|
|
- 18 juli 2010
'Girls our age have sex'
Must-read for parents: 14-year-old girl reveals sexual norms in modern-day Israel.
"In one moment, you can turn from a human being to an object. It reminds me of my first time with Yogev. I barely remember it…from what I know, most girls don't remember in detail the day they did it the first time…I remember it was very complicated and scary and that I regretted it at first, but then went along with it…after that evening, I did it on dozens of other occasions…it's clear to me that it's awful and disgusting, but at some point I got a little addicted to it."
Her name is Osher. It's a pseudonym. It can be Coral or Agam or Yuval, it doesn't matter. One of those cool new names that young, hip parents give their children in Israel these days. You sit there and think about her parents and the dreams they had for her, wanting her to grow into someone special, wild, different. Parents these days don't make do with a modest Biblical name; they want a Hollywood-style name, fit for someone who stands out in a crowd.
Yet here is Osher now, sitting here, showing me her self-inflicted cuts. She tried to commit suicide. The reason for this: She is 14-years-old, but in her words has the "experience of a 30-year-old." She slept with more than 20 men by now. Actually, let's be accurate here – more than 20 children. Most of the guys she slept with are from her age group, except for a few who already joined the army, and that 23-year-old loser. She was also "with" more than 40 other children ("with" means she had sexual relations with them without intercourse.)
It is a little hard to believe, but this really is happening all around us. Because along with their slang, today's young Israelis also have a few new key players at childhood: The Internet, social networks and mobile phones. For example, just a few weeks ago the country was outraged over an online video showing a 13-year-old boy and girl his age having sex.
Throughout the entire video, the girl can be seen asking the boy to put his phone down and stop filming her. This is precisely the difference between our adolescence and theirs. We also fooled around, experimented, and burned with curiosity. Only with us, there wasn't the technology.
'We're all sexually active'
How well do you know your daughter?
Osher sent me an email a few months ago: "I'm 14, and I have a story that may be of interest to you…I live in a small and rather normal northern town…a few months ago I read the project you did in the newspaper about our young generation and I thought to myself: Why don't I present parents with some truth?"
This is the point where you're supposed to smile and say: "Well, my girl is not like that. She never went to sleep over at a friend's house or ran away from home."
But you better listen to Osher's story.
"Not all the sluts are crazy girls who run away from home, like me," she says. "Many of them do it in the afternoons, in all sorts of places and public parks. They tell their mom they're going over to a friend but they're actually going to meet a guy from school. It's over in half-an-hour, and you're back home to watch your favorite TV show with mom."
It's hard to understand. She comes from a normative family. Her father owns a business, her mother has a job. How does such girl wake up one day and embark on a self-destructive rampage full of sex and alcohol in dark forests? It's like some kind of bizarre "Kill Bill", like a 14-year-old Uma Thurman, only without any clear motive. There is no answer to the one question that is bothering me – What caused her to get up one day and go out and waste her body?
And it's not just her. Osher swears that most girls her age are like this. "We are all sexually active in some way," she says, "Don't fool yourselves for a moment."
'Like ordering pizza'
According to Osher, "Everyone our age is having sex. We all do it. I have a friend my age, Amit, and he is a sex maniac. He was in the bathroom at a club, where he did it with two girls together, both our age. All day he hangs around with his cocky friends and they give each other high fives over how manly they are and how girls throw themselves at them."
What kind of girls are these?
"The sluts, girls from the neighborhood. Girls who they call up on the cell phone and say, 'Come down.' They ask you to come down like they're ordering a pizza, and you can't really say no. They turned me into one of these. I was 12 and I wanted to fit in and be part of the gang. They turned me into one of those girls that gets called and just comes."
Why is it awful and annoying?
"Because it is. Because on the one hand, you like the guy, and he is kind of sexy. And on the other hand, what did you really want? To sit with a person and talk about life, to have a heart-to-heart, to get a hug, to have him ask you how your day was. Then, 90% of the time the boys who come to sit and talk with me don't view me as a conversation companion. They view me as a slut."
Are you aware that every single one of the boys that you were with is breaking statutory rape laws? And each one of them could potentially go to jail or an institution?
"Then I ask you: Would you be able to go and snitch on one of them? To go and say he is a criminal?"
