Yael Grimberg, the victim of the gang rape at Kibbutz Shmirat that happened 35 years ago, passed away at the age of 49. Grimberg was brutally raped by a group of boys when she was only 14 years old, and went through physical and mental abuse for many days.
Since then she has struggled to maintain a normal life routine, but without success.
Grimberg is survived by five daughters.
First, the prosecutor's office decided to close the case against the seven rape suspects, and only after a long and persistent public struggle - an indictment was filed against them.
In June 1991, almost three years after the events in the kibbutz, the trial began.
In the district court in Haifa, they were acquitted because of the doubt.
The state filed an appeal, and in December 1993 the Supreme Court convicted four of them: Nadav Biton, Arik Chazon, Ofir Barry and Tzafir Tsavison - and the district court sentenced them to actual prison terms of up to a year and a half.
49 years old when she died, leaving behind five daughters.
Yael Grimberg (Photo: Courtesy of those photographed)
The rape events
Rape victim Yael Grimberg, who was revealed to the public only in 2001, joined the kibbutz together with her parents when she was five years old.
Her father died about a year and a half later, and her mother remarried.
The terrible acts of rape happened between August 11 and 14 of 1988 - during the holiday.
On the night of August 11, 14-year-old Grimberg, a member of the kibbutz, Ofir Barry, and his friends from Hariya Nadav and Eli Biton, went to the kibbutz fields, where the first rape incident occurred.
Grimberg, who had come along for the ride after being persuaded by Barry, refused his similar request the following night, until he threatened to tell everyone about what had happened the night before.
Helpless, Grimberg had to join Barry and another kibbutz boy, and together they went to the fields.
After refusing their repeated requests to sleep with them - she returned to her room in the kibbutz, where she met Barry's partner, another member of the kibbutz, who promised her that he would protect Aliyah.
After sleeping with her, with her consent, he told his friends and thus in fact - encouraged his friends to continue the acts of rape.
That boy, it should be noted, was not charged in court, since the two had a consensual relationship.
In the following nights, the acts of rape continued, in the girl's room, in the Moshav Bostan HaGalil, on the beach in Acre and in the furniture factory on the kibbutz.
"'No' is never 'no', and there is no 'no' that is 'yes'."
Kibbutz Shemarat (photo: official website, Oyoyoy, from Wikipedia)
Although the boys threatened Aliyah on several different occasions and tried to dissuade her from filing a complaint, Grimberg complained to the kibbutz nurse about what happened.
The nurse chose not to report and pass the information on to the relevant authorities and bodies.
Five days after the last case of rape, Grimberg filed a complaint with the police, after her mother convinced her to do so.
At the time of the rape incidents, the seven boys were between the ages of 16 and a half to 18 and a half.
Two of them lived in a kibbutz, two others in Nahariya, another boy lived in a nearby kibbutz, and two more boys from Rishon Lezion and Yavneh, who were staying at Shimat at the time.
After the affair was revealed, the members of the kibbutz involved were removed from it for only six months, and then returned to it, as if nothing had happened.
Their presence and their proximity to her left her no choice, and Grimberg along with her family - left the kibbutz.
The kibbutz chose to finance the legal expenses of the accused.
"From the point of view of the defendants, the girl became an 'instrument' only."
Judge Lindenstrauss (photo: official website, Eyal Yitzhar, Globes)
The acquittal in the district court and the conviction in the Supreme Court
A little more than three years passed, and in November 1992, Haifa District Court Judge Micha Lindenstrauss acquitted the defendants beyond reasonable doubt, arguing that Grimberg's version was unreliable.
The seven boys, who hired top-notch lawyers, claimed throughout the trial that everything that happened was done consensually.
"The existence of a grain of truth in the complainant's testimony is not enough and it does not have the power to erase or eliminate the contradictions, doubts and bewilderments that I mentioned. It is not possible to determine, to the extent of confessions necessary in the criminal trial, that the defendants are guilty of the offenses attributed to them in the indictment," wrote Lindenstrauss in the verdict.
On the other hand, he added: "Even if the lack of consent to contacts on the part of the complainant was not proven in this case beyond a reasonable doubt, and even if the defendants are mostly minors. They did not have the 'human touch' necessary to end this relationship at a very early stage. It is a question of A respectful attitude towards others, towards the girl who, from the point of view of the defendants, has become a mere 'tool'."
"They drive it like a sex doll without any human likeness." Retired Supreme President Meir Shamgar (Photo: Nimrod Saunders)
Following the acquittal, and in the shadow of the public uproar that took place in Israel at the time, the attorney's office appealed to the Supreme Court, which overturned the decision and convicted four of the boys.
On December 9, Supreme Court Justices Meir Shamgar (then serving as president), Mishal Cheshin and Eliezer Goldberg convicted Nadav Biton, Arik Chazon, Ofir Barry and Tzafir Tsavison.
Their sentence was given in the district court.
In his ruling, President Shamgar stated that the defendants' version is questionable: "Is a minor - who out of fear or shock or embarrassment does not shout and does not announce her refusal - considered to have consented to the act as described, in which she is treated like a normal delinquent, and even expresses this verbally in appeals to her? ".
Judge Cheshin added and quoted Dan Almagor's poem "When you say 'no', what do you mean?", and wondered: "Is it true? Is 'no' a 'maybe'? Is a 'no' a 'come'? Is it a 'no' ' is 'yes', and even 'even more inviting'?"
Nadav Biton, Eric Chazon and Ofir Barry were sentenced to 15 months in prison.
Zafir Tsavison was sentenced to 12 months in prison.
"A group of 17-year-old boys stood in front of a lone 14-and-a-half-year-old girl, and they abused her, beat her and treated her like a sex doll without any human image," the verdict reads.
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"I was a lump of meat lying around and doing nothing"
About a year and a half ago, she spoke with Golan Yokhpaz and Anat Davidov on 103FM, and shared in the struggle over the years.
"We learned to talk about the rape cases and that's very nice, but leave and do something? No," she explained.
Nothing has changed.
I always said it would happen again, because it always does.
There were many other cases that were not reported."
Grimberg, who was a single mother of three daughters, shared that when her daughter shared that she had been sexually harassed, she advised her not to file a complaint. "I told her what would happen.
'You filed a complaint, you will have to identify him, they will have a conversation between you and in the end he will receive four months in prison.
Do you want to go through with it?', and then she got off it," she said.
"There isn't a day that I go to sleep and I'm not in the kibbutz in one way or another," she told candidly about the difficulties she has experienced since those difficult events.
"I always get there, and usually I'm still the same 14-year-old girl. It's like I'm frozen. I haven't worked for years. I get up in the morning, make Ness coffee, smoke a cigarette and watch TV. As the morning comes, I wait for the evening to come, so that more will pass Day. I don't call it life, I'm just here."
Over the years, she stayed several times in psychiatric hospitals and even threatened to commit suicide: "My daughters saw me in very extreme situations, when I just didn't want to continue living. I didn't get out of bed, I was a lump of meat lying down and doing nothing. I was strong but not really, I call it - Autopilot. This is the same detachment I had then, when my case happened," she explained.
"This disconnection exists and it doesn't go away over the years. I don't want to confuse the mind and say that it goes away, because it doesn't."
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