Details revealed in rape by deception case

A Palestinian man accused of rape by deception for posing as a Jew forcibly raped the victim, according to her testimony.

Portions of the woman’s testimony against Saber Kushour were published Sept. 3 in Ha’Ir, a weekly magazine of the Israeli daily Haaretz distributed only in Tel Aviv.

In July, the Jerusalem District Court sentenced Kashour, 30, an Arab from Jerusalem, to 18 months in prison as part of a plea bargain for rape by deception. Kashour told the court that the sexual encounter was consensual.

The investigative article contends that the court accepted the plea bargain on a charge of rape by deception in place of rape without consent because of the victim’s past and her confused and contradictory testimony.

According to her testimony, published in the article, Kashour invited her to see the building where he said he worked, and then brutally raped her on the top floor of the building, leaving her naked and bleeding. She said the sex was not consensual, as Kashour claims.

According to her testimony, published in Ha’Ir, the victim said,  “He said he wanted to invite me for coffee and show me his workplace there.”

The reason she gave for agreeing to leave with a stranger was “I looked for someone to put my trust in.”

She went on to say, “I know that strangers, you even don’t contact them… but because I was like, as you know, when I told you that I came from a place where there’s no, I lived on the streets for a while too … I thought that if I am with him, I’ll feel safe, and I’ll have, I’ll be financially secured. I really like trusted him.”

The woman reportedly was raped repeatedly by her father from the age of 6 and forced into prostitution by him. At the time of the rape she was staying in a women’s shelter, according to the article. She was hospitalized after the rape in a government-run psychiatric hospital in a ward for women who were sexually abused.

The woman’s testimony had been classified since it took place in a trial behind closed doors, but was declassified after a request by the newspaper.