'I wasn't raped'
Forget everything you knew about sluts. And I purposely use the word "sluts," because this is how Osher refers to it. She hates to see what's happening to her being packaged into pity-filled psychological terms.
"I wasn't raped. I even seduced some of the guys…stop thinking that all of us come from families in distress or that we're all fat and sleep with everyone to get some attention. These days, girls my age have sex, period. And until you continue to treat us like this, be shocked and send us to the district psychiatrist so he can prescribe pills just because we dared make out with someone, we'll continue not telling you. We'll simply tell you nothing," she says.
It's generally thought that these girls become easy prey because they suffered sexual assault as children. Osher did not go through any such experience. Furthermore, she is also very smart. That's the scary part, the gap between her high intelligence and the foolish wantonness she is putting her body through.
"I know I'm smart," she says, "and on the other hand, I am stupid. How do you explain that? Do you have an answer?"
I sigh. If I had to define adolescence, this is exactly how I would do it. The mind develops and is flooded with quotes from great poets, while the spirit remains extra small, juvenile.
Low self-esteem
The thing is, Osher has low self-esteem. In fact, most girls between the ages of 13 and 14 have problematic self-esteem. "The boys just wipe it out at this age," I was told by an educational advisor I contacted for this report. "You see it in the classroom. The boys are loud, noisy, they participate in class. Little show-offs. The girls are quiet, afraid to stand out. Girls at this age need female empowerment lessons, they need to have their minds, spirits, and skills sharpened. They need to understand they are also allowed to excel in mathematics, and not just be judged on their hip-hop dancing skills."
"We are raising a generation of young Christina Aguileras who think that a woman is nothing more than a sex object," she says. "Brilliant girls with brains and might find themselves giving in to the boys' 'sex is cool' terror."
And now Osher is sitting here and telling me that she would be a disappointment for any parent, and that I would hate her had she been my daughter. "Not at all," I say. "You're smart, you write beautifully, and I think you're a good person. I would be proud to be your mother."
"But I slept with so many guys," she says, bringing tears to my eyes. "Don't you get it? I'm finished, a total loss; I managed to ruin my own life."
And do you think that if your dad explains to you how wonderful you are, this would change?
"Of course. You think I'm running away like this for the fun of it? I'm running away because I'm scared…because I have nowhere to stay…I merely want some air. I want to say something to parents out there: Your girl is back from school? Look up from the computer, smile, and ask her how she is and how her day was. We may not respond, or maybe we will, but don't give up on trying. Stop with your screaming and threats for a moment, and occasionally tell us: 'I love you. I miss you.' Just so we don't think that we're a disappointment, and that you've completely given up on us.
4 aug 2010
Police launch criminal probe into rabbi suspected of molesting boys
Mordechai Elon at home in February in the northern community of Migdal.
Investigation follows discovery of alleged sex crimes victim; charges filed by the victim not disqualified by statute of limitations.
Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein has instructed the police to initiate a criminal investigation into Rabbi Moti Elon, under suspicion that he sexually molested young boys.
Weinstein made the call after at least one additional boy who claims that Elon committed sexual offences against him came forward, and whose case is still valid under the statute of limitations. Elon was questioned last month at the offices of the National Fraud Unit.
Elon's lawyer, Yair Golan, told Haaretz on Wednesday evening that a mudslinging campaign is being waged against Elon, and so it's no surprise that there will be a police investigation. Golan added that he is convinced that at the end of the investigation, it will be revealed that Elon committed no criminal act.
Back in February Weinstein instructed the police to conduct a preliminary investigation of the complaints, according to which Elon, one of the most important rabbis in the national religious movement, committed sexual offences against youths that came to him for advice.
However, from the initial investigation conducted by the police -- a prerequisite for launching a criminal investigation – it would appear that there were no complaints made by those who were minors at the time of the supposed offences and who were complaining of offences that occurred recently enough to not be disqualified by the statute of limitations.
The incident began with Takana, a forum dedicated to preventing sexual harassment by prominent religious figures, on the basis of complaints of alleged sexual relations between Rabbi Elon and minors that they had accumulated.
The Takana Forum revealed details of the complaints that they received in the past from students of Rabbi Elon. "One of the first complaints submitted to the forum was against Rabbi Mordechai Elon," the group wrote on its Web site. "One claim accused him of sexual exploitation by an individual with religious authority. These are grave acts that are not open to any other interpretation."
