81% of sex crime complaints in Israel closed without an indictment, report says
Association of Rape Crisis Centers presents figures to Knesset committee hearing; MK: ‘I feel like the system is failing again and again’
Amy Spiro is a reporter and writer with The Times of Israel
Eighty-one percent of sexual assault and harassment complaints in Israel in 2023 were closed without an indictment being filed, according to a report released Monday by The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel.
In figures presented to the Knesset Committee for the Advancement of Women on Monday, the ARCCI said that 6,405 cases of sexual abuse and harassment were opened by the police throughout 2023, a three percent drop compared to a year earlier. Of those, 4,823 cases were moved to the State Prosecutor’s Office, but just 663 indictments were filed during the calendar year.
The ARCCI report said that 81% of cases were closed without an indictment — more than two-thirds of them due to purported lack of evidence and 20% because of purported lack of guilt — while 17% led to an indictment and 2% settled out of court.
The organization noted that its figures differ somewhat from those put forth by the State Prosecutor’s Office, which says 22% of cases saw an indictment and 76% were closed, due to the timing of decisions and the year complaints were made.
The chair of the Knesset committee, National Unity MK Pnina Tamano-Shata, said the figures presented were “very harsh” and represent “a national calamity,” accusing prosecutors of throwing most cases “out the window.”
“We’re here a day after a very difficult case of gang rape of a 15-year-old girl in the north was uncovered,” said Tamano-Shata. “We cannot stop our very clear and difficult efforts against the vile phenomena that kill the souls of boys and girls.”
Orit Sulitzeanu, director of ARCCI, told the committee that in the year 2023 there were 133 complaints made about alleged sexual crimes committed by police officers, and two-thirds of those were closed without any investigation, while 91% were closed without an indictment.
A representative of the police claimed that the figure was actually only 43% closed without an investigation. Tamano-Shata replied that such a figure was also “extremely severe,” demanding a full hearing on the issue.
“I feel like the system is failing again and again,” she added. “We need to establish a commission to solely fight sexual abuse.”
Yesh Atid MK Matti Sarfati Harkavi said during the hearing that “our situation as women is not good and the report is worrying. And it affects all areas of our lives. We are being sent to the back of the bus while we are waging this struggle.”
Complaints regarding sharing and spreading sexual photos without consent more than doubled between 2022 and 2023, the report said, with 367 such complaints made last year compared to 171 a year earlier.
The report also showed that in the first six months of Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas sparked by the October 7, 2023, massacre, the ARCCI received more than 26,000 calls, including more than 8,000 from people who had never called before, many of whom did so apologetically, “with the fear that reaching out for help was not legitimate at such a time.”
Calls were also coming from residents of the north and south who were moved to evacuation centers, the report said, and were exposed to sexual abuse in their new surroundings. After the first few months, the report said, calls returned to their prewar levels.