Survivors testify: MKs participated in sadistic sexual 'rituals' involving minors

Survivors testify: MKs participated in sadistic sexual 'rituals' involving minors

‘Doctors, educators, police officers, and past and present members of the Knesset were involved in these abuses,’ survivor says.

J Post

Several women on Tuesday testified in the Knesset about sexual abuse they suffered as minors as part of religious ritual ceremonies.

The testimonies came during a joint meeting of the Knesset’s Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality, chaired by MK Pnina Tameno-Shete (National Unity), and the Special Committee on Young Israelis, chaired by MK Naama Lazimi (The Democrats).

The joint meeting was organized in the wake of an investigative report published on April 2 by Israel Hayom journalist Noam Barkan.

Yael Ariel, one of the abuse survivors, shared: “I experienced ritual abuse over many years until my late teens and was forced to harm other children. I chose to speak out and make my voice heard. I received threats after revealing my story. From age five to age 20, I was harmed in these ceremonies.”

According to Ariel, she received testimonies from several women who claimed that doctors, educators, police officers, and past and present members of the Knesset were involved in these abuses.

“I filed a complaint with the police that was closed after a few months, and I know of other cases that were closed. Speaking out today in the Knesset is a historic moment,” she said.

Another survivor, Yael Shitrit, testified: “You have no idea what ritual abuse is. The human brain cannot comprehend it. You can’t imagine what it means to program a three-year-old girl through rape and sadism so they can do whatever they want without anyone knowing.

“Their trafficking of me happened all over the country. They moved me from ceremony to ceremony. Naked men stood in a circle. My therapist, her husband, and her son harmed me, and there were dozens of other girls and boys who harmed me.

The people who will fall are very, very senior figures. These people run communities and government agencies. They threaten us. I have children I need to protect. Something needs to be set up that can deal with this.

They tried to make us like them – the people who caused us endless pain,” Shitrit said. “Your role is to make this stop in Safed, Jerusalem, Jaljulya, or anywhere else,” she declared.

DR. NAAMA GOLDBERG, head of an NGO called Lo Omdot MeNegged (Hebrew for “Not Standing Idly By”), which assists prostitution survivors, explained that the depictions are sometimes so gruesome that they are hard to believe, but this incredulity serves the abusers, who convince victims not to complain by arguing that they will not be believed.

“Several years ago, I received descriptions of sadistic abuse of children,” Goldberg said. “The accounts sounded absurd. [But] the testimonies kept coming and would not let up. They described gang rape by men, and sometimes by women. The abuse was filmed, and drugs were used. There were ritual practices and symbolism.

“I presented the police with written testimonies from five women. To this day, no one has contacted me. Since the report, additional testimonies have surfaced,” Goldberg said.

A representative of the Israel Police, Ch.-Supt. Anat Yakir, said that there was a national unit reviewing all cases and that the complaints were “a top priority in the intelligence division.”…..