On Monday the Jerusalem District Court sentenced 30-year-old Sabar Kashour to 18-months in prison after he told a Jewish woman that he too was Jewish before they had consensual sex. When it was later revealed that Kashour was a married Arab man the woman called the police. The case ended up in court where Kashour was convicted of rape and ordered to pay NIS 10,000 (about $2,800) to the woman as compensation.
Judge Tzvi Segal said that the situation was not a case of "classical rape by force," but added that if the woman "hadn't thought the accused was a Jewish bachelor interested in a serious romantic relationship, she would not have cooperated."
Kashour's sentence has prompted some to ask: Since when has consensual sex by deceit been rape? "If any married man who has ever lied in order to get sex would be charged with rape, there would be no room in our prisons," wrote Sima Kadmon, who later added, "What if someone... told a woman that he is a wealthy single man, while he was in fact poor and married? Would he too be convicted of rape?"
Gideon Levy, a liberal Israeli commentator, has also taken issue with the verdict, saying: "I would like to raise only one question with the judge. What if this guy had been a Jew who pretended to be a Muslim and had sex with a Muslim woman?"
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