CNN - Raping the Media Consumer

CNN has a show called PRISM.

It is portrayed a "a provocative news program that will challenge viewers to step outside of their comfort zones, to see the news from a different vantage point, be it: cultural, political, geographical, economical, historical, by different ages, genders or faiths."

Well, they did that today at 19:10 or so Israel time.

They covered the "rape by deception" case.

Details:

...Saber Kashour, the Israeli Palestinian who admitted pretending to be a single Jewish man before having sex with an Israeli woman...Kashour told CNN the relations with the woman, who has not been identified publicly, were consensual...Kashour, who acknowledged having told the woman he was single, said he is known as "Dudu," a nickname for the Jewish name "David," but also his own nickname.

"Apparently, later she discovered that I was an Arab and complained to the police," he said.

..."It is terrible, but the law says very clearly that if someone has sexual intercourse using deception about his identity to conduct the act, it can be considered rape," said Leah Samael, a lawyer specializing in civil rights and human rights cases.

But, if the circumstances had been different -- if a religious Jew had said he was not religious in order to woo a potential suitor -- "he would not be brought to court," she said. "And I am not sure that, on this occasion, it is a reason to charge. To have intercourse in daytime in a deserted building in the center of town -- I say the circumstances speak for themselves."

She added, "The thing that interests me in the case is the need, the necessity, of Arabs in Israel to pretend. To speak without an accent so as not to be seen as Arabs. To dress not to look like Arabs."...

Criminal law rarely applies to minor lies, like dyed hair or a changed name," said Dana Pugach of the Noga Legal Center for Victims of Crime. "But it would apply to the more meaningful lies," she said.

"For example, where a doctor persuades a woman to have sex claiming it would be a part of the medical treatment. As for this particular case, it is not the fact that he was an Arab and claimed to be Jewish. The court emphasized the fact that he claimed to be single while he was married, which would be relevant in the context of a romantic relationship."...

CNN highlighted it on Prism. Leah Samael continued in the Ben Wedeman report with a racist spin. Then she's also on a bonus live interview. Gideon Levy is quoted that if a Jewish man had pretended to be Muslim to have sex with a Muslim woman, would he have been charged? No. But does he really know that? He doesn't.

Leah continued by saying a Pal. can't sleep with a Jew. It's sheer racism according to her.

But all of her talk was simply conjecture as well since we are talking law - and the law is that deception is rape. But Samael went on - this is encouraging apartheid. An almost five minute story.

I think we need a strong female voice on this.



P.S.


In 2008, the High Court of Justice set a precedent on rape by deception, rejecting an appeal of the rape conviction by Zvi Sleiman, who impersonated a senior official in the Housing Ministry whose wife worked in the National Insurance Institute. Sleiman told women he would get them an apartment and increased NII payments if they would sleep with him.

High Court Justice Elyakim Rubinstein said a conviction of rape should be imposed any time a "person does not tell the truth regarding critical matters to a reasonable woman, and as a result of misrepresentation she has sexual relations with him."

Rubinstein said the question was also whether an ordinary person would expect such a woman to have sex with a man without the false identity he created.

In the past, men who misrepresented themselves in this way were convicted of fraud.

One such case was that of Eran Ben-Avraham, who told a woman he was a neurosurgeon after which she had sex with him, and was convicted of three counts of fraud.