Oooh! How angry they are! It’s really scary. "Shame!" they shout. "Revenge!" they scream. "This will not come to pass!" they promise. "The High Court of Justice discriminates!" they fume. "It has been proven that equality before the law doesn’t exist. There are people who are equal, and there are people who are less equal," they wail.
Yes, yes, the women’s organizations are pulling out all the stops. "A black day for the judicial system," they inform us. What is all this about? The judges of the High Court of Justice decided to reject the appeals by the women’s organizations against the plea bargain for former President Moshe Katzav. The judges confirmed the agreement, as part of which only minor sex crimes are attributed to Katzav.
Fourteen women’s organizations, including Kolech ("your voice"), decided that they cannot remain silent. They are going forth to battle against the plea bargain! "We are initiating a series of protest activities throughout the country," they announce. Marches, demonstrations, protests. The sky’s the limit. And they call upon the public at large to join them.
And so, I want to tell this band of women: Forget about me. I’m not coming to your demonstrations. You can come looking for me and my friends. If you find us, then we will ask you: Now you wake up? Because you are convinced that Moshe Katzav committed rape and got off lightly?
Where were you until now? Where were you when the High Court of Justice allowed the state to commit gang rape against our brothers and sisters from Gush Katif and northern Samaria? The gang rape called the "disengagement." Why didn’t you take a stand with us in the demonstrations under the slogan: "Disengagement Criminals to Trial"? Where were you when entire families were destroyed, physically, psychologically, and financially, because of the rape of the expulsion?
Where were you after the Amona pogrom, when hundreds of police officers fell like Cossacks on youth, boys and girls, and delivered murderous blows, pushed and beat them, while severely violating the modesty of Jewish girls, without being punished for this? Where were you when male police officers, against standing regulations, physically dragged off women and girls at Amona? Did you raise "your voice"? Did you participate in demonstrations and marches against the "law enforcement" system that defended the pogromist – and, yes, sexually abusive – police officers?
Where were you in the past months when dozens of infants and children, men, and women froze from the cold in the "Bet Hashalom" (Peace house) in Hebron, because of the authorities’ refusal to permit them to install windows and a normal electric system in the structure, and to repair the roof?
And if you were to answer me that you are concerned only with the topic of "sexual assault," then where were you when seven 14-year-old girls were arrested at the meahaz (outpost settlement) near Beit El for the "crime" of staying in the meahaz? Where were you during the course of almost a month while these girls – minors – were held in the Neveh Tirtzah prison, with a denial of their basic human rights and with endless abuse? Where were you when the girls’ friends and family members organized a demonstration to protest against the police in the Benjamin Police who abused the girls (again, minors) – and forcibly stripped them, sometimes even in the presence of a male police officer? In addition to violating their standard of modesty, the law regards such behavior with female minors as an extremely grave sexual offense. Why don’t you initiate a struggle to place on trial those police officers, who apparently are above the law?
Where are you today when an 18-year-old girl, Tzivya from Elon Moreh, has been imprisoned for three months – for nothing – while suffering severe abuse? Where was your cry of outrage when the rule of law system did not permit Tzivya to participate in her grandfather’s funeral a few days ago?
Ahhh … how did I forget? All the cases that I described involved settlers – and it is common knowledge that the rights of settlers, of either gender, can be trampled underfoot. They are twentieth-class citizens. You women’s organizations are not concerned with them. They don’t interest anyone. They can be trampled on, persecuted, and discriminated against by the High Court of Justice.
So here, you see. Anyone who remained silent while the High Court of Justice and the rest of the Israeli injustice system abused settlers should not cry now about being abused.
So, you hypocritical women, I and my friends will not come to demonstrate with you today. For it has been shown that, for you, too, there are people who are equal and those who are less equal.
Don’t think that I have any sympathy for Moshe Katzav. I think that he should rot in prison. I don’t know if he raped A. or not. I do know that when he was President he remained silent and did nothing to stop the crime of the rape of our brethren from Gush Katif and northern Samaria. For this alone he should have to sit in prison for the rest of his life, together with the other expulsion criminals.
And so, members of the women’s organizations who are "going forth to battle," if you want Israeli women to join you in the future, I advise you to do some soul-searching, and the earlier the better.
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