Sexual violence is a much larger problem in Israel than many people know. Though it is always satisfying and heartening to focus on the progress that has been made, we at the ARCCI would like to offer a brief overview of the problems that remain. We hope that shedding light on this issue will set the stage for further action against it. Not to neglect the progress entirely, we will also share some information on the work that we do to combat sexual violence.  

The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel (ARCCI) is a fourteen-year-old nonprofit and the umbrella organization of Israel's ten Rape Crisis Centers (RCCs). Together, the ARCCI and RCCs work to address all the needs of sexual assault victims, whether psychological, medical, legal, or political.

Our challenges are best reflected in these astonishing numbers: in the year 2002, the RCCs' hotline received over 32,000 calls, up from 10,000 in 1996. Of these, more than 7,800 were reports of new cases of sexual violence, 1,764 of which occurred in the home. These disturbingly high numbers represent two challenges we face: the first concerns the vast number of victims of sexual violence in Israel, primarily women, who are striving for mental, medical and legal help; the second concerns the scope of sexual violence in Israel as a social phenomenon, signaling that much needs to be done to achieve a healthy perception of women and girls in our society. The ARCCI's goals emerge from these two issues. We aim to: 1. synchronize the separate activities of the RCCs, 2. inform the public about resources for victims and those close to them, 3. coordinate multi-lingual services for Israel's many populations, including Hebrew- and Arabic-speaking Israelis, new immigrants, tourists and foreign workers. 4. educate the public about the causes and prevention of sexual assault, 5. influence public policy to improve the rights of sexual assault victims, and 6. promote healthy interactions between the sexes. These efforts are directed at the public, policy makers, the education, health and welfare systems, the judiciary, the military and the media.

The ARCCI works on behalf of sexual assault victims from all sectors of Israeli society. The ten RCCs include special centers geared toward Orthodox Jewish women and Arab women, a national hotline that operates in Hebrew, Arabic, English, Russian, and Amharic, and a national hotline for male sexual assault victims.

There is one issue that I would like to discuss in depth because it is so central to women's experience following sexual assault. This issue is the difficulty they experience revealing the assault to others. From our own experience in the field, we can say that most victims of sexual abuse report the abuse only years later, if they do so at all. Among adults who reported having been sexually abused as children, 33 percent of women and 42 percent of men added that they had never told this to anyone before the survey.[1] When the abuse is revealed in childhood, most of the research notes that it is an unconscious revelation. In contrast, when victims report in adulthood, the revelation is more often intentional and well thought-out.[2] Additional studies on the subject point out some of the reasons that sexual abuse victims wait, on average, eight years before sharing their ordeals with anyone. According to these studies, the reasons fall into three categories: personal, familial, and social.[3] Personal reasons include the feeling of guilt at being a victim, the feeling of helplessness, the dissociation from one's emotions that helps victims cope with their injuries, and the trust that is required when confiding in another person.

The familial reason arises most in cases of parental abuse. Because children are so dependent on their parents, it would be unbearably frightening to admit that their parents are not good caretakers and cannot be trusted or relied upon.

Finally, the social reasons include the persisting taboos around sexual violence and the rejection victims can face as a result of these taboos, as well as distrust of the law enforcement system.