| Ever heard of ‘rape by deception’? | Send to a friend |
| Monday, 02 August 2010 21:54 |
 Makwaia wa KuhengaToday, let me invite you to a little light reading. Sample the following news story: Jerusalem, July 21, 2010 – An Arab man convicted here of rape because he pretended he was a Jew when he had consensual sex with a Jewish woman has called the verdict racist. Sabbar Kashur, 30, was found guilty of “rape by deception” by the Israeli court and sentenced to 18 months in jail. According to the complaint filed by the woman, the two met in a Jerusalem street in 2008 and had sex that day. When she discovered he was not Jewish, but an Arab, she went to the police. Kashur was arrested and charged with rape and indecent assault, but the charges were later replaced by a different charge of “rape by deception”. But according to Kashur, he did not pretend to be Jewish. He told reporters that friends and family members know him by the nickname, Dudu, which is more commonly used by Jews called David. Before his sentencing, Dudu has been under house arrest for two years. “If I were Jewish, they wouldn’t have even questioned me,” the Israeli Haaretz newspaper quoted him as saying. He went on: This is not rape. I did not rape her in he forest and throw her away naked. She agreed to everything that happened.” In the court’s ruling, the judge, Zvi Segal, wrote: “If she had not thought the accused was a Jewish bachelor interested in a serious relationship, she would not have co-operated. “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.” End text. – Online BBC News: Middle East I do not know whether, as a reader of this perspective, you will consider what you have just read as “light” reading. Maybe it is an understatement on my part! But when I came to terms with this piece of news development broadcast on Aljazeera television and other networks last week, I sat up to follow more closely. I was flabbergasted. I could not believe what I was hearing. When does rape by deception start and end? What kind of the world we live in would have been had every grown up female gone to the court after consensual sex to complain that she had been “raped”? In real life, what is happening? What do males tell females when they are infatuated with one another? All sorts of stories to achieve the end result – to make love - isn’t it? I am sure jails would have been brimful! But there is ‘rape by deception’ in the state of Israel’s statute books or penal code! And this charge, rape by “deception” is selective in content and thrust; discriminatory to one section of the Israeli population. It is normal consensual sex if it is between Jew to Jew but not Jew to an Arab! Frankly, until I came to terms with this story, I did not take very seriously allegations of Israeli apartheid against the non-Jewish population in the Middle East. But a little research has revealed to me even more that actually Israel, beside “rape by deception” has used a “fraud” charge on victims found themselves at the police station accused of playing Jewish to garn sex. “The test the court that has sentenced the hapless Arab resident of Jerusalem is problematic, because it means that every time a man tells a woman he loves her, based on which she sleeps with him, he could be convicted of rape,” said one Israeli lawyer. Perhaps this Israeli form of apartheid was described more appropriately by an Israeli columnist, one Gideon Levy writing for the left-leaning Israeli newspaper Haaretz: “The Arab fellow, Sabbar Kashur, wanted to be a person, a person like everyone else. But as luck would have it, he was born a Palestinian. It happens. His chances of being accepted as a human being in Israel are nil.” And coming from an Israeli colleague, there could be no better or apt analysis of the plight of Arabs or Palestinian Arabs happening to live in Israel. The state of Israel simply does not consider them human beings! And this explains what we are seeing daily on our television screens. Today we could see Israeli bulldozers pulling down homes of Palestinians, the next day, we could see attacks of same people at prayers in their mosques and holy ones at that such as the Al-Aqsa mosque. And the level of attacks on the 1.5 million Palestinians on the Gaza strip defeats level headed human imagination that fellow human beings can met such barbaric attacks on others. The fact of the matter is that, thanks to the Israeli level of apartheid, Arabs or least of all Arab people do not fit their criteria of human beings. As aptly described by the new British Prime Minister, Mr David Cameron, the other day, Gaza is a “prison camp” run by the state of Israel. Whereas the conscience of a normal human being would flinch on sending supplies to other human beings via a hole, as is the tunnel that sends supplies to Gaza, it is ok to the conscience of the Zionist state of Israel. It is the first time I have heard of “rape by deception”. Have you? Such a thing can only happen in racist states such as the former apartheid state of South Africa and now the state of Israel. God Save this mutual world we all share! Makwaia wa Kuhenga is a senior Tanzanian journalist and author Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
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