Tikun Olam-תיקון עולם: Make the World a Better Place

Tweet

Thanks to Michael Levin for creating a stellar new poster protesting the gag order protecting Israeli TV reporter, Yoav Even from facing public accountability for charges that he raped P.  Israeli feminists will be demonstrating against the gag order in early June in Tel Aviv, and if you’re there I urge you to join in protesting the protection offered by the Israeli judicial system to powerful male figures charged with crimes against women.

Please circulate this poster as widely as possible and I hope it helps P. get the justice she deserves.

I’ve learned the ugly truth that there are actually entire websites devoted to exposing the identity of rape victims.  They call what they do “male advocacy.”  Wow, I bet you didn’t know rapists needed advocates, did ya?  And they’ve been sniffing around this story for a week or more, promising to expose P’s identity because she, don’t ya know, likely cooked the whole thing up.  Since we all know that women do this all the time and face no consequences from doing so (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

Now, they’re hanging out in my comment threads like puppy dogs wagging their tails, looking for approbation and recognition for their ‘good deeds.’  They make me feel dirty, perhaps as dirty as I felt when I read P.’s account of her rape.

I don’t understand the psychology behind this.  Either these people hate women or they’ve been accused of rape themselves.  But they’ve got to be twisted souls.

Tweet

Artist's conception of P., and all Israeli women (and men too), gagged (poster Rotem Cohen)

Finally, the first log has been dislodged in the logjam that constitutes the gag order preventing Israeli media from reporting that Yoav Even, Channel 2 news reporter, was accused of raping P.  One Angry Feminist yesterday published the verbatim statement of P., the victim, to the police in Hebrew (I’d published it earlier in English translation).  Today, the blog went one step farther and exposed the identity of Even for the first time in a Hebrew media site.  I say, kol ha-kavod higiya z’man (“more power to you–it’s about time”).

The blog also published the gag order extension (page 1 and page 2) issued by Judge Beni Sagi on April 28th.  I posted about the judge’s initial ruling approving the gag here.  Among the other pearls of wisdom in the April 28th ruling is the following:

In weighing the balance between the good name of the suspect and the public interest in an open legal proceeding  and the public’s right to know, I believe it is reasonable to extend the prohibition on the publication of the suspect’s name until an indictment is brought by the prosecution, if it is brought.

The charges against the suspect is rape.  And the damage that would be done to his reputation should his name be published is of the gravest sort.  After reviewing the evidence I do not see justification for causing such damage.

I suppose we should thank the judge for at least marginally recognizing one right that he’s prepared to trample upon–the public’s right to know.  But who is missing from this passage?  Bingo, the victim.  Where is P.?  Missing.  Invisible.  The closest he comes to considering her is saying that he’s examined the evidence and decided it isn’t of sufficient quality to justify removing the gag.  Note also, he’s essentially telegraphed to the prosecution that he doesn’t believe the evidence rises to the level of being credible.  No wonder the State dropped its case.

What can one say to such drivel, even when written by a judge?  Does it deserve even the slightest consideration?

What’s especially interesting about the judge’s ruling, considering that there is still a gag in place after the charges have been dropped against Even, is that Judge Sagi says the gag should remain in place until the prosecution brings charges against the suspect.  In other words, now that the prosecution has decided not to do so, there should no longer be any reason for the gag.  Yet somehow, miraculously it remains in place.  Isn’t that a wonder?  And who does the extension of the gag protect?  Yoav Even, of course.

The same Yoav Even who was feted by his Channel 2 colleagues at a Tel Aviv club just after the charges were dropped against him.  He’s pictured partying in the Israeli tabloid gossip columns.  The same gossip mongers reported today that Yoav, what a good boy he is, brought wine and cakes to his colleagues at Channel 2.  How utterly charming.  This is the same charm that persuaded P. to enter his lair in the first place.  The article intimates in ever so subtle a way that Yoav’s return is just around the corner.  I bet all Israel can’t wait.

In the meantime, for the rest of Israel that can’t stomach the idea that the man who P. alleges attacked and brutalized her in the transcript I published here should be rewarded with a return to the public airwaves, I invite you to write to Even’s editor, Guy Soudry, and to complain publicly to Channel 2 directly.

There are a few hilarious comments in the Talkbacks for the Maariv story I linked to just above (thanks for pointing that out, Shai).  They’re too delicious to pass up.  Inbal Barak writes with bitter irony:

How nice that everything’s turning out so well for Yoav Even.  It’s really not true that he’s a rapist.  Look, here’s proof of it that we see him on TV.  He has famous friends and he’s very cool.  How could you possibly call him a rapist?  Actually, on second thought, you can’t call him a rapist.  There’s a gag order that prohibits our saying this about him.  And not a single one of his journalist friends lifted a finger to object to the gag.  Strange.  Interesting to wonder why.  Surely because those who appear on TV are above the law.

