Rape by deception

Sabbar Kashur, a 30 year old Palestinian man was recently sentenced to 18 months in prison for the crime of “rape by deception”.  The Jewish woman who filed the complaint (for rape and indecent assault no less) claimed that when they met in 2008 he introduced himself as a Jewish bachelor seeking a serious relationship.  She therefore proceeded to have consensual sex with him…right then and there.

When she found out, later on, that he was Arab and not Jewish, out came the criminal complaint which Mr. Kashur was able to plea-bargain down to “rape by deception”.

I wish I were making this up!

One of the judges is quoted as saying “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]”.

Get the hell out of here. 

The woman should not have been a whore and had sex with a stranger within minutes of meeting him if she knew she suffered from buyer’s remorse. But that’s me being a prude so forget that.

This is so enlightening.  So I can charge a man with “rape by deception” if we have perfectly consensual sex but later on I find out

• he’s married when he said he was single
• he’s had sexual intercourse with men when he said he’s only interested in women
• he has 10 children (by five baby mommas) when he said he had none
• he works at McDonalds because all he has is a GED when he told me he’s an architect
• he lives in his mother’s basement in the ghetto when he told me he lived in a fancy mansion in the ‘burbs
• he drives a hoopdee from 1985 when he told me he drove a BMW Z4
• undsoweiter…

all on the pretense that if he hadn’t told me that, I wouldn’t have wanted to have sex with him.  Oh my goodness, this is getting exciting.  I need to move to Israel! The judge is also quoted as saying “The court is obliged to protect the public interest from sophisticated, smooth-tongued criminals who can deceive innocent victims at an unbearable price – the sanctity of their bodies and souls”.  Does he realize how many men around the world could therefore be guilty of “rape by deception” if the victim so chose to bring forward such a charge?  But of course, something tells me that were I, or even a Palestinian woman in a similar situation with a Jewish man, to bring a similar case forward that it would be dismissed without the slightest hesistation.  I’m sure our virtues are not worth protecting in the Jewish court.

But imagine how far one can take this.  Lies about age, height, size (define it any way you want), ethnicity, anything that could potentially embarass a victim after the fact could be grounds for “rape by deception”.

Goodness!  

A guy could promise that he’s going to rock my world between the sheets, and leave me with much to be desired, and I could have grounds to charge him with “rape by deception” because if I knew he was going to be limp and lame I wouldn’t have consented to the act?!

Get out of here!

So I thought this must be an Israeli thing.  Nope, not at all. “Rape by fraud” is already a reality in many US states. NO is NO and you cannot deceive or defraud a victim into saying YES when the truth is likely to have received a NO response. I wonder how many people are going to try and abuse these laws states-side.

You learn something new every day.