When I heard that the strangest and most bizarre bill, nationalist-motivated rape, had passed the Knesset this week, I was amazed.
I asked myself: Is it more painful for a Jewish rape victim than for an Arab rape victim? Could the rapist choose his victim on nationalistic grounds? The answer is clear and unequivocal: no.
A bill that does not follow any phenomenon, and therefore does not come to combat a real phenomenon, is a populist proposal designed to attract attention. It is a fact to which I dedicate my article this week.
Moreover, the bill aims to separate and deepen hatred between Jews and Arabs even in discourse on the subject, and does nothing to protect rape victims. It is very unfortunate that the feminist organizations failed miserably this time, did not know how to put the issue on the agenda properly and did not try hard enough to block this delusional law.
Rape is rape, it has no nationalist background and no other background. A rapist is a criminal for all intents and purposes, and every rapist must be brought to trial and dealt with as severely as possible. However, there is no need to take advantage of the Knesset and the fact that there is currently a very extreme automatic coalition majority to promote bills of this kind, especially when it is not a phenomenon.
Should a rape victim who went through this trauma because of a Jewish rapist feel better? Less painful? A different experience? Of course not, so the law is intended to legitimize future claims of rape victims, and so that the law will benefit them by increasing compensation, so that those Knesset members who supported the law will also "celebrate" at the expense of rape victims.
It is known that Palestinian security prisoners in Israel do not accept criminal offenders such as car thieves or rapists in their cells, because security prisoners also understand the severity of the rapists' actions and ostracize them in prison as well.
As a citizen of the country, as a human being, I would expect the full-fledged right-wing coalition to promote a law that will be stricter with religious leaders, whose involvement in sexual harassment we often hear. Due to the enormous pressure exerted on the victims, they refrain from filing complaints, and matters are closed in local forums without being prosecuted in Israeli courts, and without justice being done to the victims.
Today, this law can actually benefit the rapists themselves, and every rapist will have an interest in claiming that this took place on nationalist grounds, thus enabling his family members, unlike other criminal detainees, to turn to the various authorities in the Palestinian Authority and ask for assistance, help and even a monthly allowance – because he is a security prisoner, with the approval of the Israeli court.
The pain of rape and the difficult and traumatic experience cannot be divided on nationalistic or criminal grounds. This is an experience that accompanies the victim throughout her life, and we should act to enact laws that will benefit the victim in rehabilitation and return to normal life, and not look for other motives.
In rape, the vile offender has only one motive – the desire to satisfy himself in a way that humiliates the rape victim.
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