So whether you’ll permit me to or not: Yoav Even is a brutal R-A-P-I-S-T and his place is not among us, but in jail.

Amos Bar adds:

Girls, don’t drink the wine.

To which Dani says:

I strongly recommend that all [Channel 2] staff keep a close eye on their drinks.

I note that the feminist section of Tapuz, an Israeli discussion forum which had featured links to my blog post and extensive discussion about the Even rape case took down all threads related to it.  Even though Even’s name was never exposed.  This is shameless.  At least one can say about Rabbi Rotter, despite his poisonous political views and the fact that he harbors members who’ve leveled death threats against me, is that he is not cowed by such nonsense.  Tapuz has fallen prey to the fear generated by an Israeli lawyer who with a straight face alleged that Israeli authorities could undertake a criminal prosecution against any blogger or online publication which linked to a foreign source which violated a gag order.  This, of course, was meant as an implicit attack on any Israeli linking to my blog.

Demonstration: A group of Israeli feminists and their supporters will be demonstrating in Tel Aviv in a few days against the dropping of charges against Yoav Even.  Currently the rally is scheduled for June 5th, but I’m told the date and time are likely to change.  You can find out more from the Facebook group linked above.  I hope you’ll turn out and show your support for P.

Tweet

The Israeli rape victim, P., has been joined by the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel in appealing the gag order (the appeal is displayed here with P’s identity excised) protecting alleged rapist and Channel 2 News reporter, Yoav Even.  I am hoping that even if this appeal fails that they will succeed in bringing the case before the Supreme Court, which takes a dimmer view of such blanket gags than the lower Israeli courts do.  As I wrote earlier, the Israeli police have opposed the gag almost from the start.  It is only the defendant and the judge who’ve agreed that he should be protected.

If you are a Hebrew reader, you may read the verbatim transcript of P.’s statement to the police concerning her rape.  This was the document I translated into English and paraphrased in my blog post.  I assure you that however troubling you found my version, the Hebrew is more so.  Not that I’m discouraging you from reading it.  Just the opposite.  If any Israel, man (or woman for that matter), has any doubt that P. was raped, you owe it to yourself and the truth to read this.  I note that an entire gang of earlier commenters who waxed indignant about my accusing a possibly innocent man of a crime he may not have committed, somehow haven’t continued with their hue and cry since I published P. rape statement.  Nor have they recanted their previous defense of Even.  They’ve just–gone silent.  Hmmm.

I especially urge this reader–who wrote a deeply objectionable comment here in which he praised the effort of a blogger known by the apt name, Mala Fide (or “Bad Faith”) to expose P’s identity–to read the original Hebrew transcript.  Mala Fide stole the disguised image I displayed here of P. and urged anyone who might know P. to publicly “out” her on the presumption that she was a liar and smearing the reputation of an innocent man.  Clearly, Mala Fide doesn’t like women, or perhaps he just doesn’t like women who were raped or claim they were raped, or perhaps he just doesn’t like anyone but himself.  I don’t know what Troll’s problem is.  He’s the one who published this comment earlier:

My most excellent and sharp friend, Dena Shunra did a little research on our friend, Troll, to discover that he’s been posting his six comments from a company computer using the JP Morgan Chase servers, which likely means he is an employee of the bank.  You’d think people like this posting objectionable material would have half a brain about their behavior and at least protecting their sorry asses.

UPDATE: Before reading the passage below, I wanted to include this gratifying response I received on May 31st from JP Morgan Chase’s executive offices regarding Troll’s use of the bank’s computer resources to engage in this campaign against P.:

I am writing in response to your complaint, which was forwarded to the Executive Office for response. I would like to thank you for taking the time to write and make us aware of this situation…Please be assured your concerns have been documented and reported to the appropriate management to be addressed.

So I naturally wrote to the company e-mail address (for abuse) listed for the corporate IP address Troll used to report that he was using JP Morgan Chase IT resources to publicly urge that a raped woman’s identity be exposed, thus opening her to further degradation and humiliation and possibly physical harm.  No response from Chase.  But I’m happy to say that since I posted my last reply to Troll advising him of the action I’ve taken, he’s mysteriously disappeared.  I guess he got the message.

