People were advised never to become prostitutes or place their daughters in the trade, as it was viewed as "shameful profession".
It was not perceived as a major problem till the 1970s, (Cnaan 1982), and prostitution policy has been described as "benign neglect".
In 2003, Israel passed a law that would allow the state to confiscate the profits of traffickers, but watchdog groups claim it is rarely enforced.
[13][14] In 2017, the "Criminal Prohibition of Consumption of Prostitution Services and Community Treatment Bill" was introduced to the Knesset.
[15] A government committee, headed by Justice Ministry director-general, Emmy Palmor, was set up to find the best model for criminalizing "clients".
[21] The Public Security Ministry had also sought a delay, citing the police's inability to enforce the new law and the government's failure to set up mandatory seminars for offenders to raise awareness of the dangers of prostitution, which had been proposed on top of the fines.
[10] A study published in 2005 found 1,000 Russian, Ukrainian and Central Asian prostitutes working in Israel, mostly in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
From 1991 to 1994, the number of "massage parlors" run by Russian, Ukrainian and Central Asian immigrants rose from 14 to 111.
[24] The Knesset unanimously passed a law forbidding the buying of sex, as Israel joins other countries that have taken this route in recent years such as Sweden and France.
[25] According to the findings released in March 2005 by a Parliamentary Inquiry Committee, between 3,000 and 5,000 women had been smuggled into Israel and sold into prostitution in the previous four years.
[33] Since 2010, no cases of human trafficking have been reported in Israel and only a limited number of women were brought to the country to be prostitutes.
[34] An organization calling itself the 'Task Force on Human Trafficking' claims that men, in total, visit brothels in Israel up to one million times a month.