Israel made a commendable stride in the right direction on Wednesday when the Knesset approved MK Merav Michaeli’s bill to expand free legal aid to victims of sexual assault in a preliminary reading.
The bill allows all victims of sexual assault to receive legal aid starting from the time of filing a complaint with the police, in contrast to what the law allows now, which is enabling legal assistance only from the filing of an indictment.
Michaeli emphasized that sexual abuse is not just an individual trauma but a devastating social phenomenon.
Legal assistance from the state can empower victims, facilitate more complaints, and, ideally, lead to more prosecutions.
This legislative move represents a substantial step toward providing victims with the recognition and justice they deserve.
Legal aid from the state will make it easier for victims to file complaints; that much is obvious.
This is a system that appears threatening and unhelpful to many victims who wish to come forward but feel that they cannot.
The fact that most victims are women and experience systemic sexism at every level only exacerbates this situation.
This is a vital step forward that cannot be overlooked. Israel is taking a step forward from living in ancient history to the present.
That being said, significant gaps remain that need urgent attention.
A reform Israel must adopt
While expanding legal aid is a positive development, ending the statute of limitations for sexual offenses, especially against minors, is an essential reform that Israel must adopt.
The Knesset’s Constitution and Law Committee and Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality proposed such a bill in March.
Still, it faced severe opposition from our very own renowned and controversial justice minister, Yariv Levin.
Removing the time limit for filing a complaint
The bill dictates that certain sex crimes, such as those against minors, will not have any statute of limitations; in other words, there will be no time limit to when someone may file a complaint.
It would provide children who have fallen victim to predators and pedophiles with broad protection within the legal system.
But our justice ministry simply would not have it.
“It isn’t right to completely cancel the statutes of limitations,” said Attorney Lilach Ganor, who presented the Justice Ministry’s position on the matter at the meeting in March.
“There needs to be a balance. These things may be hard to hear, and I sympathize with the pain and hurt felt by the victims. But… we need to think about the cases when innocent people are accused.”
This argument holds no water. Even if someone reports a crime many years later, we still need to collect evidence and compile testimonies.
The legal system is thorough. A court of law would combat false accusations. False accusations would be combated in a court of law.
Opposing such a bill only stops innocent victims from getting the justice they so desperately need and deserve.
“We met with other victims who were abused as children and heard the difficulties they pointed out to us… Therefore, we suggested extending the statute of limitations in general and not just for children abused by family members,” Ganor said in response to cries of anger at the Justice Ministry’s stance.
Indeed, the statute of limitations was extended – but not by this government; it was one of the last bills approved by the Lapid-Bennett government in 2022.
At the time, the government passed the third reading of three significant bills to protect the rights of sexual assault victims.
The first was to extend the statute of limitations for victims of sexual abuse as minors; the second was to expand the protection of victims before the confidentiality of their evidence was lifted; and the third dealt with evidence confidentiality.
These were significant advancements, but, simply put, this is not enough.
Jumping back to 2024, the most basic of protections for sexual assault victims cannot be moved forward.
Israel’s most right-wing government to date is at it again, and to no one’s surprise, women are getting the brunt of it.
Yael Sherer, head of the Lobby to Combat Sexual Violence, pointed out that merely changing the statute of limitations or expanding legal aid is not enough.
There is a need for comprehensive action, including increasing the personnel and resources dedicated to investigating sexual assault cases.
Without these systemic changes, a lack of evidence may still lead to the closure of many complaints.
Israel can, should, and must establish an interministerial committee dedicated to handling sexual assault cases.
Why should Israel establish a new committee?
Such a committee would ensure a coordinated response across various government departments, including justice, health, and social services.
On a broader level, imagine that heaven forbid, but very probably, there are more sexual assault victims of Hamas among Israel’s hostages and survivors, but they are afraid to come forward due to severe trauma from what they had endured.
One day, years later, the switch suddenly flips in their minds, and they are ready to come forward and tell the world what they experienced.
How could Israel support a policy that would not consider such cases worthy of investigation?
Of course, we cannot exactly arrest Hamas terrorists, but the principle stands: this policy would not recognize such a victim coming forward.
This, unfortunately, is not surprising. Israel has not been effective in preventing cases of sexual abuse on the most basic levels.
One case that makes this evident is that of the female IDF cadets guarding Hamas terrorists.
In April, it was revealed that female cadets in the IDF officers’ course were instructed to guard the terrorists who targeted Israelis on October 7, committing violent acts of sexual assault and murder.
These cadets, with no training in guarding security prisoners, were ordered to guard the Nukhba terrorists in pens within IDF bases surrounded by barbed wire.
The cadets were ignored when they said they would rather fight in the Gaza Strip.
State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman condemned this assignment and compared it to the report on sexual abuse by security prisoners towards female prison guards, which the comptroller’s office publicized in November 2022.
The report revealed then that 38% of female prison guards were sexually assaulted at least once while on guard duty.
In short, Israel is not doing enough, and its extremist government is not helping the matter.
Victims are abused and thrown to the curb, and I do not mean by their attackers alone but by the systems put in place that are supposed to protect and serve them.
The writer is deputy editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post.