We know that tRump hung out with mobsters, and acts like a mob boss wannabe. The maga cult is all thugs and gang bangers who want to rule by force in might makes right violence. I have often looked at how fast Lindsey Graham went from tremendously anti-tRump to in one gold game with tRump coming out a whole owned servant to tRump’s and a person willing to do crazy things to support the hard right. We know many republicans are owned / paid by Russia. That may include blackmail as this congress person admits. If you watch the video, he says the people behind it want to control the world. He claims Jeffery Epstein was killed as he was blackmailing people, both men and women, selling that information to foreign intel agencies, and he knew too much while not being useful behind bars. Hugs. Scottie
December 21, 2023
“Why in the world would good conservatives vote for crazy stuff like what we’ve been seeing out of Congress? Here’s how it works. You’re visiting, you’re out of the country or out of town or you’re in a motel or at a bar in DC and, whatever you’re into – women, men, whatever — comes up and they’re very attractive and they’re laughing at your jokes. And you’re buying them a drink. Next thing you know, you’re in the motel room with them naked.
“And next thing you know, you know you’re about to make a key vote. And what happens? Some well-dressed person comes out and whispers in your ear, ‘Hey, man, there’s tapes out on you.’ Or, ‘Were you in a motel room or whatever with whoever?’ And then you’re like, ‘You really ought not be voting for this thing.’
“You know? And what do they do? It’s human nature. And, you know, no man or no woman actually is an island. And they know what to get at. You know, if it’s women, drugs, booze, it’ll find you. And they say, and in most elected offices, and that’s what people of power and influence do.
“And it’s just, you know, I’ve been in this game my whole life. I spent 16 years in the state legislature in Tennessee and eight years as county mayor. And now I’m in my fifth year in Congress. But it’s just — the stakes are higher. But the game is still the same.” – GOP Rep. Tim Burchett, speaking to far-right podcaster Benny Johnson.
And how many out of town motel trysts are necessary for one or enough of them to be honey-traps? His explanation doesn’t sound like he’s made any attempt at monotony, I mean monogamy.
“Responsible nonmonotony” and “responsible nonmonopoly” are how Dr. Deborah Anapol riffed on “responsible nonmonogamy” in her (useful and otherwise quite serious) book Polyamory: The New Love Without Limits.
(It includes a chapter on various scenarios of “making the transition to polyamorous relating”. Easiest case: you’re currently single and unattached. Hardest: you’re in a monogamous relationship and one of you has cheated. In between: you’ve made a monogamous committment you wish you hadn’t.)
You too, huh? I can’t tell you how many times this has happened to me. I’m walking along, minding my own business, and the next thing you know, I’m having naked motel sex with a stranger or strangers, depending.
It’s so inconvenient. I wish there were something I could do about that.
Interesting that he only focused on conservatives votes being blackmailed this way. Could it be that those who constantly trying and regulate the sex lives of others are more likely to succumb to this kind of activity?
It’s like they say: DC prostitutes, male and female, LOVE it when Republicans become majorities in Congress. “…because Democrats don’t have to pay for sex.”
Actually, DC prostitutes love it when the republicans and christians are in town for a convention. Business booms. They cry when the doctors are in town, because they never want to hook up.
This report is on the lies and atrocious propaganda of Israel and it’s supporters. Israeli authorities themselves have lowered the number of killed by Hamas to 1,000. The lies about all the babies killed was debunked as only one baby was killed by Hamas and the burned babies and others turned out to have been by Isra
Listen to the student. He makes it clear that the attempts by people like Bridget Ziegler and other haters to make only one man / one woman cis straight sex acceptable, the students still are tolerant of other ways to express sexual enjoyment. What the students are not OK with is the hate and hypocrisy. He calls her out for teaching hate towards same sex relationships and the LGBTQIA while engaging in lesbian sex and FFM sexual relations with her husband, again while demanding it is wrong to have sex out of marriage. Hugs. Scottie
As the Sarasota County School Board convened for the final time this year on Tuesday, Bridget Ziegler entered the board chambers facing a rift largely driven by agenda item No. 1: a colleague’s resolution calling for her resignation.
Zander Moricz, who was the class president at Pine View School in Osprey and now attends Harvard, said Bridget Ziegler deserved to lose her job, but not because of her private sex life.
“That defeats the lesson we’ve been trying to teach you, which is that a politician’s job is to serve their community, not to police personal lives,” Moricz said. “So, to be extra clear Bridget, you deserve to be fired from your job because you are terrible at your job.”
