Some 70% of sexual abuse reports from the Israel Police and other security forces were either not handled at all or were not addressed adequately, according to a State Comptroller report on Monday.
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State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman said that the Gilboa pimping scandal, which involved incidents of sexual abuse of female soldiers assigned to the prison, was "just the tip of the iceberg" and that the findings of the report revealed a "disturbing organizational reality."
As part of the audit, the team visited seven security prison facilities and spoke with approximately 150 conscription officers stationed there. The State Comptroller's Office also surveyed approximately 13,000 soldiers and those released from conscription.
The report found that 38% of mandatory conscripts serving in the Israel Prison System said that they experienced sexual abuse and that 70% of said abuse was committed by a permanent employee or a commander.
Less than half of those who indicated that they experienced sexual abuse said they reported the abuse to some party – whether inside the organization they served or outside. A whopping 70% of those who chose to report it from the police, the Shin Bet security agency and the Border Police noted that the complaint was not handled at all or was handled inadequately.
In the IDF, 33% of female conscripts stated that since their enlistment, they were sexually harassed one or more times, and 32% reported this to a relevant supervisor. Roughly half who reported the harassment were satisfied with how the complaint was handled.
Engelman noted in the report: "It is not possible to justify a reality in which one out of four conscripted soldiers in the police and the Shin Bet experienced sexual abuse ... We must not show leniency for the fact that 70% of the complaints were not handled properly, and it is not possible to move to the agenda when the trends show sexual harassment by security prisoners, the lack of backing from the command level, and sexual harassment from permanent employees towards female soldiers and conscripts."
This article was first published by i24NEWS.
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