Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel

ARCCI functions as the national coordinating body for Israel's rape crisis center network, working at the systemic level while each of its nine affiliated centers provides direct, community-based support.[3][7] The association's board consists of directors of those centers, with representatives serving areas and communities including Galil-Golan, Nazareth, Haifa, the Sharon region, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Rehovot, and the south.[1]

ARCCI's official listings identify TAHEL as the center serving religious and ultra-Orthodox communities and the Nazareth center as serving the Arab community. TAIR operates in Rehovot and the Shfela region.[2][3]

ARCCI's executive director at the time of its February 2024 UN report was Orit Sulitzeanu, who by 2025 had led the organization for more than a decade.[1][5] The association describes its national and systemic work as complementing the direct support provided by the centers to individual survivors, rather than replacing it.[7]

The organization's full Hebrew name is איגוד מרכזי הסיוע לנפגעות ולנפגעי תקיפה מינית בישראל.[2]

ARCCI was founded in 1990 as the umbrella organization for nine regional rape crisis centers, with the goal of coordinating their work nationally while they continued to operate in their local communities.[1][8] The organization's Hebrew-language and background-and-mission pages give 1990 as the founding year, while its English-language "About us" page gives 1991; the discrepancy is not explained on either page.[2][3]

By 2012, representatives appearing at a parliamentary discussion described the association as employing around 100 professionals and more than 1,000 volunteers, and receiving roughly 40,000 inquiries a year.[9] At that time the centers were described as offering support and accompaniment rather than individual psychological treatment, a distinction reflecting their role as crisis and advocacy organizations alongside, rather than in place of, the mental-health system.[9]

Reported service volume increased over the following decade. A 2024 Calcalist article described the association as bringing together 13 centers, though ARCCI's official materials and most other sources refer to nine; the sources do not explain whether the differing counts use different definitions of membership or affiliation.[10][2] By 2025, a Jerusalem Post profile described ARCCI as coordinating nine centers and supporting more than 56,000 survivors annually. A May 2026 Jewish News Syndicate report cited approximately 65,000 calls to its crisis hotlines each year.[5][11]

The centers provide immediate support through 24-hour telephone lines, online chat, and WhatsApp.[3] A government contact guide lists 1202 as the primary national hotline, 1203 as the line for men and boys, and separate lines for religious women and religious men.[12] Current ARCCI materials also list telephone and chat support for the Arab community, while Ynet has described the telephone support as free and anonymous.[2][13] A 2026 report said the two religious-community hotlines were staffed by Orthodox volunteers, with one answered by men and the other by women.[11]

ARCCI also operates AnyTeen, an anonymous chat service for young people seeking advice about sexuality and relationships.[4]

Services provided by the centers include immediate psychological support, support groups, and legal accompaniment from the stage of deciding whether to report an assault through police and prosecution proceedings and court appearances.[1][3] Centers also help survivors exercise rights with Israel's National Insurance Institute, make referrals to therapy and rehabilitation, and assist with economic rights.[3] Services are offered to survivors from all sectors of Israeli society, their family members, and professional teams working with them.[1] Specialized services are adapted for men, Arabic speakers, religious and ultra-Orthodox communities, and people who are deaf or hard of hearing.[3]

The association's 2025 annual report recorded that in 2024 the centers received 51,118 total inquiries, including 16,659 new inquiries, 12,757 requests for assistance, and 3,902 inquiries to AnyTeen.[4] Among new inquiries with relevant information, 28 percent concerned children aged 12 or younger, 30 percent concerned adolescents aged 13 to 18, and 42 percent concerned adults over 18.[4] The report stated that 68 percent concerned abuse that had occurred by the time the survivor was 21 and that approximately 10 percent involved a police complaint.[4]

ARCCI describes its national-level activities as including promotion of survivors' rights and services, preventive and systemic measures, policy and legislative advocacy, participation in legal proceedings, research, and the collection and dissemination of knowledge about sexual violence in Israel.[1][7] The association states that by 2025 it had played a role in initiating, drafting, or advancing more than 50 laws enacted in Israel.[2] Its 2025 annual report describes three laws it helped enact that year, addressing survivors' ability to express a position on an offender's early release, changes to terminology in the Penal Law, and eased requirements for keeping a convicted sex offender away from a survivor's home, workplace, or school.[4]

In the area of statutory limitations, CEO Orit Sulitzeanu stated that roughly 40 percent of people contacting the centers did so after the relevant limitation period had ended. The association has campaigned for changes to limitation rules as part of its broader legislative agenda.[8]

ARCCI also engages with public discourse and media to shift attitudes toward sexual offenses and advance legal reform.[2] In 2007, the association stated that existing laws provided "a valid basis for severe punishment" for rape and other sexual assaults, while warning of a tendency for courts to impose minimum rather than maximum prison terms.[14] A 2011 U.S. Department of State report attributed to the association the view that most rape victims did not report crimes to authorities because of social and cultural pressure.[15] The report also noted that women from some Orthodox Jewish, Muslim, and Druze communities faced significant social pressure against reporting rape or domestic violence.[15]

Police in Israel notify victims of their right to assistance from ARCCI, and the legal framework allows victims to follow case progress through a computerized system and an information call center.[15] In reporting ARCCI's 2023 figures, The Times of Israel said that 81 percent of sexual-assault and harassment cases were closed without an indictment, 17 percent led to indictments, and 2 percent were settled out of court. The State Prosecutor's Office gave figures of 76 percent closed and 22 percent resulting in indictments; ARCCI attributed the discrepancy to differences in decision timing and the years in which complaints were made.[16]