Read the full article. The clip below has gone wildly viral with millions of views on TikTok, where I came across it a dozen times last night. Watch every second.
“You don’t believe in public schools — you send your kids to private… you deserve to be fired not because of a threesome, but because you are terrible at it.” pic.twitter.com/uehU7IIGp7
I would agree with that IF she agreed that other people’s private business is their own private business. But she vilified people for doing exactly what she was doing in her own bedroom. She’s bisexual but mistreated others for identifying as lgbt. She thought this was okay for others, so it’s good enough for her.
As J is pointing out, it’s not her sex life that’s the issue here – it’s her hypocrisy. Her bisexual, polyamorous sex life is evidence of the hypocrisy – that’s its only importance to anyone but herself.
That’s it. Her fellow conservatives would kick her off the school board on the irrelevant issue of her sexual “immorality.” He realizes it is her hypocritical judgmental sanctimony that is the real problem, not the issue of her private sex life.
The bottom line is this: Ziegler’s refusal to resign her School Board seat is more than just a morality play. If Ziegler steps down or is removed, three out of the five School Board seats, not just two, will be on the ballot in August 2024.
That’s right: What’s truly at stake here is that we could vote on a majority of the School Board’s seats on Aug. 20, 2024. And that would give us a chance to have a School Board with leaders who are more interested in students, teachers and academic achievement than posturing for a national audience in the culture wars.
“That defeats the lesson we’ve been trying to teach you, which is that a politician’s job is to serve their community, not to police personal lives,” Moricz said. “So, to be extra clear Bridget, you deserve to be fired from your job because you are terrible at your job.”
I had to look up the kid’s sweatshirt and it turns out that “you give me the ick” is teen slang for being grossed out by someone, often for undefinable reasons.
I think it can be both at the same time. Sort of like one of our cats. She will watch the dogs play with a toy she wants. When they are outside, she’ll bat it with all her might to move it under something like a grandfather clock from under which the dogs can’t retrieve it. She can’t, either, but the satisfaction she feels is tremendous. I try to stay on her good side.
That’s part of it. It’s also racism. Private schools were rare in the US until local districts were losing the last of their desegregation lawsuits in the late 60s and early 70s. (Yes, I know Brown was 1954. It was up into the 1970s for many districts to finally comply!) And then homeschooling also for the same reason. They can say whatever they want and some of it is religious and political but a lot of it is not wanting their kids to get to know black and brown kids growing up.
Context: This isn’t the first time Zander made a headline.
The class president at a Florida high school says he wasn’t allowed to share his experience as a gay student in his graduation speech or how the state’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law will affect students like him, so he got creative.
This video quotes a Harvard study that show 36% percent of trans kids are sexually assaulted when forced to use the sex on their birth certificate rather than the bathroom they gender identify with. Then the video talks about how the anti-trans bathroom laws physically harm trans kids while not help cis kids to stay safe at all. It is not cis kids in bathrooms being attacked, but trans kids. Hugs. Scottie
Thank youTen Bears for the grand video.It does show a realistic side to a group growing up.Far more than the weird “Friends” show did.I wonder how that group would have faired in their later years.Hugs.Scottie
This is four years old. But it is how a lot of gay kids feel when they try to address their feelings with their parents. The drama on the parents / dads part may be a bit over done. But a lot of gay boys are terrified to tell their dads they are gay. And the way the boy in the video reacts to even the acceptance of his father was realistic.
A sad side note. In late 1986, when I came home from the US army, after already being in the US Navy, I took a job at one of the two local gay bars. In hindsight, I wouldn’t have done so but I learned a lot about gay culture in our area at the time. Again how I met Ron the love of my life, and who with I am going on our 34th year as a couple. On the plus side at the other one I met Ron! At the time I was still living at the adoptive folk’s home from my childhood which was horrible for me. The point of this is when I had to admit to my adoptive father who had sexually abused me I was working at the gay bar he … asked me if I was … one of those … if I was gay?
Like every one of the letters of gay hurt him to say. When I told him I was, he asked me if I didn’t think I should see a doctor about it for help. He even told me how sick I was. This is a man who made me suck his dick when I was a kid, who raped me in … No, sorry not the place or time. Anyway the point is, I understand this boy in the video’s fear his father wouldn’t accept him. Even though as it seems he had a gay brother.
Anyway it is about how hard it is for gay kids to come out to family and to simply be themselves, even in a country that doesn’t have republicans trying to make their lives a living hell. We really need to let these kids be and give them a place to be themselves openly. Before it drives them to depression and possible suicide like in the video, which thankfully the boy did not do. Hugs. Scottie
I spent my whole life fearing coming out to my Italian parents. As a result, I lived in a world of depression and anxiety as I felt I had no freedom to be me… to be the person who I was born to be. I was determined to come out to them before my 30th birthday – and so I did… just 6 weeks prior.
As I previously reported, the ADF first filed its lawsuit in May 2021 and lost in US district court in September 2021 before losing again before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in September 2022. According to Brian Tingley’s resume, he’s led seminars on “authentic manhood” and “true masculinity.” Before that, he wrote and produced commercials for car dealerships, bingo halls, and county fairs. As I’ve reported many times over the years, ex-gay torture therapists often end up rejecting their work and coming out as gay themselves. And sometimes, they are arrested for sexually assaulting their clients.
Then there are the ones that are busted trolling online for gay sex, such as the nationally prominent therapist caught cruising Manhunt in 2018 as HotNHairy72. The Alliance Defending Freedom, whose lead attorney was once House Speaker Mike Johnson, has advocated for criminalizing homosexuality in the United States and has provided free legal support to foreign groups seeking the same in their own countries.
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a Christian therapist’s free speech challenge to a Washington state ban on so-called conversion therapy aimed at changing a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity.https://t.co/ZiLMCeHH0G
Given that Justices Thomas, Alito, and Kavanaugh all voted to hear a challenge to the constitutionality of Washington's ban on so-called "conversion therapy," we know that no other justice wanted to take up this case. Gorsuch's vote is somewhat surprising. https://t.co/EWShUNArYI
My sexuality is not a “debate.” It’s a fact of life, just as a straight person’s sexuality is a fact of life. Just because these religious whack jobs are too stupid to understand that should not be my problem.
No one is stopping him from saying his beliefs. What they are doing is preventing him from imposing them on others through the guise of medical treatment and accepting money for it. You can also believe massage cures cancer but you can not put out a medical shingle and take money for curing cancer through massage.
Or you can believe blood letting cures depression but you can not charge for this as a medical treatment. We have medical standards based on science.
The more right wingers are silenced, the louder they get all over social media and right wing tv and radio. They are the only silenced people who are deafeningly loud.
Brian Tingley, a licensed marriage and family counselor, said the law violates his free speech rights under the Constitution’s First Amendment because the government is seeking to dictate what he says.
No, the gov’t is still letting you “say” anything you want. They are regulating how you conduct your business so that you don’t harm your patients.
What the government is saying they are not going to pay for the mumbo jumbo via Medicaid or approve it for reimbursement by insurance companies. It is not banned, you just have to pay for the religious practice yourself.
Exactly right. The courts have long recognized that commercial speech is more subject to regulation than other kinds of speech. Tingley et al. are trying to argue that it is religious speech in a commercial context. Um, sorry, no.
You can bet the state will go after, and try to go after the out of state doctors / facilities that help her. Plus the republican fundamentalist die hard anti-abortions will sue for their mandatory 10,000 dollars regardless of what that would do to the family and her other two children. Plus the way the law is written all court costs and lawyer fees are paid by the person getting sued even if they win, which is the reverse of how all other lawsuits go, the loser normally pays if they start the lawsuit. This is totally about control over a woman, her body, and her sexual life. This treats woman little different from breeding stock. It was done to black women to get more slaves babies. Ask why when the baby can not survive, and it endangers the health, life, and ability of the woman to have more kids, do these people still insist she carry it to birth? Do they think that god will do a miracle and have the baby healed as soon as it is born? Do they think the doctors are lying? That a woman that wants more children is lying to abort one? Hugs. Scottie
Dec 11 (Reuters) – The Texas Supreme Court on Monday overturned a lower court’s ruling that would have allowed a pregnant woman to get an emergency abortion under the medical exception for the state’s near-total abortion ban, granting a petition by Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton.
The unanimous ruling from the Texas Supreme Court came hours after lawyers for the woman, Kate Cox, said in a court filing that she had left the state to obtain the abortion, but nonetheless wanted to pursue the case. Cox has said her fetus had a fatal diagnosis and that her health was at risk if she continued the pregnancy to term, including her ability to have more children in the future.
The high court, whose nine justices are all Republicans, said in its unsigned opinion that a “good faith belief” by Damla Karsan, a doctor who sought to perform the abortion and sued alongside Cox, that the procedure was medically necessary was not enough to qualify for the state’s exception.
Instead, the court said, Karsan would need to determine in her “reasonable medical judgment” that Cox had a “life-threatening condition” and that an abortion was necessary to prevent her death or impairment of a major bodily function.
“A woman who meets the medical-necessity exception need not seek a court order to obtain an abortion,” the court wrote. “The law leaves to physicians – not judges – both the discretion and the responsibility to exercise their reasonable medical judgment, given the unique facts and circumstances of each patient,” the court wrote.
The case is a major test of the scope of the medical exception, an issue that is already before the court in a separate case brought by 22 women who experienced pregnancy complications, though none of those women was seeking an immediate abortion. Monday’s ruling appeared to reject a key argument by the plaintiffs in that case – that doctors’ good-faith belief should be enough to meet the exception.
“This ruling should enrage every Texan to their core,” Molly Duane of the Center for Reproductive Rights, a lawyer for Cox, said in a statement. “If Kate can’t get an abortion in Texas, who can? Kate’s case is proof that exceptions don’t work, and it’s dangerous to be pregnant in any state with an abortion ban.”
Paxton’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A few abortion rights demonstrators remain in the crowd after hours of public comments and discussion as Denton’s city council meets to vote on a resolution seeking to make enforcing Texas’ trigger law on abortion a low priority for its police force, in Denton, Texas, June 28, 2022. REUTERS/Shelby Tauber/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
Cox’s fetus was diagnosed on Nov. 27 with trisomy 18, a genetic abnormality that usually results in miscarriage, stillbirth or death soon after birth.
Paxton had urged the Texas Supreme Court to quickly step in after District Court Judge Maya Guerra Gamble at a hearing in Austin last Thursday issued a temporary restraining order allowing Cox to have an abortion.
In his filing to the top court, Paxton’s office said Cox fell “far short of demonstrating” she met the criteria for a medical exception and warned that Texas courts were not intended to be “revolving doors of permission slips to obtain abortions.”
Cox, 31, of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, filed a lawsuit last Tuesday seeking a temporary restraining order preventing Texas from enforcing its abortion ban in her case.
Cox’s lawyers have said her lawsuit is the first such case since the U.S. Supreme Court last year reversed its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which had guaranteed abortion rights nationwide.
Cox, who was about 20 weeks pregnant when she first sued, said in her lawsuit that she would need to undergo her third Caesarian section if she continues the pregnancy. That could jeopardize her ability to have more children, which she said she and her husband wanted.
Cox said in her lawsuit that although her doctors believed abortion was medically necessary for her, they were unwilling to perform one without a court order in the face of a lack of clarity in how the exception would be interpreted and potential penalties including life in prison and loss of their licenses for violating the state’s abortion laws.
Paxton warned in a letter sent shortly after Gamble issued the order that it did not shield doctors, hospitals or anyone else from prosecution or potential civil liability for violating Texas’ abortion laws. The letter was sent to three hospitals where Karsan has admitting privileges.
Read the full article. As I reported this weekend, one of the Texas justices that voted to block her abortion has been arrested 37 times while protesting outside abortion clinics.
Lawyers for Kate Cox, a Texas woman seeking an abortion due to health risks and a fatal abnormality in her fetus, say she is seeking care out of state after what they describe as "legal whiplash and threats of prosecution." pic.twitter.com/aJEbb8yeid
This is Texas Supreme Court Justice John Devine—a man tasked w/ impartially upholding the law—bragging about breaking the law to harass women at abortion clinics.
He’s one of the justices who just blocked Kate Cox from getting a *legal* abortion.
Bleak: "Kate Cox has been forced to leave Texas to get healthcare outside of the state… Kate is not available for media interviews, and we are not disclosing her whereabouts."https://t.co/VU2tECGKfn
I fully expect the Texas legislature to figure out some law that they can apply to charge the woman for getting the abortion in another state, and use that to throw her in jail, all because she wanted to save her own life! You can bank on it.
Hell, if she doesn’t return to Texas, count on them demanding her return through some sick & twisted legal theory bullshit, amounting to the fugitive slave act of the 19th century.
Missouri tried to claim fetuses as state citizens and claimed their right to protect the lives of their citizenry. It was also their excuse for attempting to block pregnant women (likely to be seeking abortions) from leaving the state.
You know what? If they want to make Ken Paxton the national face of the GOP going into 2024 and make the whole election about abortion rights, then I say let them. Go right ahead, Republicans.
