Israel anti-rape activists report the sad, frustrating, angering news that Yoav Even, accused rapist of P., has been reinstated as health reporter for Channel 2. It’s a huge shondeh. Can you imagine the local health reporter of your TV station being charged with rape and put back on the air as if nothing had happened? It’s the triumph of impunity, the triumph of sexual violence. The trampling of the body and soul of Israeli women by accused rapists and their judicial and prosecutorial accomplices. And no Israeli still can say publicly what crime he was accused of because of an apparently permanent gag order. One wonders whether perhaps it might be lifted sometime after his demise.
For those who can bear to look at him, here’s his first reporting for Channel 2 since he sodomized poor P. and left her bleeding. It would’ve been much more appropriate, I think, to have his first story deal with the wholesale importation and use of date rape drugs in Israel, since he appears to be quite familiar with the subject.
He is not the only one of course. Haaretz and Yediot employ the Israeli poet, political commentator and accused serial rapist Yitzhak Laor, as if he’d done nothing untoward either. Moshe Katsav was only convicted because feminists raised holy hell and because the idiot refused a plea bargain that offered him a sweetheart deal.
If you are Israeli, please go to the Channel 2 website and write to the editor and the ombundsman protesting this atrocity.
I don’t know about that. Isn’t the foundation of any Western, Democratic Justice system the presumption of innocence? You feel that despite his exoneration in a duly constituted court of law, Even should still be punished? Wouldn’t that be an even greater miscarriage of Justice? Besides, absent a conviction or complaints by fellow employees, Channel 2 risks a lawsuit if they were to fire Even. I don’t see that they have any choice but to reinstate him.
He wasn’t “exonerated” by a court of law. The prosecutor refused to press charges. He didn’t say he didn’t commit the crime, only that he didn’t believe he had enough evidence to get a conviction.
How do you know what Channel 2 risks? Have you seen his contract? Do you know what its terms are?
Well the presumption of innocence still applies. He wasn’t even charged and so he hasn’t been found guilty of any crime. Saying that there is insufficient evidence to obtain a conviction means just that – they can’t prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Even is guilty and that had he gone to trial he would in all likelihood have been found not guilty. That’s the standard in any criminal trial and again, one of the foundations of Criminal Law. We can play semantic games all day long but, like it or not, Even still benefits from the presumption of innocence.
Of course I have no access to Even’s contract but in general, an employer needs to have some grounds for firing an employee, unless employment terms are “at will.”
Allow me a moment to fully admit that had a friend or relative come to me with the same allegations as the complainant made against Even, my first reaction would be to get a gun and kill him. Someone would have to physically restrain me. But I guess that’s why civilized societies have courts and justice systems. It’s one of the seven Noahide laws even!
You are absolutely right. The presumption of innocence is a crucial demcratic principal. In a democracy, anyone not found guilty in court is, for any and all intents and purposes, innocent.
Even, however, was not tried in a democracy, nor does he live in one. He was exonerated in a shadow court for the powerful. His “problem” was “fixed”. He is a citizen of a fascist aparthied regime. A dictatorship of the majority. In an autocracy, the powerful do not pay the price of their crimes. They are protected. Thinking he is innocent is like thinking Ai Weiwei is really guilty of tax evasion, because the “justice” system found as much.
The chain of events here, as we saw it unfold, beckons the free people of the world to assume he is guilty, like we assume mubarak, bashir and assad are guilty, and Weiwei is innocent.
As far as I am concerned, Even is “ben mavet”.
That last line doesn’t work for me, duck.
I think Israel needs a huge reorganization of its legal system, and its law-enforcement system, and it’s priorities. But there are a lot of steps before that.
And rather than “ben mavet”, I consider him a ‘ben-elef-shedim” and think that his conduct merits constant and repeated exposure (a form of civil disobedience, following the gag order imposed by the court – which may or may not still be in force). Something about the way the event was described indicates that – if the description is true – it was not a one-off event.
Other victims will step up, if they know they’re not alone to do so.
I’d be much happier to see him go through due process than otherwise.
The measures you described are practical and I do hope capable people step up to follow them. But they do not constitute due process, even if they lead to trial and conviction. As you said, this is civil disobedience – a form of resistance. Resistance isn’t due process. The two never coexist – the latter makes the former redundant. Resistance is needed in the lack of democracy, and without democracy there can be no due process. Once we disobey a decision of the courts, it’s already, as you said, “otherwise”. Just a question of choice of measure.
I guess that my position is one of minimalist resistance while possible. But I respect yours, duck.
And if we decide that Israel’s law-enforcement system is indeed insufficient even for that protected class of persons, Israeli Jews, your position makes more sense than mine.
Well that’s the point – there is no protected class. Either everyone has rights, or no one has rights. The oppression of the weak – any weak – is intrinsic to a fascist racist state. The crimes of Even and his accomplices are joined at the hip to the crimes of the IDF. While violence isn’t usually a smart idea, he is still ben mavet, like anyone else who brings the power of the state down on the populace.
You have a valid point.
I can see it – intellectually – but I can’t quite give up the hope for a civil society, emotionally.
But you really do have a point, and I will be contemplating it sadly for the next few days, at least.
Thanks.
So Richard, are you concerned about rape only when non-leftists are involved? Why have you never had a word to say about Yitzhak Lior and his serial rapes of women? Is it because he is a radical leftist anti-Zionist and Haaretz columnist? Do you care about rape only when non-leftists are involved?
Idiot, didn’t you read the post? Why do I have to suffer such fools?
Is it a language problem? Or are you this friggin’ lazy all the time?
Not only does Haaretz publish writing of Yitzhak Laor.
It is the only place in the Haaretz web site you cannot post talkbacks. They are not allowing the public to express their disgust from that guy and the fact he is writing in the newspaper.
Perhaps they’ll let Levi Bellfield do a column?
You can always post talkbacks in the English Laor articles.
good to know, I will do…
this is not right..this is to much for a repe victim! it’s torcher! is someone helping her overcome this nightmer?