Police close brothel after prostitute suicide

Tel Aviv District police on Sunday issued a closure order against a brothel in the city after a prostitute who worked at the site took her own life earlier this month.

Police said the order wasn’t due to the suicide at Rehov Hayarkon 98 but rather because local residents had complained that the brothel was disruptive and damaging their quality of life.

The building was shut down under a technicality enabling police to limit the use of a premises.

Police said it was the second time that a closure order was issued for the place, but the previous action had been annulled by the court.

Tel Aviv Police spokeswoman Chief Superintendent Hila Hamo stressed that the woman, identified only as J, didn’t kill herself inside the brothel but in an apartment building on the floor above.

She noted that the brothel’s operators can exercise their right to appeal against the closure within 30 days.

However, the operators could face charges of running a brothel and procuring prostitutes. Prostitution in legal in Israel, but running a brothel or sex trafficking is illegal.

On Sunday night, hundreds of people gathered in London Park in Tel Aviv opposite the brothel in memory of the woman and to protest against prostitution.

According to fellow sex workers J had worked for 15 years as a prostitute and had recently become depressed and started using drugs and alcohol heavily, the Hebrew-language Walla website reported.

Shortly after her body was discovered the brothel reopened its doors and continued business as usual.

According to the Task Force on Human Trafficking, there are 15,000 women working in the sex trade in Israel.