Israelis might care to know that JP Morgan Chase has an extensive corporate presence in Israel.  You might want to consider that when you make decisions on where to bank or invest your money.  If I ever hear a response from the bank’s IT department about this incident I’ll let you know.  I did offer them 24 hours to respond to me before I posted this, but they didn’t.

If you’re an Israeli, you may want to let Channel 2 know that you don’t wish to see on your TV screen a reporter who may’ve perpetrated the type of brutality portrayed in P.’s statement.  Just as you don’t enjoy seeing the image of Roni Daniel, the station’s senior military correspondent, who appears to have obstructed justice by making unwanted contact on behalf of his friend, Even, with the victim before she filed charges.

Tweet

Welcome back, Yoav

Despite reams of detailed evidence from the alleged rape victim (some of which I have seen), the Israeli prosecutor has dropped its case against Channel 2 reporter Yoav Even.  The state declared it was doing so “for lack of evidence.”  When a prosecutor finds a woman’s claim that she was sodomized against her will by a man to be insufficient to bring a charge against him, then you know something is likely wrong.  Of course, the gag order imposed by the judge helped tamp down both public interest and awareness of the case making it much easier to drop the charges and allow the media celebrity to go free.

In the meantime, Yoav Even and his colleagues at Channel 2 are celebrating his imminent return to work.  Here they celebrate at a club his freedom.  Maariv notes rather coyly that Even has been “absent from the scene” for some time.  It breathlessly and tastelessly adds:

To all those yearning, he’s [Even] expected to return to work soon.

An Israeli writes to me (and I can’t tell whether this is perverse humor or true) that now he can sit down and pen that book he’s been meaning to write: “How to Screw Israeli Girls.” One wonders whether a brush with a rape charge will increase his allure in the eyes of some or will they stand clear.  From the looks of this picture, it doesn’t appear to be happening in Even’s case.

A man with his apparent sexual proclivities is liable to try something like this in the future.  The first time he got off just by the skin of his teeth.  Next time (if/when there is one), he won’t be so lucky.  Of course, this is very small consolation to the alleged victim in this case.

In this day and age, when powerful French politicians find their aberrant sexual habits topple their careers and wives of ex-California governors are dumping them for fathering children out-of-wedlock, the seeming cavalierness with which such serious charges are treated in Israel appears thankfully to be an anomaly.

Tweet

Rotem Cohen and Lian Ram have created a powerful short documentary film about the repression of sexual violence in Israeli society.  Yulie Cohen wrote this powerful note addressed to Judge Benny Sagi, who granted a gag order protecting the identity of accused rapist, Yoav Even, from being disclosed in the Israeli media:

I turn to you in this personal way because it seems that lately you’ve taken up a case which features a charge of rape.  Due to the gag order, very little is known to me.  But I have a growing fear that the file might be closed by you without the public having any idea why.  I would like to trust that you do fulfill your responsibilities faithfully toward men and women alike.  But I’d like to remind you that most of the women who suffer sexual violence do not report it because they know that the likelihood that justice will see the light of day is low.

Please, your honor, in your decisions, call upon the women of Israel to continue to file such complaints and not to fear that a man does not see their pain.

Thanking you in advance,

Yulie (a woman and mother of two young girls)

My friend, Dena Shunra has translated the Hebrew captions for the documentary. If Yulie or someone can add these captions to the video itself it would make a very powerful statement for English-speaking viewers:

Timestamp	text
0:07	1979: CEDAW – Israel ratifies the Convention for the Eradication of Discrimination Against Women, in any form
0:21	1999-2005 Approximately 54,630 calls were made to the help hotlines relating to sex crimes
0:27	Only 33,871 sex crime cases were opened by the police during those years
0:44	Only about 22% of those who contact the help hotlines go on to file a complaint with the police.
0:47	Which indicates a number of attacks which is double that reflected in police data
1:01	1996-2005: 46,790 sex crimes cases were opened by the police.
1:06	Of these, only 6,986 ended up with a conviction.
1:16	This means that only about 15% of the cases opened end up with convictions
1:26	The Israeli justice system convicts about 98% of cases prosecuted
1:32	Thus, nearly 85% of sex crime cases do not come to trial
1:47	Of every ten women hurt – two get to bring their case before a judge
2:01	[Chart] Rape cases in Israel, 1999-2005 Convictions, police complaints, contacts with help hotlines
3:10	At this time, our lips our sealed in solidarity
3:15	With those who cannot shout out the reckless strategy taken by the State with their own cases
3:42	Find us on FaceBook and join us in a silence that speaks volumes.
3:51	Mitpakdot: We Stand Up and Are Counted

 

 

 

 

Tweet

Israel gagged from discussing sexual violence (Rotem Cohen)

Thanks to Rotem Cohen for creating a collage of gagged mouths which dramatizes the impact of Judge Benny Sagi’s continuing gag against reporting the rape charge brought against Israeli journalist Yoav Even.  The judge in this case has sealed the media’s mouth, and sealed the ears and eyes of every Israeli who may not hear of this case and make judgments for him or herself about its importance for their lives. While Israeli lower courts tend to side with powerful defendants in protecting their prerogatives and privilege, higher courts tend to look on such gags more skeptically.   I hope and urge an Israeli journalist to appeal Sagi’s ruling.

