Posted in Shin blog in Saloona: http://saloona.co.il/shin_movement/?p=33
Shachar AlKuser, a Young Women Parliament alumnus, took part in a discussion on women trafficking and shared her personal story on a “good friend who got a birthday present from his father: a young Ukrainian girl the father has paid for her ticket to come to Israel and spend a week with him, and thought it was a legitimate gift.”
On November 6, 2017, Young Women Parliament representatives have taken part in a discussion of the subcommittee on combating trafficking in women and prostitution regarding the United States Department of State Trafficking in Persons 2017 Report.
The representatives were girls from Kfar Saba Young Women Parliament, instructed by Rachel Levi-Hertz – Lee Solodsky and Tamar Eshet, students from Katznelson High School, Tohar Ezra, a student from Galili High School, and Shachr AlKuser, a released soldier and a Young Women Parliament alumnus.
During the project of Young Women Parliament, the girls get guidance, support and encouragement to participate in various feminist activist actions, to voice themselves and their perspectives. Shachar AlKuser has represented the girls and shared her thoughts: “I have listened to the discussion so far, and it is very important. I represent the youth and what is being discussed here has influence on our future. I was recently released from military service and I chose to share with you a small example from my everyday life. I have friends who have all served in the military, some of them in the special forces units and are already university students. One of them is a close friend who received a surprise birthday gift from his father. The gift was a young Ukrainian girl whose plane ticket was paid for by the father, so she would spend a week with his son and be with him on his birthday. When I heard about it and met her on his birthday party, I realized how wrong it was. I thought all of my friends would think like me and agree with me. However, when I talked about it with a group of 15 friends, mostly men, none of them saw any problem with the situation since she had “agreed to come” and “it was someone he met once on a plane”. Nobody could see why this gift was wrong.” Shachar AlKuser has concluded by emphasizing the connection between trafficking and prostitution and criticizing the separation between these issues.
As a response, member of Knesset Aliza Lavie has thanked her for her honesty and asked if anyone ever spoke to them in school on such matters. Shachar AlKuser replied that “there are some lessons on the topic but they are hardly enough.” Lavie has agreed with her, said legislation is not everything and that there was great importance in schools taking the opportunity to bring this issue up for discussion and explain the problems with this phenomenon. Lavie has called for the ministry of education to insert the subject into schools’ agenda.
For the full discussion (Shachar AlKuser is speaking on 1:25:00):
http://m.knesset.gov.il/Activity/committees/Women/Pages/CommitteeTVarchive.aspx?TopicID=14232