The Ministerial Committee for Legislation made an important decision on Sunday. One can only hope that the proposal to outlaw the solicitation of sex services will soon become law. There is currently no law that prohibits prostitution in Israel, and customers are free to pay for sex at will. But this freedom comes with a price, and the prostitutes are the ones who pay it. And that price is steep, as demonstrated by empirical research, womens testimonies and medical and legal statistics. Some of the damage caused by prostitution can be seen as subjective: mental anguish, continuous physical and verbal abuse and more. The presence and extent of this damage vary from individual to individual, depending on the womans psychological makeup. This so-called subjective damage is compounded by damage that can be defined as objective: the social stigma that comes with severe humiliation, and that affects every woman who works in prostitution. This social stigma means that the woman is no longer a woman but a prostitute deserving of less respect. Such a woman will never be able to shake the prostitute label and go back to just being a woman, free of stigmas. The time has come for a revolution in public perception. The perils of prostitution must be brought to light and the state must take measures to prevent them. Society cannot be allowed to shirk its responsibility using the arguments of consent and choice. These serve as obstacles to treating the damage of prostitution. Countless studies have shown that prostitutes often lack the tools to decide whether to consent or not. The women often say that while prostitution was their choice, they were drawn into it at a young age or following sexual abuse. Respecting the choice made by some women -- who may have made a free choice to work in prostitution and wish to continue -- is not a good enough reason to facilitate this trade, which causes a great deal of damage to countless other women. A womans decision to go into prostitution is often preceded by so many failures that serious doubts must be raised about the validity of her choice. Measures enacted in Sweden and other countries demonstrate that an approach recognizing the damage prostitution inflicts and penalizing its customers has a good chance of succeeding. The writer is a professor at the University of Haifa Faculty of Law and the author of Nashim Mufkarot (Abandoned Women), which deals with the legal aspects of prostitution.