Yesterday, I had a different version of this poster displayed here.  Someone whose face was depicted saw this post and noted that I’d named the rape suspect in this case and was frightened that even having her masked image displayed here might leave her open to prosecution.  Of course there are numerous reasons why her fear was overstated.

But the cold, hard truth is that this is how Israeli women feel about this subject.  They are frightened.  In this case it bleeds over from the issue of sexual violence to the issue of secrecy and state power.  Once again, this is the price every Israeli pays for living in a state in which security and secrecy are acceptable, even desirable modes of state behavior.

To be clear, I don’t mean to criticize the woman who objected.  I can’t possibly know what personal motivations went into her request.  Nor do I have the right to judge her.  I’m commenting on the overall climate of fear that some Israelis face in combatting the government’s invasion of their privacy and their prerogatives as citizens.

Tweet

Yoav Even: too sexy for my shirt

Yoav Yitzhak reports (Hebrew) in News1 that despite a police appeal for dismissal of the gag order in the case of Yoav Even, Channel 2 TV news reporter accused of brutally raping a women at the end of February, the judge has extended it.  Noteworthy in his decision, which balances the need for “respecting the good name of the suspect” against the public’s right to know, is the omission of the interests of the victim.  Which of course leads one to the conclusion that she has none, at least in the eyes of the court and this judge.

The judge, Benny Sagi, also makes clear that he is troubled by the fact that the suspect may, somehow, not have understood clearly the wishes of the victim.  This somehow works to Even’s favor and creates a need, in the judge’s mind, to protect the suspect’s identity:

The central claim of this case is rape.  The damage likely to occur to the accused if such an accusation is published is of the gravest sort.  In noting the strength [i.e. "weakness," he just didn't want to use the political incorrect word] of the evidence to which I related in my decision to free the suspect, I do not think such damage is warranted.

Yoav Even: what is it about a man and his armored personnel carrier that is so damned sexy?

In other words, this judge has implied he is so troubled by the issues raised by the defense (that the victim was allegedly “sexually aggressive,” liked “rough sex,” and had two drinks offered by the accused) that he thinks the defendant might not be convicted.  For this reason, he continues to protect him.

And let it not be said that Sagi protects dashing journalists accused of rape alone.  He also, and again against the will of the police, offered a senior Israeli attorney, accused of embezzling massive sums from businessmen, a similar gag order.  In this case, the judge accepted the defense’s argument that publishing the lawyer’s name would break the very heart of his ailing 84 year-old mother.  Let it not be said that Israeli justice shows any deference to the rich and well-connected.

I continue to be deeply disturbed by the underlying sexism expressed in both the judge’s language above, and the clamoring of an almost universally male Israeli audience for maintenance of the gag.  I find it astonishing that the judge makes no reference whatsoever in his decision to the victim.  It’s as if she doesn’t exist.  If she doesn’t exist for the judge, imagine how much less so she might exist for the police, prosecutor who will have to bring the case to trial, or for the alleged rapist on the night of the attack.

Further, the judge appears to be judging, even before a decision on whether to try the case or not, what is the likelihood that Even can be convicted.  And this seems to be the sole criteria he uses to extend the gag and protect him.  Funny, now I thought judges were meant to hear all the evidence before determining guilt or innocence.  I think basically, Sagi is telegraphing to the prosecution that he thinks they have a losing case.  Would it be any wonder if the State drops the case?  Though let’s hope it will not.

I also note the judge has confirmed that Hadas Shtaif’s claim that the case has been dropped is wrong.  The judge made clear that the case is now with the prosecutor who will make the decision on whether to prosecute.

Alas, Even’s Facebook page is no more.  But an enterprising Rotter member appropriated these images from it before the account expired.  The caption for another image (not displayed here) of Even in cut offs drinking a brew with a tall comely blond wench by his side said:

At the birthday party for one of the finest blondes…

Photos do not convict anyone of a crime.  But clearly the man thinks highly of himself, his body, his magnetic charm, and his way with the ladies.