See Updated post as of January 7, 2020, the sentencing hearing.

 

Note to the reader: To be fair, I attempted to use various sources. I’ve included news outlets from Israel, England, Cyprus and Palestine. To link back to the original article, hover over the blue text. When an underline appears, click on it.

FRIDAY, JULY 19, 2019

RAPE HELL: BRIT AYIA NAPA RAPE VICTIM, 19, TELLS HOW SHE ‘FAINTED’ AFTER 12 ISRAELIS’ ATTACKED HER ONE-BY-ONE FOR AN HOUR screamed the July 19 headline in The Sun, a UK newspaper owned by Rupert Murdock. The Israeli boys, who ranged in age from 14 through 19, along with the British teenager, were all staying at the Pambos Napa Rocks Hotel, a popular party hotel in Ayia Napa, Cyprus. Napa Rocks is for the young and known for its 24 hour a day pool parties.

The Cyprus police arrested 12 Israeli boys and began an investigation which included taking DNA samples. Israel rallied around its sons, defended them and condemned the British girl.

 

SUNDAY, JULY 21, 2019

CYPRUS RAPE CASE ISRAEL’S BOYS STRUCK AT DAWN was the satirical headline of an opinion piece by Gideon Levy, a liberal commentator, published in the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz. The article criticized Israel for having a paranoid victim mentality. Israelis intimately know prejudice and are justifiably suspicious of the outside world. Levy pointed out that although the boys came from good families they may have actually been rapists. Sometimes paranoia can create a knee jerk reaction in the Israeli collective conscience preventing Israelis from judging clearly. Israel worried over the boys like a mother hen. The boys were instantly characterized as children in need of protection not possible rapists. From the Israeli perspective, if the 12 boys had come from any other county they would not have been arrested and put in the hands of uncaring Gentiles. He predicted that the boys would get off and return home as heroes perhaps even meeting the mayor in the town square. Levy was prescient on this point. They did return to a hero’s welcome. We’ll get to that in a bit but I want to finish with Levy’s contentious article first. As a gentile, I’m afraid to write this next part so I’m quoting him directly.

“If they were suspected of raping an Israeli-Jewish woman, your heart wouldn’t reach out to them the same way. But they’re suspected of raping a female goy, a shiksa, a little whore, and that’s an entirely different story.”

He goes on to describe an incident in the West Bank village of Qaddum. He compares the rape in Ayia to an incident in the west bank village and draws the conclusion that they are both rape, one of a girl and one of Qaddum. It’s a strong piece and a call to Israelis to extend sympathy and empathy to others, to end the tribalism that is becoming destructive to the moral values of Judaism. I misunderstood the article initially. I’m unaccustomed to such deep satire, but when I reread it, I realized that Levy was chastising his fellow Jews, not cheering on the boys.

The article brings to the fore what struck me when I first saw it. This is an international crime involving three countries, countries with diplomatic and economic ties to one another. Some of the boys were vacationing prior to entering the Israeli Defense Forces. I suspected that the people of Israel would be troubled by the incident. Israelis were fearful for the boys. They wanted them home and back on safe soil, not locked up in a Cyprus jail.

 

MONDAY, JULY 22, 2019

BRITISH WOMAN, 19, WHO WAS ‘GANG RAPED BY 12 ISRAELI TEENAGERS’ IN AYIA NAPA WILL TAKE PART IN AN IDENTITY PARADE IN ATTEMPT TO PICK OUT HER ATTACKERS

The Daily Mail. After the results of the lineup and all the evidence is reviewed the boys will go before the judge next week. Evidence includes DNA taken from the room, 5 used condoms, 13 empty condom  wrappers, and DNA evidence taken from the boys, their clothing and cell phones.

3 boys admitted to consensual sex and 9 others to being in the room or the vicinity the night of the alleged rape but say they did not take part. The British girl says that prior to the night of the 17^th, she had befriended and had sex with one of the Israeli boys.

