A few months ago, I wrote this post about my opinion of the punishment meted upon a young Palestinian man convicted of “rape by deception” by having consensual sex with a young Israeli Jewish woman who thought he was Jewish at the time they had sex after a chance encounter. Most memorable was one of the quotes from the judge that “If she hadn’t thought the accused was a Jewish bachelor interested in a serious romantic relationship, she would not have [consented to the sex]”.
At the time, I was in a tizzy over the prejudices against this Arab man in a Jewish world. Looks like I was angry for all the wrong reasons. About a month ago, a few news outlets reported on new evidence on the case. I’m afraid to say not as many that ran with the initial anti-semitism story. For most of us, we still have the original story in our heads. Since I commented on the original, it’s only fair to comment on the update.
The woman’s declassified testimony revealed that she was emotionally disturbed, lived in a women’s shelter, had been forced into prostitution by her father who had been sexually abusing her since she was 6 years old, and had lodged 14 prior complaints of rape and sexual violence against other men.
Suspect.
According to the BBC, the prosecution was afraid that she might undermine her own evidence because of her emotional health and therefore a plea bargain was arranged whereby Kashur was accused of “rape by deception” instead of rape and received the 18 month jail term which he is now appealing.
When you really go into the details of the declassified testimony as on the Mideast Youth website, the sexual encounter that the young woman had with the Palestinian guy doesn’t quite sound like consensual sex but rather a brutal attack.
This story is no better than the original. So, I wasn’t there and I don’t know the whole details. But whether it’s sexism or racism or taking advantage of the mentally ill it’s still prejudice and it’s all a shame!
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