According to Takana, a small subcommittee was first notified of the initial complaint. Its members then confronted Elon about the allegations, to which the rabbi replied that he had completely overcome his problem. He said "these were old incidents and there would not be a repeat of new ones."
A year later, Takana received another complaint stating that Elon had maintained "a relationship of a clear sexual nature over an extended period of time." The complaint prompted the group to limit Elon's activity. When the rabbi failed to adhere to the restrictions, the members of the group elected to publicize the details of the affair.
In the last few months, police investigators conducted an investigation of the complaints that were received by the Takana forum, and met with forum members who over the years have come into contact with Elon's accusers and potential accusers. They also went over material that documents the complaints and records of the contacts that occurred between forum members and Rabbi Elon in regards to the complaints.
Until the last complainant was found, a decision had been made that it would be difficult to convince all of the complainants to press charges. And even if they could, most of the concrete complaints were not made by minors, or were no longer prosecutable because of the statute of limitations.
The management of the Takana forum stated, "The forum acts in cases that the police cannot. When a police action becomes possible, the Takana forum is confident that they will perform their jobs faithfully."
- 20 aug 2010
children rights group: Israeli soldiers accused of sexual abuse
A children rights group has accused the Israeli military of abusing Palestinian teenagers who were arrested by Israeli soldiers.
The Palestinian branch of Defense for Children International (DCI) has filed dozens of complaints with both Israeli legal authorities and the UN, Haaretz reported.
Since September 2009, the UN has received details of more than 100 cases in which military authorities allegedly abused minors who were held in detention.
The group said the Israeli military used "a policy of routine and painful abuse, involving various forms of physical and psychological pressure," to extract confessions from Palestinian minors in custody.
DCI has also complained about Israeli forces sexual abuse as well as their use of Palestinian teenagers as human shields.
The report came after a former Israeli soldier caused an uproar in the international community by posting photos showing her smiling in front of blindfolded, handcuffed Palestinians.
The photographs have received severe condemnation from rights groups. The Israeli Committee against Torture said the images prove that the Israeli army treats Palestinians like objects and not humans.
Around 7,000 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli detention facilities, reportedly suffering under harsh, life-threatening conditions.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/139408.html
9 sept 2010
CNN report: IDF sexually abused Palestinian children
Damning CNN report cites uncorroborated charges of sexual abuse against Palestinian children detained by IDF; army says detention of minors undertaken in line with international law, cannot respond to abuse charges as no details provided
Harsh accusations on CNN: A CNN investigative report aired Thursday slammed the treatment of Palestinian children by IDF soldiers.
The report included uncorroborated charges of sexual abuse against Palestinian youngsters while in IDF custody.
The CNN report featured an unidentified Palestinian boy claiming that IDF forces attempted to insert an object into his rectum after he was arrested. The unidentified youngster said a dozen or so officers were standing around and laughing while he was being interrogated, stopping only when their commander stepped into the room.
The IDF could not offer a response to the charge because the youngster's name was not provided. The army did say that a complaint should be filed if such cases ever happened.
Overall, CNN cited reports that five Palestinian boys have complained of sexual abuse by Israeli troops. No evidence or further information was provided.
According to the report, which did not seem to include any hard evidence of IDF wrongdoing, Palestinian youngsters detained over such offences as stone-throwing are being held in contravention of the law. CNN spoke to a father who recounted how his son was arrested without him being informed.
"The detention of minors is being undertaken in line with international law," the IDF said in response to the claims. The army further added that children under the age of 12 are not held accountable for their actions, and are released immediately after their age can be verified.
The IDF's Avital Leibovich also dismissed the report in an interview with CNN, adding that the real tragedy in her view was the exploitation of Palestinian children, who are sent to confront Israeli troops.
http://bit.ly/dnWIIM
IDF dismisses CNN report about treatment of Palestinian kids
The IDF Spokesman's Office dismissed an investigative report by CNN condemning IDF treatment of Palestinian children.
"The holding of minors in detention is undertaken in line with international law," the IDF says.
http://bit.ly/dikBRA
- 11 sept 2010
'Israeli army sexually abuses children'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a75sfY16tQA
Palestinian children in an Israeli jail.
Israeli soldiers have been accused of sexually and physically abusing Palestinian children detained by the military, a report says.
