The American State Department: “Palestinian children are exploited as beggars by organized trafficking networks in Israel”

The new report of the American State Department dealing with human trafficking in various countries, and published today (Tuesday), indicates the phenomenon of ‘children on the side of the road’ as a phenomenon of “exploitation of Palestinian children as beggars by organized trafficking networks in Israel”. The report is published every year and also includes Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. The paragraph referring to the trafficking of Palestinian children is included in the section dealing with the West Bank, where the children come from, even though a large part of them are sent to collect in the territories of the State of Israel.

The State Department of the United States issues a report every year that reviews the state of trafficking in various human beings, since 2001. The report is based on answers from governments, governmental bodies and non-governmental bodies to questions that the US State Department sends to the questioning offices dealing with these issues.

“In some cases, family members organize a trip to Israel for the Palestinian children,” the report states, without detailing the methods of arrival, a complete industrial chain of exploitation, “where they stay alone or under the supervision of older children.” The report clarifies that the Palestinian children “remain in the territory For weeks until they return on their own or the Israeli authorities catch them and return them to PA territory.” The report states that traffickers, without clarifying their origin, exploit Palestinian children, some up to the age of 5, in begging and other forms of labor trafficking such as washing cars.

As I recall, already in the first months of the war, the arrival of child beggars from the PA’s territories to intersections in the north of the country, Wadi Ara, resumed, and the phenomenon continues as usual, without any disturbance, enforcement or problem. The Israeli authorities, led by the Ministry of Justice and the department in charge of the fight against human trafficking in Israel – stand helpless in the face of the phenomenon.

“The State of Israel has failed in dealing with a serious phenomenon, of severe exploitation, to the point of child trafficking, in relation to Palestinian children who arrive in Israel in an organized and systematic manner by criminal elements,” Attorney Michal Tager, from the clinical setup at the Faculty of Law at the University of Jerusalem, tells ‘Davar’ Tel Aviv, which has been dealing with the issue for years. “Despite teams that have been set up for about a decade and are “discussing” the phenomenon, there is not the slightest attempt to investigate the trafficking network that organizes the children. Instead of investigating properly, the police stop and chase the children themselves. The time has come to take seriously this phenomenon that we are seeing at the junctions of Israel, and it is good that the American State Department addressed the profound failure in the treatment and treatment of the issue by the authorities”