Israeli society was stunned by the verdict, generally seeing it as carrying two meanings. On the one hand, it was viewed as an embarrassment for Israeli society that a man who had risen so high in authority could be so crass. On the other hand, Israelis took pride that their legal system didn’t blink (as many had expected it to) and was willing to confront even the highest office-holder.
Qatsav portrayed himself as a victim of Israeli racism, saying that as a Sephardi (Middle Eastern) Jew, he was being brought down by the more powerful Ashkenazi (European) Jews. There have been decades of frictions between two branches, but Sephardi Jews did not rise to Qatsav’s defense.
In Iran, few newspapers were seen to carry any reports on the conviction—and of those that the Iran Times found reporting it, none reported that Qatsav was Iranian-born.
Qatsav, 65, was convicted by the unanimous vote of a three-judge panel in Tel Aviv District Court. He was convicted of twice raping a woman employed on his staff when he was tourism minister. He was also convicted of sexually harassing two women on the staff of the president’s office after he assumed that post. He was also convicted of obstruction of justice for trying to enduce one of his victims to change her testimony.
Three years ago, Qatsav resigned the presidency just weeks before his term was up under a plea bargain deal with prosecutors by which he would plead guilty to lesser charges and the rape charges would be dropped. But a year later, he surprised everyone when he told a news conference he was rejecting the plea bargain and insisted on facing trial on all the charges.
He visibly shook in anger, screamed at reporters and lashed out at prosecutors for carrying out a witch hunt, a performance that many found shocking and unbefitting of a former president.
The indictment said Qatsav forced the first woman to the floor of his office and raped her in 1998. Later that same year, he summoned her to a Jerusalem hotel to go over paperwork and raped her on the bed The indictment said Qatsav sought to quiet her by saying, “Relax, you’ll enjoy it.”
The indictment said he harassed the other two women by embracing them against their will and making unwanted sexual comments.
Qatsav insisted the sexual relations were consensual.
The judges’ decision said, “No basis was found to the claim that he relations took place with her agreement.” The court found that Qatsav’s testimony was “riddled with lies, small and large.” The court said it believed the prosecution witnesses. “All the testimonies based on what ‘A’ [the rape victim] said contradict the defendant’s claims that this was an event born of emotion.”
The court quoted her as saying she fought against Qatsav as he tried to undress her. “I struggled all the time and said, ‘Enough, I don’t want this,” the judges quoted her as saying.
Qatsav said the rape charge was an act of revenge after she was fired from the Tourism Ministry.
The judges laid out evidence they said contradicted Qatsav’s testimony, including telephone logs and witnesses who corroborated the rape victim’s testimony. The judges said they found the rape victim’s testimony “completely credible” and Qatsav’s “false.”
Qatsav left the courtroom ashen-faced without commenting to reporters. He has usually attended court sessions with his wife, Gila, at his side. But Gila did not attend Thursday’s session to hear the verdict. There was no explanation.
A sentencing date had not yet been set. A rape conviction carries a minimum sentence of four years and a maximum of 16 in Israel.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said, “Today, the court conveyed two clear-cut messages—that all are equal before the law, and that every woman has exclusive rights to her body.”
Israel has traditionally been a very macho society, perhaps because of the military orientation that dominated its early decades. Women served in the military but were viewed as little more than sex toys for the officer corps. That began to change in recent years as Israel became a more normal country. The verdict in the Qatsav case was seen by many as the final legal imprimatur for the changed status of women in Israel.
Qatsav was born Musa Qasab in Yazd in 1945 and moved with his family to Israel in 1951.
Like many immigrants in what was then a very poor country, Qatsav and his family lived for two years in tents and four years in a hut in a camp in the Negev desert. The camp was finally converted into a town for Sephardi Jews, Kiryat Malakhi.
Qatsav was studious, hard-working and personable. At the age of 24, he was elected mayor of the community, becoming the youngest mayor in Israel.
Like many Sephardi Jews, he joined the rightwing Likud Party, which appealed to Middle Eastern Jews in opposition to the leftist Labor Party, which was seen as a bastion of Ashkenazi rule. When the Likud took power nationally, Qatsav advanced quickly, serving as labor minister and then transport minister from 1984 to 1992.
When Likud came back to power in 1996, Qatsav became deputy prime minister and tourism minister under Prime Minister Netanyahu. In 2000, he ran for president, a ceremonial post filled by parliament. To the surprise of everyone, he defeated Shimon Peres, one of the most senior figures in Israel and the creator of Israeli’s nuclear weapons program.
Peres was elected president when Qatsav was forced to resign.
Qatsav often appeared on Israel’s Farsi language broadcasts with messages for Iranians. In 2005, he was seated for the funeral of Pope John Paul II not far from Iran’s President Mohammad Khatami. Qatsav said he greeted Khatami, shook hands with him and the two exchanged pleasantries. But Khatami later denied that.