LAWYERS FOR an Arab man who was convicted of rape after consensual sex with a Jewish woman who thought he was a Jew say they will appeal his 18-month prison term.
Sabbar Kashur (30), an Arab resident of east Jerusalem, was sentenced on Monday by the Jerusalem district court. Under a plea bargain agreement, the charges of rape and assault were dropped and he was found guilty of “rape by deception”.
A married man with children, Kashur worked as a motorbike dispatch rider for a firm of attorneys in Jewish west Jerusalem. He adopted the popular Israeli nickname of Dudu, short for David.
Two years ago a chance encounter in the centre of Jerusalem with an Israeli woman, who has not been identified publicly, resulted in sexual intercourse in a nearby deserted building. Kashur told the woman he was a Jewish bachelor seeking a long-term relationship.
When she found out the truth she pressed rape charges.
Jews and Arabs live side by side in Jerusalem, but in separate neighbourhoods. Social interaction is rare: romantic encounters are almost non-existent.
Passing down the rape verdict, the judges wrote: “If she hadn’t thought the accused was a Jewish bachelor interested in a serious romantic relationship, she would not have co-operated.” The judges argued the court was “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”.
Kashur claimed it was the woman who came on to him. “The girl is the one who started flirting with me and talking to me, and she is the one who wanted the thing from beginning to end.”
Kashur’s lawyer, Adnan Aladdin, said he would appeal the sentence. “Eighteen months in prison is too much. According to the plea bargain, he should be punished, but we expect him to receive community service.”
The affair dominated Israeli radio chat shows this week. Many of the listeners condemned the ruling as racist and asked would such a harsh sentence have been passed down if the accused was a Jewish Israeli and had tricked an Arab woman?
“Don’t they realise that their verdict has the uncomfortable smell of racial purity, of ‘don’t touch our daughters’? That it expresses the yearning of the extensive segments of society that would like to ban sexual relations between Arabs and Jews?” asked Ha’aretz columnist Gideon Levy, who writes on Palestinian affairs.