Few laws correct not only a legal injustice but a moral one. The Hila Tzur Law, enacted by the Knesset last week, is one of them. The law significantly extends the statute of limitations for serious sexual offenses committed against children – a historic achievement that the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel (ARCCI) has fought to advance for years.
But we must also be honest: Extending the statute of limitations is an important milestone, not the destination. The ultimate goal must be the complete abolition of statutes of limitations for sexual offenses.
For more than three decades, ARCCI has witnessed the reality of sexual trauma firsthand. Every year, tens of thousands of survivors turn to Israel’s rape crisis centers, and roughly 60% disclose sexual abuse they experienced as children.
Again and again, we encounter the same heartbreaking pattern: years of silence.
Some survivors can speak only after the death of the father who abused them. Others find the strength only after their mother’s death, when the fear of destroying their family or losing their mother’s love no longer silences them. Many reach us only after decades of therapy. Their silence is not a choice. It is one of trauma’s deepest wounds.
This is not simply a collection of personal stories. It is a reality supported by decades of clinical experience and scientific research. We now understand that sexual trauma fundamentally affects memory, disclosure, and the ability to report abuse. For many survivors, years – or even decades – pass before they are psychologically capable of saying, “I was sexually abused.”
Yet the law has been slow to catch up with what science already knows.
Statutes of limitations are based on the assumption that, as time passes, society’s interest in prosecution diminishes while the ability to conduct a fair trial becomes more difficult. That rationale may make sense for some crimes. It does not for sexual violence.
Trauma does not follow a legal timetable.
That is why statutes of limitations in sexual offense cases create a profound moral, legal, and philosophical injustice. They punish those who have suffered the greatest harm. The deeper the trauma, the less likely a survivor is to report the crime within the legal deadline. In effect, the law penalizes survivors precisely because the abuse was so devastating that it prevented them from speaking.
The new legislation is more than a procedural reform. It represents an important acknowledgment that the justice system must begin to reflect what decades of trauma research have taught us. For years, survivors were expected to conform to the law’s timetable. For the first time, the law is beginning to adapt itself to the realities of trauma.
Restoring the right to be heard
Israel is not alone in moving in this direction. Countries including the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa no longer impose statutes of limitations on sexual offenses, while many others have abolished them at least for child sexual abuse. The principle is increasingly recognized around the world: When the consequences of a crime last a lifetime, time should not become a refuge for the perpetrator.
Eliminating statutes of limitations does not weaken the rule of law. Prosecutors will still bear the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Investigations will still require evidence, and defendants’ rights will remain fully protected.
What abolition restores is something far more fundamental: a survivor’s right to come forward and be heard.
Even when a criminal prosecution is ultimately impossible, the opportunity to file a complaint, confront the perpetrator, and finally say, “This is what happened to me,” can be a defining moment in recovery. For years, the perpetrator controlled the narrative. The ability to speak restores to survivors their voice, their dignity, and their faith that justice remains possible.
The debate over statutes of limitations is therefore about much more than legal deadlines. It is about whether the law is willing to recognize what we now know about trauma and respond accordingly.
As long as the law places an expiration date on sexual violence, it continues to punish those whose trauma prevented them from speaking. Trauma should not be expected to conform to the law. The law must conform to trauma.
The writer is executive director of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel (ARCCI).