Israeli police have busted a prostitution ring where a group of eight "messianic" men and women brainwashed vulnerable women into having sex with non-Jewish men as a path to religious redemption, Agence France-Presse reported. The affair was brought to the attention of police by Lehava, an extremist Israeli group which fights against intermarriage.
Details have emerged from Israel about a prostitution ring in which Jewish women were allegedly "prostituted under the influence of drugs and alcohol" to specifically have sex with non-Jews to "save Israel and bring about redemption."
Police said officers arrested four people from the messianic Jewish sect on suspicion of coercing women into having sex with non-Jews and exploiting them sexually by making them addicted to drugs and alcohol, BBC News reported. The four suspects are a 60-year-old man and a 40-year-old woman from the hardline West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba, a 47-year-old man from the town of Ashkelon and a 39-year-old woman from Jerusalem, who have so far not been named.
But court documents seen by AFP on Monday show the prime suspect to be an eccentric 60-year-old man from Kiryat Arba.
Specifically, 15 women had been recruited, some of whom were believed to be minors, Superintendent Arik Mordechai, who is heading the investigation, told Haaretz.
Their clients - from whom money was received - included Palestinians from the West Bank and foreign workers from Tel Aviv, the newspaper reported.
The prostitution ring has allegedly been operational for six to seven years, with ringleaders exploiting the women's gullibility through the involvement of "four or five women," Bentzi Gopstein, Lehava leader, told AFP.
The arrests were the result of a four-month-long undercover investigation prompted by reports that the messianic sect was brainwashing and taking advantage of women by influencing them into having sex with non-Jewish people, while pocketing the earned money for themselves, the Associated Press reported.
