Salted Fish

⚡️🇮🇱JUST IN: 'Sadistic Rituals' - Survivors Testify to Knesset About Childhood Sexual Abuse Network in Israeli Religious Ceremonies: 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. 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. The women's assertions corroborated Barkan's investigation, which found that despite numerous complaints filed with Israeli police over the years, the overwhelming majority of incidents, especially those that took place in religious communities, like Jerusalem's Nahlaot neighborhood, were closed without indictments. Source: Haaretz.