{Originally posted to Rav Zev’s eponymous blog}
A few days ago, I posted an article addressing the scourge of the Jerusalem Faction (among others) in their inciting to murder fellow Jews. In addition, I wrote about their desire to avoid the draft into the IDF, even if it meant they would be put to death (which, of course, would never/could never happen). Furthermore, in that same article, I addressed a long-standing problem of child molesters, who are protected in various communities. This protection leads to two major problems: the offender continues offending and the victims are re-victimized every day the offenders are protected.
At the end of that post, I asked (not rhetorically): “The next step? Suggestions…ideas…actions?” I promised that I would follow up with some ideas of my own. I am, also, very interested in hearing from YOU as to what your ideas would be. I am not looking for sarcasm or beyond-the-pale ideas. I am speaking of concrete action items.
There are two distinct issues here, and I wish to discuss one at a time.
- Protecting Child Molesters
As is evident from the recent police operation that netted 22 pedophiles, one of the keys to the offenders’ ability to continue to ply their “trade” was the protection they were afforded by members of their own community. I can guarantee you that if these same men were breaking in to homes or bashing the proverbial “little old lady” over the head on a daily basis, that they would not be given this protection. The fact that the issue is sex makes it more shadowy and the “shanda” factor is heightened. But we are speaking about a cultural change that needs to occur. A change that instead of protecting the criminal/pedophile, that finally the leaders, or any other individual who is doing the “hushing up,” will be the ones to get punished, and the survivors will be protected and helped.
What can be done? We need laws that state that anyone found guilty of protecting a pedophile or anyone who (already by law) must report a suspected pedophile and didn’t will be arrested as an accessory to child endangerment. Should the pedophile be found guilty of the crimes, then the ones who did the protecting would have their charges changed from “child endangerment” to enabling child sex crimes which would carry a mandatory 20 year jail term. (As far as the punishment for pedophile himself/herself ? I’ll leave that for a different post.) So, step one is instituting criminal charges against those who protect abusers. (Should such laws already exist, they would need to be enforced to the fullest extent of the law.)
Secondly, anyone found guilty of protecting an abuser will pay a penalty of monetary compensation to families who have a child that was molested after the date that the “protector” knew of the offender’s actions (and did nothing). The money would come from any government stipends that they receive (such as money to learn rather than serve in the IDF). In addition, they would forfeit all of their Bituah Leumi benefits and those benefits would be diverted to the child who was abused as a result of their malfeasance. It must hurt these “protectors” in the wallet…money is a commodity they will understand.
Third possible course of action: As I have written in the past, Israel NEEDS a sex-offender registry. I would now modify that and add one more form of registry: A registry for those who are CONVICTED of enabling an offender by proactively hushing up the actions of the offender. As they are just as guilty of any crime due to their actions (inaction!), they too need to be known as people to stay away from as a danger to society, and as those who wish to bring harm to children.
Now, before you begin crying “civil rights!” issues are being trampled upon, let’s get one thing clear: THOSE WHO PROTECT ABUSERS ARE PROACTIVELY ENABLING THE HARMING OF CHILDREN! THEY HAVE THUS FORFEITED ANY OF THEIR CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUES IN RELATION TO THIS AREA.
2. Dealing with those who call for the murder of Jews or otherwise incite:
Let us shift our focus now to the other topic: Jews who incite to murder other Jews. Again, as can be seen from the above-referenced post from last week, there are those Jews, who sadly, are calling for the murder of their fellow Jews. In addition, there are thousands of people who are practicing a form of civil disobedience but lacking greatly in the “civil” part of that disobedience. Their actions against the draft are violent, dangerous, harm the public good, destructive, a chilul Hashem and (have the potential of being) fatal.
Here again, it would behoove law enforcement to have a multi-pronged approach. Those individuals/leaders who incite their followers to call for killing a fellow Jew (or any other person, for that matter) should be arrested and incarcerated if found guilty. Those following the leaders and publicizing this call for murder (either by way of posters or public demonstration) should be arrested, as well, and at the same time lose any government benefits that they currently receive from the government. In addition, another consequence of their actions deserves another “answer,” but (in truth) I have no idea how to enforce it. The ones who incite against the IDF, and especially the ones calling for murder, must be banned from the Old City. Jews are able to enter the Old City since 1967 ONLY because of (Hashem and) the IDF. It is like a BDS’er using Israeli technology and demanding the boycott of Israeli products. If they are against the IDF, and to the point that they call for the murder of one who is responsible for the drafting process, then they can not and should not have the ability to enter the Old City of Jerusalem, liberated by the IDF. (Yes, there are many other such areas. Let’s start with this one.)
If some of the above ideas are already laws on the books–the laws should be enforced. If there are no such laws, there ought to be such laws. If any of these would truly have validity, I would make every effort possible to meet with an influential MK to introduce such bills into the Knesset.
Other ideas? Other thoughts? I am always open to suggestions.