ARCCI describes itself as the only body in Israel that has systematically collected and published data on sexual violence and the responses of public institutions for more than 20 years.[17] Its research covers referrals to the centers as well as information about how sexual-violence cases are handled by the police, the State Attorney's Office, court administration, the Education Ministry, the Health Ministry, and the Israel Defense Forces.[17] The association states that it uses this research and data to inform policy, public discussion, professional training, and legal work.[17]

The association also developed, together with Dr. Ze'ev Lehrer, a method for diagnosing patterns of workplace sexual harassment and designing prevention plans tailored to individual organizations.[17] The method includes interviews and focus groups with employees and analysis of recurring organizational patterns, power relations, language, and justifications, with the resulting plan aimed at disrupting practices that enable harassment.[17]

Reports have documented increases in rape-related requests for assistance in several years. Crisis-hotline rape reports rose 15 percent in 2004 compared with the prior year, and requests were 13 percent higher in 2019 than in 2018.[18][19] The 2022 State Department report recorded a 9 percent increase in 2021 compared with 2020.[20] In 2017, the association reported receiving more than 9,000 requests for assistance related to sexual harassment.[21] The cited reports present percentage changes without giving the underlying request totals for those annual comparisons.[20][19]

The centers' education departments run a school-based program—described in earlier coverage as "Together in Consent" (Yachad Behaskama) and in the 2025 annual report as the "Together" program—that promotes mutual sexuality and works to prevent sexual violence in formal and informal education settings.[13][4] The program engages young people, education staff, and parents, covering topics including healthy sexuality, personal boundaries, communication, mutuality, and free consent.[13][4] Approximately 100,000 students per year encounter the program, and the association has sought formal Ministry of Education support for its school-based prevention work.[13]

ARCCI's education work extends to training for school staff and lectures for parents, reflecting its approach of engaging entire communities rather than only potential survivors.[13] The 2025 annual report also describes StandFor, a program focused on preventing workplace sexual harassment through training in companies and organizations and support for designated harassment-prevention officers.[4]

In a separate workplace-focused initiative, ARCCI and the Standards Institution of Israel jointly published "The Gold Standard," a voluntary code of ethics designed to help companies and organizations prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.[22]

Following the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, 2023, ARCCI expanded its crisis-hotline capacity to support survivors affected by the attack and people whose earlier traumas had resurfaced in the context of the war.[23] The association received more than 26,000 calls in the first six months of the war, including more than 8,000 from people who had not previously contacted the centers.[16] A 2024 Calcalist article noted that the centers had expanded support to people exposed to difficult testimony and scenes, including ZAKA personnel, media personnel, and mental-health teams.[10]

In February 2024, ARCCI submitted to the United Nations a report titled "Sexual Violence Crimes on October 7: Silent Cry." The report identifies Dr. Carmit Klar-Chalamish as responsible for research and writing and Noga Berger as its editor.[1] It was presented to the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten.[6] The report described itself as a preliminary examination of information available approximately four months after the outbreak of the war and acknowledged that further information might emerge over time.[1]

The report's methodology drew on dozens of items from official sources, local and international press, interviews with first responders and professionals, and confidential information received by the association; it excluded social-media material and unverified sources.[1] Confidential first-hand accounts were not reproduced in the report, though the association stated that issues raised in them informed its analysis.[1]

The report placed survivors' preferences and needs at the center of its approach, noting that disclosure of sexual violence may be delayed for months, years, or decades, or may never occur, and that wartime can further delay disclosure.[1]

ARCCI's analysis identified four arenas of sexual and gender-based violence: the Nova music festival, communities in southern Israel, IDF bases, and captivity in Gaza.[1] The report characterized the sexual violence across these arenas as systematic and deliberate, while acknowledging that it was preliminary and that some information could not be presented for confidentiality and ethical reasons.[1] An American Jewish Committee podcast page described the report as addressing practices including binding, genital mutilation, and insertion of weapons into intimate areas.[24]

ARCCI executive director Orit Sulitzeanu also shared the organization's expertise at a Brussels forum on sexual violence and survivor support, held March 19–20 in the context of International Women's Day, which included discussions with EU institutions.[25]

The association received emergency funding from the American Jewish Committee to expand its crisis-hotline capacity in the context of the war.[23] It also received a grant from Natan Sharansky's donated 2020 Genesis Prize funds. The Jewish Agency page announcing the grant described the association as facing a 40 percent increase in domestic-violence cases during the coronavirus crisis, without specifying a measurement period.[26]

Several aspects of ARCCI's work and reporting have involved disputed or contested elements. The association's "Silent Cry" report was explicitly described as a preliminary document based in part on confidential accounts that were not reproduced in full. ARCCI acknowledged that some information could not be included for ethical and confidentiality reasons and that further facts might emerge over time.[1][1] Its characterization of the sexual violence as systematic and deliberate is therefore presented as ARCCI's attributed conclusion in its preliminary report.[1][1]

ARCCI's reported 2023 case-outcome data, showing 81 percent of cases closed without indictment, differed from State Prosecutor's Office figures of 76 percent closed; ARCCI attributed the difference to decision timing and complaint years.[16] The association's founding year is given as 1990 in its Hebrew-language and background-and-mission materials and as 1991 on its English-language "About us" page, without explanation.[2][3]

Annual service-volume figures also vary. ARCCI's February 2024 report cited approximately 50,000 inquiries annually, while a 2025 profile described more than 56,000 survivors supported each year.[1][5] A May 2026 report cited approximately 65,000 hotline calls, while a 2024 Calcalist article cited 54,000 inquiries.[11][10] The sources use different labels and reporting periods—such as inquiries, survivors supported, and hotline calls—and do not fully explain all of the distinctions.