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Opinions/Editorials Title: Israel's Outrageous Rape Case It's getting harder and harder to be a liberal Zionist. Sometimes, clinging to the idea of Israel, I feel like a true believing communist trying to explain away the deviations of actually existing socialism. Israel's harshest critics often claim that Zionism equals racism. It's an unfair, historically inaccurate charge. But Israel seems to be trying hard to prove it true. This week, in a case that made waves around the world, a 30-year-old married Israeli-Arab man, Sabbar Kashur, was having consensual sex with a woman who thought he was Jewish. The two met on an Israeli street in 2008 and struck up a conversation. He introduced himself with a name that sounded Jewish, and apparently they had serious chemistry, because they headed right to a nearby building and had sex. She was angry when he left before she had a chance to get dressed, and somehow later discovered that he was actually Arab. And so she cried rape. Having a quickie with a stranger, and later realizing he's not who you thought he was, is not the same as being raped. Indeed, the case makes a mockery of rape, a horrific crime. Anti-feminists and unrepentant misogynists often accuse women of doing just this--claiming sexual assault out of a sense of regret or a desire for revenge. And, usually, they're wrong--when it comes to rape, the real problem is underreporting by women who have been victimized, not lying by those who haven't. In this case, though, the woman seems to have made up a story for the police. As The Daily Telegraph , "Kashur was originally accused of violent rape and indecent assault, but later accepted the lesser charge under a plea-bargain after prosecutors received evidence suggesting the encounter was consensual." This strongly suggests that at first, the woman alleged that the encounter was not consensual. No matter--Kashur, who has already been under house arrest for two years, was convicted of "rape by deception" and sentenced to 18 months in prison. "If she hadn't thought the accused was a Jewish bachelor interested in a serious romantic relationship, she would not have co-operated," Judge Tzvi Segal. He continued, "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." Israel is not, one assumes, going to start jailing every man who pretends to be an eligible bachelor "interested in a serious romantic relationship" but really only out for a one night stand. It's true that this isn't Israel's first case of rape by deceit--in 2008, as Haaretz , Israel's High Court of Justice set a precedent by upholding the conviction of a man who impersonated a senior official in the Housing Ministry and promised to get women apartments if they slept with him. Using a falsely assumed position of power to coerce women into sex, though, seems quite different from being misleading about one's biography. The woman who slept with Kashur didn't do so unwillingly. By all accounts so far, he didn't even tell her he was Jewish--he just let her assume it. Having a quickie with a stranger, and later realizing he's not who you thought he was, is not the same as being raped. Indeed, the case makes a mockery of rape, a horrific crime. It also makes a mockery of democratic ideals. If such a verdict is allowed to stand, it will be evidence of the deep and corrosive racism menacing Israel. Earlier this year, Haaretz on a poll showing that 56 percent of Israeli high school students would ban the country's Arab citizens from election to the Knesset. "Around half the respondents say Israeli Arabs should not receive the same rights as Israeli Jews," the story said. We'll soon see to what degree they get their wish. Michelle Goldberg is the author of and . She is a senior correspondent for The American Prospect, and her work has appeared in The New Republic, The Nation, the Los Angeles Times, Glamour, and many other publications.
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