Plea Deal for Israeli President Challenged -- Women's Rights Groups File Appeals

[DemBones DemBones]

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 1, 2007
Filed at 1:59 p.m. ET

JERUSALEM (AP) -- A plea bargain that would allow Israel's former president to avoid rape charges and jail time has drawn a fierce public backlash, with protests in Tel Aviv and a Supreme Court appeal on Sunday that have put the deal in doubt.

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Four women who worked for Katsav charged that he repeatedly groped them, kissed them, exposed himself to them and -- in two cases -- raped them while he served as president and earlier, when he was tourism minister.

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Dropping the most serious charges infuriated women's rights activists and led to a hastily organized demonstration in central Tel Aviv on Saturday night which drew a surprisingly large crowd of around 20,000. On Sunday, three women's rights group filed separate appeals to the Supreme Court, which then ordered the plea bargain frozen for at least 24 hours.

Sunday's columns in Israeli papers slammed the deal with near unanimity. A poll by the Dahaf Research Institute published Friday in the Yediot Ahronot daily showed that 73 percent thought justice was not served. The poll surveyed 503 people and had a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.

<snip>

Israeli heroes like Moshe Dayan were reputedly notorious philanderers, an excess that the country's macho culture was willing to accept decades ago. But that changed with the conviction of Yitzhak Mordechai, a former defense minister, for sexual assault in 2001, and continued with the conviction of former Cabinet minister Haim Ramon for sexual misconduct earlier this year.

more. . .

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Israel-President.html


I had never heard about this before last night, when I happened across a story in the Independent. I asked in GD-P if the U.S. MSM had covered the story. The people who replied said they'd heard about it from LINK or BBC. I'd have thought the American media would have covered this but I guess women still don't matter unless the media want to turn opinion against a politician, as they did with Gary Hary and Bill Clinton.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. I do hope justice prevails

Since the man has admitted doing these deeds, he should pay the penalty.

[DemBones DemBones]

2. Agreed. Tell me, had you heard about

this before? I watch a lot of tv news and read a lot of news and never heard of this before last night.

Obviously I've got to start watching LINK and BBC regularly again, and reading papers from across the pond. CNN and MSNBC have certainly kept me informed about Paris Hilton. . .

Nice to see you! :hi: