When the news broke yesterday about the alleged horrific rape of a 7-year-old girl, allegedly by a Palestinian janitor , my WhatsApp groups and Facebook feeds were inundated with outraged and horrified posts.
On several local groups in my community, parents were calling for the schools to stop employing Palestinians in order to protect our children. On the one hand, I understand this instinct. Police insist that they are investigating the crime as criminally motivated, but it is hard to untangle criminal from nationalist motivations in a case like this one.
Rape is the expression of a desire for dominance; to assert control over another, weaker human being. It has been used as a tool of war since the dawn of humanity.
Especially in light of the brutal rape and murder of Ori Ansbacher just months ago, it seems disingenuous not to factor in the routine dehumanization of Jews and Israelis that takes place in Palestinian society when considering his motivations.
And yet, if we reserve our outrage concerning the sexual violation of our children for Arab perpetrators only, we are doing ourselves and our children a grave injustice — not to mention becoming guilty of dehumanization and prejudice ourselves. The State of Israel has become a safe haven for perpetrators of child sexual abuse. Just a few months ago, we learned that the deputy health minister, Yaakov Litzman, obstructed the extradition of a woman accused of 74 accounts of child sexual abuse — and that she was only one of at least 10 cases.
