Jews for Allah

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State of Israel Vs. a Sex Offender
A 68 year old Israeli religious man pled guilty to repeated rape and forced molestation of his granddaughter, now an adult, when she was 7-10 years old, and was sentenced to 19 years in jail. In a landmark judgement, the judges call his crime and any sexual assults on children "a soul murder in a body that keeps on living."



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(Unofficial translation from Hebrew)



The District Court in Haifa

S. Jobran - Head Judge

Y. Grille - Judge

R. Shapiro – Judge






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The State of Israel against: (name withheld for protection of the victim's—his granddaughter's—privacy)



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Ruling:

1. The offenses the defendant was convicted of:

The defendant, born in 1933, was convicted through his own guilty plea of felonies referred to him in a revised accusation, of forced molestation, rape, and sexual assault. The victim of these felonies the defendant was convicted of was his granddaughter, born in 1980 ("the complainant"). The felonies were done in the complainant from the time she was 7 years old to the time she was 10. According to the Accusation, there were many incidents in which the defendant did the felonies he is accused of in his granddaughter, the complainant, felonies of which he pled guilty.

Let it be noted that the accusation refers to several different laws, due to changes in the penalty law regarding sexual offenses. The most severe charge referred to the defendant is a rape offense of inserting a finger into the complainant's genital, and this is a great number of times. It should be noted that the accusation does not relate to the popular term of rape (i.e. with a *BadWord*), but the actions admitted by the defendant are considered rape according to the law.



2. The victim:

Before we detail our considerations regarding the appropriate penalty in this case, we find it important to bring up some facts that are relevant to our decision, as related to the victim of the felonies as well as the defendant.

These facts, along with the total of facts presented to us, which we will not fully detail, faced us with a difficult deliberation regarding the severity of the penalty in this case. An unusual and a severe case in which a grandfather attacks his granddaughter and does in her sexual offenses of the kind the defendant plead guilty for.

Since the defendant pled guilty, it spared the complainant the need to testify. As noted, this is to the defendant's credit that he spared the granddaughter further suffering. At the same time, because of the guilty plea, the court did not hear the complainant's voice and we were not presented with the full factual picture, as it related to her hurt. Nevertheless, the prosecution presented to us evidence from which we learned to know the complainant, even if just a little bit. Under these circumstances, the court acquainted itself with the victim through the victim's report, the video confrontation, and other documents we received for review.

The complainant grew up in house next to her grandfather's house, the defendant. Life wasn't peaceful in her home. Her mother divorced twice. The conflicts in the mother's house included violence. Under these circumstances, the grandfather, who was a neighbor, was the dominant figure and a substitute father figure and a shelter in time of trouble. This is at least how the complainant felt until she realized that the grandfather, whom she loved and admired, made her into a service tool for his deviations.

The grandfather/defendant was a dominant and appreciated figure in the community where the family lived. We shall say more of his character later. It be noted that this is a lawyer who was one of the top lawyers in the North. In addition, the defendant is a learned man with many academic degrees in various topics, and was a teacher of the Bible, and a guide for many, in the legal community as well as outside of it. Under these circumstances, the grandchild's admiration of him was great. And as great the admiration and love, is the greatness of the loss, when she realized as a child that she was sexually exploited by the admired figure she loved most.

Later on, and as a result of many events, the mother left the town where she lived next to the grandfather, and moved with her children, including the complainant, to a near by Kibbuz. Where she created a warm home, and where the complainant matured.

The defendants' schemes and his hurt of the victim were already exposed in 1990. At the time, the committee that dealt with the case through the department of social services ("Ptor Committee"), decided to transfer the complaint to the police, and following the district attorney's office an investigation was launched. However, for various reasons it wasn't possible to take a deposition from the complainants, and as a result the investigation did not progress.

Although the defendant tried to repress the events she lived through in the presence of her grandfather/the defendant, she did not succeed. The emotional damage from the criminal actions of the defendants seeped through her and haunted her. On the night of 10/27/96, when she was about 16 years old, she decided to end her life. Before she attempted suicide, that luckily was not successful, she wrote in her diary a chapter of farewell from her family, and sort of a will. From her words, which make the reader shudder, it can be seen and understood how much damage the deeds of the defendant did to her:

"I stayed until the last night was swollen by the night. There is no symbolism in it. My colors faded and did not get swollen, but it doesn't matter. I am calm now, I have no anger at anyone and I hope that I brought the best and as much joy as possible to whoever I could. I am saying goodbye and asking that you not be angry. It is no one's fault. I have never seen myself being an adult, and now I know why. I will never be one. In spite of what I wrote earlier, I am not departing in sadness and pain, this is not a moment's decision, but something that has been in my for years and today reached it's end. I feel that I have finished my job and that there is not reason to linger in this borrowed time, happy I will never be. I am going happy now. I am filled with peace and I am feeling complete with