Mk Proposes Legalized Prostitution

Labor MK Ora Namir appealed Tuesday for the legalization of prostitution in Israel as a means to control the spread of AIDS and other diseases and out of concern for the health and welfare of prostitutes.

Namir, who chairs the Knesset’s Labor and Social Welfare Committee, was interviewed on “New Evening,” a program sponsored jointly by Educational Television and the Israel Defense Force Radio. She quoted rabbinical authorities on the recognition of prostitution.

Namir indicated her primary concern was over AIDS, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, which affects primarily homosexual and bi-sexual males. She noted it has been determined that the virus can be transmitted by females to males, though women do not suffer from the invariably fatal ailment to the same extent as men.

Recent investigations by Israeli doctors and social workers indicated, however, that the incidence of the virus is higher among women than men and that 30 percent of prostitutes in Israel carry the virus. Most carriers do not come down with the disease.

Namir said she spoke to prostitutes “who, after all, are human beings and deserve protection and rights,” and almost all of them favor licensed premises from where they could provide their services in a sheltered, controlled environment. As long as there are men willing to pay for those services, there will be prostitutes, she observed.

Namir recalled that a Cabinet-appointed committee several years ago recommended legalizing prostitution as a mean of controlling it. “But as with many other committee recommendations, the government never had the courage to implement the committee’s findings,” she said.