Five Palestinian children detained over minor offences, including hurling stones, and held in detention illegally, were sexually abused by Israeli soldiers, Ynet wrote citing a CNN report broadcast on Thursday.
The report also charges that the Israeli soldiers have tortured some of the boys in detention. Palestinian children are being abused in Israeli detention centers, it said.
The investigative report also featured a Palestinian boy claiming that Israeli forces attempted to molest him using an object upon his arrest.
The youngster, whose identity was not disclosed, said a dozen officers were standing around and laughing while he was being interrogated, stopping only when their commander stepped into the room.
The army said, Any claim regarding improper conduct by soldiers or police officers will be thoroughly examined by the relevant officials."
Meanwhile, member of the Knesset (Israeli parliament) Afu Agbaria, has condemned as "unethical and inhumane" the methods used by Israeli soldiers to investigate Palestinians, particularly children, China Daily reported.
"Israel's own statistics confirm that 14% of detained Palestinian children were subjected to sexual abuse threats by Israeli soldiers," Agbaria said.
He was referring to a report by the Palestinian Prisoners' Ministry which revealed that 65% of detainees, most of them children, face brutal torture and ill-treatment during their detention and interrogation.
Agbaria also noted that 100 complaints have been presented by human rights organizations to Defense for Children International (DCI) against the ill-treatment of Palestinian detainees, especially children.
The organizations demanded that detainees aged 16 and 17 should be dealt with as minors, in accordance with Israeli law, and an end to prison sentences for those under 14 years old, he said.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/141902.html
12 sept 2010
IDF chief's guard appeals sentence on attempted rape conviction
Former guard of the IDF chief of staff, Erez Efrati, has filed an appeal with the Supreme Court against the sentence he received for attempting a brutal rape.
Efrati's attorney says the court should have given more weight to expert opinion on his inebriated state. The security guard was sentenced to eight years and a fine.
http://bit.ly/cjJvSi - 26 sept 2010
SHOCKING!! Orthodox rabbi tortured Jewish children
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuuDHaBCLAA
Orthodox rabbi Elior Chen Noam only followed the rules talmudic Judaism taught by the great halachic authority - the Vilna Gaon in his famous "Even Shleima" 6:1-2.
in 0:39 the reporter says "..They were made to eat feces and were kept locked in a suitcase for days at a time..."
Here again, Rabbi Chen seems to have applied talmudic dictum upon those Jewish kids, as we read in Tractate Eruvin 21b: (translation): "Anyone who mocks at the words of the sages (the rabbis, of course), his punishment is in boiling feces."
Based on this criteria, this rabbi simply followed the instructions of his superiors, the great rabbinic "sages" who would not compromise. My heart goes after the poor little victims of Jewish religious abuse.
20 oct 2010
Rabbi accused of sexual abuse: Man's strength is in his silence
Police recommended Elon, one of the most prominent rabbis in the religious Zionist movement, be indicted on charges of sexual crimes following several complaints.
Rabbi Mordechai (Moti) Elon responded Wednesday to testimonies of sexual abuse claims against him that had been made public by Takana, a forum that fights sexual abuse in the Orthdox community, saying "man's greatest strength is to remain silent."
"What there is in the world is not the noise around," Elon said during a sermon in a Bat Yam synagogue.
Elon, who was suspended from his public position following the police's recommendation to charge him with the allegations against him, said "Rachel taught me the secret of silence. There are kinds of silence that are above talk."
Following a lengthy investigation, the police announced in August they had collected sufficient evidence to recommend that Elon, one of the most prominent rabbis in the religious Zionist movement, be indicted on charges of sexual crimes.
Police suspect Elon of forcibly committing indecent acts on two minors.
The investigation included testimony from various individuals who had come into contact with the complainant during the time the alleged crimes were committed and strengthened the suspicions against Elon.
Earlier on Wednesday, hundreds of Elon's students signed an online petition criticizing "the malicious intention to publish defamations."
"For the last year we have gotten used to attempts to humiliate Rabbi Elon, and the Rabbi, in his humility has remained silent," the students wrote in the petition. "But now things have reached a point at which we cannot remain silent. To us, who have known Elon for many years, you cannot tell stories. We testify that over the many years we have been privileged to study and teach with Rabbi Elon, we have never, in any matter, not sight, nor rumor or even a hint of any kind, encountered exploitive or inappropriate behavior on Elon's part."- 16 nov 2010
Settler convicted of kidnapping, abusing Palestinian teen
Shiloh resident Zvi Struk kidnapped 15-year-old boy, beat him and left him naked, blindfolded and bound in field. Yesh Din: Most Palestinian complaints end without indictment.