The Texas law that bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy includes an unusual measure designed to ensure the law is enforced: Residents of the state can sue clinics, doctors, nurses and even people who drive a woman to get the procedure, for at least $10,000.
Yes, those that help. But there are so many rabid MAGAts out there, they will sue the husband, family members, the gas station where they might have filled up, etc. Even if she went alone and the husband stayed home with the kids, he has to defend himself and prove that in court. Even if he is found not guilty, there is no compensation for court costs, lost time from work, etc.
I’m sort of expecting that, but I hope they (texas) just leave her the fuck alone. I doubt they will. That state, like christianity gets off on the pain and suffering they cause.
He’ll attempt to drag her back to Texas in leg irons to face prosecution. He’ll fail, but the attempt will make him a hero to the radical right which will only embolden others to try the same stunts.
GOOD FOR HER !! There is no reason this woman’s life & health should be held hostage by a cruel, misogynist & sadistic gov’t seeking to only use this woman’s agony for their political gain.
Probably several, but it’s not media access that’s the issue. Going public to fight right-wing policies is a dangerous business these days, and if anyone is brave enough to try, the media will happily run with their stories.
Paxton is going to go after this woman, her husband and anyone who helped her after this. There’s no way he’s going to let her “win” by going around all the authority he believes he has in the state.
Yep. In TX we’re going to see just a tiny, insignificant taste of what a Trump presidency will be about 100% of the time if Dems don’t get out that vote.
Not only does he feel it “violates his authority & (faux) morality,” but it serves as a distraction from all of his previous crimes & corruption. He knows this helps to firm up support of the Christofascist right. “Sure, he’s dirty, but he supports our beliefs.”
The point is and always has been CRUELTY Delayed suffering is their objective These are all males who know so fuckung much about child birth MUST control a woman’s body Abortion should be on every states ballot and it, above much else would sink the GOP For this singular reason alone No woman should vote Republican
It’s absolutely disgusting that this woman and her husband are being forced to have what is probably one of (or the) most difficult and personal things they’ll ever deal with play out on the national stage. Fuck the Christofascists.
This shit would end fast if that cell cluster could be reimplanted into a man’s abdomen. Nope buddy, you got to carry it full term, even if it kills you. No backsies, your law, you deal with it.
This is the new normal for women in certain states. Tell me again how republicans should, in any way or any race, be seriously considered for elected office.
It should be an automatic disqualification. Disgusting misogynist Nazi fucks
She better set up house in a new state. Paxton will try to put her and anyone with her in prison for decades. He will probably try to prosecute the doctor and nurses who perform the abortion.
At a time when Israel is on a full court media press to look like the aggrieved party, with the Anti-Defamation League paying for commercials touting that what we all need to remember right now was how badly Israeli was attacked and abused. They want us to ignore the 15,000 Palestinian deaths, 1/3 of those are children. They want us to ignore the abuse of Palestinians in the West Bank who are being killed, having their property destroyed and taken, and being treated like prisoners by Israeli settlers backed up by the IDF. Now the world is seeing the Israeli government for what it truly is. Hugs. Scottie
Ynet said that just a few months after he convinced the IDF that he should remain in the military, the soldier began to commit the series of serious sexual offenses against Palestinians from 2013 to 2015.
A military court permitted news outlets to report on Wednesday that the soldier was imprisoned for the rape, as well as committing sexual assault against other Palestinian women and a man and extorting them for sexual favors, among other crimes, ending a years-long gag order on the case.
In addition, the officer was found guilty of multiple counts of sexual harassment for repeatedly asking a Palestinian man and an acquaintance of his to have sex.
Soldier had reportedly faced disciplinary committee over sexual harassment of female officers, but convinced military to allow him to remain in service
Illustrative: An IDF soldier sits in a military court. (Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90)
An Israeli Defense Forces officer who has been imprisoned since 2017 for multiple sexual offenses, including the rape of a Palestinian woman, had faced dismissal from the military months before the attacks over his sexual harassment of female officers, it was reported Thursday.
The Ynet news site, which first broke the story of the serviceman’s sexual offenses, said the officer, whose name remains barred from publication, came close to dismissal from the military after two incidents in which he sexually harassed female soldiers.
Although he was found guilty in a disciplinary case on the matter, he managed to convince the military that he should remain in the army, presenting letters of recommendation from his officer and certificates of excellence he had received during his service.
A disciplinary committee also found that the soldier slapped a female soldier in 2005, propositioned another soldier and watched pornography with a group of soldiers.
