"Shanka Roseanne noted the irony of the fact that a religious man had
confessed to burning the brothel for religious reasons and yet many of
the patrons of brothels are religious [Jews]."
-Heidi J. Gleit, The Jerusalem Post, September 17, 2000
http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2000/09/17/News/News.12380.html
Memorial held for 4 women burned to death
By Heidi J. Gleit
TEL AVIV (September 17) - A small group of people gathered on Tel Aviv's
Rehov Golomb on Friday afternoon to mark the shloshim of the four women
who were burned to death in a small apartment there.
Yariv Baruchim, 34, of Tel Aviv, has confessed to police that he threw a
firebomb into the apartment in which the women were sleeping, because it
was a brothel and he wanted to "cleanse" Tel Aviv. Baruchim also has
confessed to torching eight other brothels and sex shops. His alleged
accomplice, Amnon Shushtari, 38, of Bnei Brak, is also in police custody.
Ina Takorsky, Lila Zachs, 47, Yelena Pomina, 35, and a fourth woman who
has not been identified are only "four of thousands of women who live in
slavery in Israel," rights activist Esther Elam told the small group
gathered around the memorial candles and a plain white poster on which
the women's names were written in black.
Elam, an activist against the illegal trade in women which is flourishing
in Israel, noted that it is symbolic that the fourth victim still has not
been identified. She is believed to be one of the many foreign women who
was smuggled here to work as a prostitute.
"Not one man, but the Israeli mainstream caused this fire... We blame the
police, the government, and the men who profit from [prostitution]," she
said.
"The police know, the state knows, and they're not lifting a finger to
help these women," Leah Gruenpeter Gold said, adding that she is unsure
whether the recently passed law against trafficking in women will make a
difference unless society comes out strongly against it.
"What did these women do to deserve this fate?" she asked, as two Thai
workers who were replastering the balcony of the burned apartment leaned
out to watch the ceremony.
Elam said that she and the other organizers had chosen to hold the
ceremony in front of the apartment instead of at a more central location
where they would attract more people, because they wanted to emphasize
what is happening in the neglected backyard of Tel Aviv.
Shanka Roseanne noted the irony of the fact that a religious man had
confessed to burning the brothel for religious reasons and yet many of
the patrons of brothels are religious.
*Note* the ethnicity of the four women burned alive in a Tel Aviv brothel
was unreported in the above article. All we are told is that they are
among the thousands of "foreign women" brought to Israel to be served up
as sexual provender for Israeli males, among them many so-called
"religious" Jews. In one instance, The Jerusalem Post was unable to
attach a name to one woman.
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