Zvi Struk from the settlement of Shiloh was convicted Sunday of kidnapping and abusing a bound 15-year-old Palestinian boy.
The 28-year-old settler is the son of Yesha Human Rights Organization head Orit Struk.
The indictment stated that Struk, arrived at an outpost located between Shiloh and Kfar Kusra in the West Bank. He arrived on a mini tractor and began to chase Palestinian youths at the scene.
The youths attempted to escape, but Struk cornered one of them and his friend, armed with Struk's M-16 rifle, began to fire in the air. According to the prosecution, Struk then began to beat the boy, who had put his hands up in surrender, and knocked him to the ground.
The indictment went on to say that Struk's friend continued to beat the boy while he chased another youth, beat him, and dragged him to the mini tractor bleeding. He then proceeded to blindfold and tie him to the tractor, and rode off with his hostage in tow.
Amran Farah after attack (Archive photo courtesy of Yesh Din)
The prosecution claimed that the boy, Amran Farah, lost consciousness during the ride, and was brought to an open field where the two suspects beat him, undressed him, and left him blindfolded and tied. He remained there for a number of hours, until he managed to untie himself and find a car to take him home.
The boy was hospitalized in Nablus, and diagnosed with multiple contusions and lesions all over his body.
Struk had attacked the boy two months earlier, the indictment stated, while the latter was herding sheep with a friend near the village. Struk told them to leave the land, claiming it was his, and then beat the two boys. The settler also killed a young goat belonging to the Palestinian.
Ynet reported Tuesday that Jerusalem District Court Judge Amnon Cohen convicted Struk of assault under severe circumstances, kidnapping with intent to cause severe bodily injury and three more counts of assault.
The Yesh Din human rights group, which accompanied the Palestinian boy throughout the trial, expressed satisfaction with the verdict, but said, "According to our data, some 90% of complaints filed by Palestinians against Israeli citizens that hurt them or their property end without an indictment."
Yesh Din stressed that Struk's accomplice was never caught.
- 23 nov 2010
Up to 20 years for 'abusive rabbi' followers
Followers of Elior Chen
Four Hasidim, supporters of Elior Chen, sentenced to prison terms for serious child abuse, including severe burning, beating, binding, food deprivation.
Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday handed down a sentence of imprisonment to four followers of "abusive rabbi" Elior Chen, who was found guilty of child abuse.
One of the Hasidim, David Kugman, was sentenced to 20 years behind bars, while Avraham Maskalchi and Shimon Gabai were given 17 years. Roi Tzoref, whose role in the affair was relatively small, was sentenced to two and a half years.
The judge wrote that the accused "undermined the basic understanding that children need to be protected from evil," adding she hoped the children's faith "had not been extinguished forever."
The four Hasidim were found guilty in May of serious child abuse, including shaking and binding children, forcing a child against an electric heater and applying alcohol and salt to the wound, and locking children in a suitcase.
The mother of the children, who was found guilty of handing her daughter over to the "abusive rabbi," was sentenced six months ago to five years behind bars. Elior Chen's trial is still underway.
Rubbed salt into wound
Elior Chen, source of 'inspiration'
The indictment against the four Hasidim includes 22 paragraphs detailing 20 cases of abuse. Kugman (24) was accused of shaking up the children while holding their arms and legs, as well as binding their limbs with plastic cuffs and ropes.
In February 2008, according to the indictment, Kugman and other members of the group forced a child against an electric heater, releasing him only when he had sustained serious burns. They then poured alcohol on the wound and rubbed in salt. The child required intensive care including skin graft.
The indictment against Maskalchi, 25, describes how he abused children with a wooden hammer. In one case he burned one of the children's fingers, bound him with rope, put a yarmulke in his mouth and sealed it with scotch tape. Maskalchi and Kugman then put the child in a suitcase and deprived him of food and water.
The two were also accused of locking another boy inside a suitcase for three days, and force-feeding yet another child with feces. They also forced two children aged 5 and 7 to drink arak (an aniseed alcoholic beverage) until they vomited. When one child complained, they beat him harshly.