Report: 51,000 Reports to Rape Crisis Centers Last Year in Israel

Photo Credit: Amos Ben Gershom / GPO

There was a 40 percent rise in the number of reports of rape in the State of Israel since 2014, according to the annual report submitted Wednesday to President Reuven Rivlin by the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel.

The organization said it received 51,000 reports in 2018 alone, according to the report; 63 percent of the victims of group rape were young teens ages 12 to 18.

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Sixty percent of those who reported the attacks were minors when they were assaulted, and 32 percent of the reports involved attacks against 13 to 18 year olds.

The Center and its report this year is focusing on the education system and sexual assaults on minors, said executive director Orit Sulitzieano.

“Your report includes difficult statistics about who reported sexual assault this year, of whom more than a third are young people under the age of 18,” President Rivlin said as he accepted the report from Sulitzieano. Education about healthy sex and equal and respectful relations must start from a young age. In recent months, three women have been murdered by their husbands. Although they were not clear cases of sexual assault, they are still a call to us all – the state, NGOs and individuals – to open our eyes, our ears and our hearts to those around us who may be suffering from abuse.”

After thanking the staff of the center, the president added, “I can only hope that in the future we will not need organizations like yours, and that things will be safer and better.”