5 hours," she recounted, "the investigator, who knew my husband, refused to accept my claims. He said: 'After 15 years, you're saying he's a pedophile? Go have a cup of coffee with him.'"
A's husband sent people to follow her out of the station, who nearly ran her off the road along with her children en route to another police station. From that station, she was taken to a women's shelter.
"He arrived at the shelter in Herzliya - someone from the police must have told him where I was going," A said, adding that the court eventually closed her cases.
About 5,000 cases of sex crimes reach the courts each year, Deputy State Attorney Efrat Greenbaum said at the meeting. She explained that the number of indictments ranges from 620 to 670, comparable to the rate for general criminal offenses.
Greenbaum further claimed that the average case duration is 6.5 months, with serious cases taking as little as 30 days before an indictment is filed.
Committee members call for systemic changes
To this point, State Prosecutor Amit Eisman added that there is a higher rate of sexual assault and rape cases being closed without resolution compared to general crimes. The cases, he explained, are often dismissed for lack of evidence.
Both Eisman and Jerusalem District Attorney Oshrat Shoham admitted that the system by which evidence is collected and cases are either dismissed or carried out is in need of overhaul in order to bring justice to victims of sexual assault.
Committee chair MK Meirav Cohen (Yesh Atid) said that the topics raised in the meeting constitute public and legal issues of the highest order. "Over the years," she said, "significant deficiencies have been discovered in the treatment of victims of sexual offenses by enforcement and legal authorities. These deficiencies did not only affect the results of the criminal proceedings, but also the manner in which they were conducted, the sensitivity, the support...and the sense of justice and trust."