Israel Matzav

Sickness: Israeli judge says 'some girls enjoy being raped'

I don't usually do the court thing (I'm not a litigator), but about five years ago, a friend in a messy divorce case convinced me to help him out by going to court and interrogating his ex-wife about some financial documents - including her US tax return - that his Israeli lawyers did not understand. One of the papers involved was a letter to someone called the Foreign Currency Controller, whose approval you needed to transfer foreign currency out of Israel until about 15 years ago. The letter, which the woman admitted to have signed, asked for the transfer of a seven-figure sum to an account held by a company of which she was the sole owner in an offshore jurisdiction. The request had been approved,  but when I asked where the money was, the woman said to ask her ex-husband, whose name was nowhere to be found in the letter. She claimed 'he put it in front of me and I signed it without knowing what it was.' I had her nailed. But as I went in for the kill, the judge looked down from the bench and said "my wife trusts me absolutely, and if I handed her a piece of paper asking her to sign away her rights in our apartment, she would sign it without knowing or asking me what it was."

Until this morning, I thought that kind of bias in the Israeli court system was limited to that particular court, but that apparently is not the case. The Jewish Press reports that a judge of the Tel Aviv district court is hearing a case in which a 13-year old Jewish girl who was raped by four 'Palestinians' is seeking to have the attack classified as a terror attack. The judge, Nissim Yeshaya, said, "[Th]ere are some girls who enjoy being raped." Yes, really.

In Israel, a Victim of Terrorism is a person injured as a result of a terrorist act committed for nationalistic reasons, in Israel or abroad.

Victims of terrorist attacks are eligible for compensation, pursuant to the Compensation for Victims of Hostilities Act of 1970.

During the hearing, the young woman’s attorney, Roni Aloni-Sadovnik, a well known feminist lawyer, tried to convince the panel of judges, headed by Retired Tel Aviv District Court Judge Nissim Yeshaya, that there are cases of rape whose circumstances justify recognition as an act of terrorism committed for nationalistic reasons.

Attorney Aloni-Sadovnik later described the scene that ensued to Israel Army Radio: “In the midst of the passionate debate, he (Judge Yeshaya) suddenly said aloud, in earshot of everyone present, ‘There are some girls who enjoy being raped.’”

“The room fell into silence,” the attorney continued her description. “Even the panel members were silent for several minutes. And he didn’t even get what he had just said. He didn’t understand why everyone became quiet all of a sudden.”

Now, you might have thought that Yeshaya is a flaming Leftist who is trying to avoid the expansion of the definition of 'terror attack' (which is what I thought when I saw this story). Most of the Israeli judiciary leans hard left. But surprisingly, that does not appear to be the case. Go and figure. The bias toward women apparently goes both ways in the Israeli court system - for and against women.Shameful.

Labels: Israeli courts, Muslim treatment of women, religion of rape, women

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:15 PM