A study has found that 61 percent of Israel's male population think that forced sex with an acquaintance is not rape. Worse, 41 percent of Israeli women share that view.
The study conducted 14 years ago by Dr. Avigail Moor, a clinical psychologist who specializes in treating victims of sexual violence, asked respondents to provide a simple yes or no answer to two questions. The first question was whether they believed forced sex with an acquaintance constitutes rape while the second was whether they felt forced sex with a stranger constitutes rape.
The paper surveyed 160 women and 159 men between the ages of 18 and 69 and who constitute a representative sample of the Israeli population. The study found that 61 percent of men and 41 percent of women said they did not consider forced sex with an acquaintance to be rape. It likewise found that nine out of 10 respondents of both genders said that forced sex with a stranger is rape.
Meanwhile, as to whether whether they viewed forced sex with a spouse as rape, only 8.5 percent of women and 7.3 percent of men said yes.
When asked whether a woman should complain to the police if raped by a stranger, 54 percent of women and 52 percent of men said yes. When asked about rape by an acquaintance, only 38 percent of women and 20 percent of men thought the victim should file a police complaint.
"The importance of the study is that it empirically documents the public's tolerant attitude toward rape by an acquaintance, which is the most common form of sexual assault," said Moor. "In contrast to the law, which does not distinguish between rape in which the assailant knows the victim and rape in which the assailant is a stranger, the public doesn't view forced sex by a prior acquaintance as rape in every regard and minimizes its severity."
The author argued that the nation’s justice system and sometimes even the victims themselves, are confused in identifying a situation as rape and therefore as a crime.
"As a result of this view, women who are raped by an acquaintance have trouble getting support … and are even accused of creating the conditions for the incident to occur, while the attackers aren't denounced or punished," she concluded.
This study helps explain why Israelis are prone to commit sexual violence.
Israeli leaders defend soldiers accused of rape
Back in August, a video of a Palestinian prisoner being gang raped at the Sde Teiman detention facility in the Negev desert in southern Israel by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops went viral.
The video, which has been verified as legitimate by multiple media outlets and experts, shows the prisoner being selected from a larger group lying bound on the floor, then escorted to a wall, where guards, using their shields to hide their identity from the camera, proceeded to rape him. The victim was later transferred to hospital because he was unable to walk following the brutal attack. Ten soldiers that belong to a unit known as Force 100 were ultimately arrested for the rape on July 29. (Related: EVIL: Leaked video footage shows IDF soldier RAPING unarmed Palestinian male – tearing his rectum, rupturing his bowels and PARALYZING him.)
This incident received widespread condemnation, including from Israeli human rights groups and United Nations agencies, all of whom are voicing concerns about Israel's treatment of Palestinian detainees.
For some, however, the outrage has centered on the "crime" of recording the video rather than the alleged rape itself.
Israel's extremist Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich demanded "an immediate criminal investigation to locate the leakers of the trending video that was intended to harm the reservists and that caused tremendous damage to Israel in the world and to exhaust the full severity of the law against them."
Extremist Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir argued that any action done by IDF soldiers, including the raping of Palestinians, is permissible if it is undertaken for the security of the state.
Israeli politicians, including cabinet members, have also defended the accused. Ben-Gvir, who is also responsible for the prison service, told Israeli media that it was "shameful" for Israel to arrest their "best heroes."
Smotrich also published a video message, saying that "IDF soldiers deserve respect" and must not be treated as "criminals."
Asked by Ahmad Tibi, one of the Arab MPs within the Israeli Knesset, if it was legitimate "to insert a stick into a person’s rectum," Hanoch Milwidsky, a member of the ruling Likud Party, responded: "If he is a Nukhba [Hamas militant], everything is legitimate to do! Everything."
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