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During a special joint Knesset session on Tuesday, several women, mainly from the ultra-Orthodox and religious Zionist communities, came forward to testify about years of childhood abuse they suffered during "sadistic sexual rituals" performed in religious ceremonies in Israel. Their testimonies, which also indicate repeated neglect from authorities, are part of a disturbing pattern documented by journalists, trauma experts and NGO leaders.
"You have no idea what ritual abuse is," Yael Shitrit, one of the victims, told committee members. "The human brain cannot process it. You cannot imagine what it is like to program a 3-year-old girl through rape and sadism so that they can do whatever they want without anyone knowing."
As the MKs listened to the survivors' testimony, a number appeared visibly shaken. "This is horrifying," Likud MK Eli Dalal remarked. "The time has come to move from listening to action." He called for immediate action on the part of the police, relevant government ministries and the justice system. "There are helpless children here, and we need to take initiative now," Dalal said.
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MK Naama Lazimi of the Democrats party, who also chairs the Youth Affairs Committee, said: "I couldn't breathe when I learned of a network of ritual abuse of girls, that there could be such a system and dangerous mechanism, and nothing is being done to stop it.
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The special session was a joint initiative of the Knesset Committee for the Advancement of the Status of Women and the Special Committee for Youth Affairs. Chairwoman MK Pnina Tamano-Shete of the National Unity Party opened by introducing the impetus for the session - an extensive investigation published in May by Israel Hayom journalist Noam Barkan, which revealed harrowing allegations of organized ritual sexual abuse of children in Israel.
Over a dozen women aged 20-45, primarily from the ultra-Orthodox and religious Zionist communities, contributed to Barkan's report, detailing nearly identical experiences of childhood abuse that involved religious ceremonies, family complicity and systematic torture masked as spiritual rituals. The survivors, who were all children when the abuse occurred, described being drugged, raped, mutilated, filmed and psychologically manipulated through "ceremonies" led by religious figures in which family members, including parents, often participated.
Victims spoke of abuse in homes, synagogues, forests and schools, often framed in religious language and mimicking biblical stories. More than one woman described being forced to take part in a ceremony where the abusers acted out the binding of Isaac, tying her up while they performed a makeshift circumcision ritual on her.
One of the abuse victims who spoke on Tuesday was a woman identified only as "A," who revealed that she was abused by her cousin from the age of 4. By 14, A said she was being tortured and starved by well-known figures in her community. "There were events open to the general public, and there were internal rituals where I was tied to a high pole with handcuffs," she recalled. She went on to describe rituals involving the drinking of menstrual blood, as well as the slaughtering of cats and other animals.
Many speakers addressed the lack of accountability and alleged cover-ups surrounding their cases. "A" said that even after she went to the police with recorded testimony from someone who admitted to abusing her, the woman was not even summoned for questioning. "The police told me I was imagining it," A recounted.
Survivor Yael Ariel, who endured nearly fifteen years of ritual abuse beginning at age five, told the committee that she also eventually filed a police complaint – only to have it closed after a few months. She also said she had heard testimonies from other women alleging that doctors, educators, police officers and both current and former Knesset members were involved in covering up abuse.
"Having our voices heard in the Knesset today is a historic moment," Ariel said.