Additionally, Ynet said the committee was told that he was involved in three other incidents “of a sexual nature, verbal sexual harassment and even physical,” but was not prosecuted for those.
Ynet said that just a few months after he convinced the IDF that he should remain in the military, the soldier began to commit the series of serious sexual offenses against Palestinians from 2013 to 2015.
In his defense, the officer claimed that the details of the sexual harassment were taken out of proportion. He said that he did not slap the female soldier, but it was a slight touch and he apologized for it. The officer was held in a military prison for a week for striking the soldier. He denied all other charges and has said he was not warned he was in danger of dismissal, Ynet reported.
A military court permitted news outlets to report on Wednesday that the soldier was imprisoned for the rape, as well as committing sexual assault against other Palestinian women and a man and extorting them for sexual favors, among other crimes, ending a years-long gag order on the case.
The Israel Defense Forces’ Court of Appeals decided to rescind the gag order on the affair, which was considered to have potentially serious security ramifications due to its dramatic nature, following an appeal by the Ynet news site and years of legal battles. In a statement, the military said the gag order had been deemed necessary, in part, “to preserve national security.”
The officer served in the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration, which is tasked with overseeing the day-to-day management of the West Bank. The officer, a major, was responsible for issuing permits for Palestinians to enter and work in Israel, a position of power that he repeatedly exploited in order to receive sexual favors from Palestinians.
He was first indicted in early 2016, but the case was subjected to a strict gag order, allowing news outlets at the time to report only that he had been charged with “serious sexual crimes and other crimes of moral turpitude.”
He was convicted nearly a year later, in December 2016, and sentenced two months later to 11 years in prison. The major was also stripped of his rank and summarily dismissed from the military.
In addition, he was forced to pay NIS 18,000 ($5,600) in damages to the women he raped and NIS 9,000 ($2,800) to the woman he sexually exploited.
At the time of his sentencing, the Israel Defense Forces said he had been convicted of “sexual offenses, sexual harassment, bribe-taking, fraud, breach of trust and exceeding his authority to extent of posing a national security risk.” Few other details about the cases were permitted to be published at the time.
Illustrative: Israeli soldiers check a Palestinian woman as she waits to cross the Qalandiya checkpoint between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Jerusalem, April 23, 2021. (AP/Majdi Mohammed)
This week, some four and a half years later, the IDF Court of Appeals — effectively the military’s internal supreme court — ruled that additional details could be published about the case, including the specific offenses of which the officer was convicted.
In their ruling on removing the gag order on the case, the panel of three judges from the IDF Court of Appeals wrote: “There is no dispute that there is a public interest in publicizing the details of this case, which has severe implications for the wider public.”
The officer was found to have raped one Palestinian woman, who had come to him to receive a permit to work in Israel, on at least two occasions. He also repeatedly sexually harassed her, trying to get her to have sex with other people as well.
The military court, based in part on audio recordings that the woman made, determined that in the first instance of rape, the officer had forced her to have sex with him and then made her clean up the floor afterwards, before giving her the work permit.
A few days later, he called her and told her that he had rescinded the permit and again forced her to have sex with him in order to get it back.
In both cases, the Palestinian woman refused his demands for sex, and in both cases, he threatened to take away her work permit if she told anyone about the rape.
He was also convicted of receiving a bribe by forcing another Palestinian woman to have sex with him multiple times in exchange for a work permit. Despite the clear power imbalance, this was not deemed to have been rape as the victim did not explicitly refuse his demands for sex.
In addition, the officer was found guilty of multiple counts of sexual harassment for repeatedly asking a Palestinian man and an acquaintance of his to have sex.
In a somewhat separate case, the officer was also convicted of sharing intelligence gathered by the Shin Bet security service with two Palestinian women who had asked him for work permits.
In March, the officer appealed his sentence to the IDF Court of Appeals. The court upheld his 11-year sentence but overturned the lower court’s decision to discharge him from the military, instead demoting him from major to private.
It was largely a procedural decision, as the officer had anyway been fired from the military. The punishment of dismissal from the military is generally reserved for crimes that more directly harm national security.
The officer was sent to a civilian prison to carry out his 11-year sentence.
Illustrative: An IDF soldier sits in a military court. (Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90)
Illustrative: Israeli soldiers check a Palestinian woman as she waits to cross the Qalandiya checkpoint between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Jerusalem, April 23, 2021. (AP/Majdi Mohammed)
Scottie's Playtime 