 

MONDAY, JULY 22, 2019

SUSPECT IN CYPRUS GANG RAPE SHOWS VIDEO, ASKS POLICE ‘DO YOU SEE A RAPE?’   from the Jerusalem Post, a leading Jewish newspaper for English speakers. “One of the Israeli teenagers accused of joining in the gang rape of a 19-year-old British tourist in Ayia Napa, Cyprus, last week shared with Cypriot police a video he made of himself on his mobile phone engaging in sexual relations with her along with two of his friends, Mako reported on Sunday. [Mako is a popular news site in Israel.] After showing police the footage, he asked them: “Do you see a rape here?” 

My question: Why did he have his cell phone after he had been arrested? Later in this story when the girl is arrested, her cell phone is taken from her. The girl says she texted her friends that she was being railroaded but in response the detective said that she could not have texted anyone because her cell phone had been taken from her implying that she lied about this also. Weren’t the cell phones taken from these boys? If not, why not? The police should have been reviewing everything on those phones. Why did this boy have access to his phone?

By the way, I hope the Cypriot police have copies of the videos. I imagine the phones were given back to the boys when they are later released.

A video of the alleged rape was leaked to the media and has been widely viewed. I haven’t seen it.

 

SUNDAY, JULY 28, 2019

ISRAELIS HELD OVER ALLEGED RAPE FREED AS BRITISH ACCUSER IS ARRESTED, an article from the Guardian, a British Newspaper. A turn around. The boys are freed, 7 immediately and 7 are still being held. That makes 14 boys not 12 as noted earlier but it could be an error in counting. The boys are going home.

Earlier, a police source said the British teenager had been arrested on “charges of giving a false statement over an imaginary offence”.

The British girl in jail as of July 28, 2019

 

MONDAY, JULY 29, 2019

ISRAELI 12 RAPISTS FREED WHILE BRITISH FEMALE VICTIM ARRESTED OVER ‘FALSE RAPE CLAIM’ IN AYIA NAPA From QUDS, a Palestinian News Network. According to the Israelis the girl said that she was mad they filmed the sex without her consent and then kicked her out of their hotel room. This was the logic behind her false accusation. I don’t believe that. It doesn’t make sense but nothing has made sense so far.

What is perfectly clear is the strong sense of male entitlement the boys had. One Israeli boy, when asked why he didn’t have sex with the British girl, answered because the girl “isn’t Jewish.”

This article also asked a question I had in the back of my mind. How were Israeli feminists reacting to this story? A google search led me to Emily Amrousi, an Israeli journalist who had pondered just the question I was wondering about. She admitted to a confusion of feelings. If it had happened in Israel to an Israeli woman, she said she would have taken the woman’s side but since it had happened on foreign soil she only wanted the boys to come home. I guess we are still tribes after all. This isn’t only a Jewish issue, it’s an international issue. Since time immemorial men have been raping “foreign” women without thought or guilt. Afterward the women are contaminated. This is playing out right now with the Yazidi women who were ISIS slaves. The women raped by ISIS soldiers are now considered to be contaminated. The villages are permitting the women to return home but their children are outcasts. They are taken from their mothers and put into Syrian orphanages. Today we as humans are traveling more than ever. Let’s try to think of everyone whatever their nationality, race or color as “like” us and give them the same courtesy we would one of our own tribe. I wonder how Emily Amrousi feels about the Yazidi women. I can imagine that she more than sympathizes.

 

TUESDAY, JULY 30, 2019

SEX-PARTY BOYS CLEARED OF RAPE CHARGES IN CYPRUS RETURN HOME TO HEROES WELCOME Haaretz headline and what a headline. Now it’s characterized as a sex-party. The hero’s welcome imagined by Gideon Levy has come to pass. At the Tel-Aviv airport an older man shouted “Heveinu shalom aleichem! Israeli pride!” which means [We brought peace to you! or Peace be upon you!]. Someone opened champagne and sprayed it around and someone else shot off a confetti cannon. There was a festival atmosphere as if they were returning medal winners not boys who had beaten a rape charge. When they reached the street, people tried to take selfies with them and one man put his own lyrics to a popular soccer song which translated means, “The British girl is a whore, the British girl is a whore, the British girl gives blowjobs to the whole neighborhood”

I’m still capable of being shocked. I’m a shiksa. I’m a foreign woman. This could have been me. It could have been any woman I know. This is precisely why it is so hard to combat rape? This demonstration of pride and joy shows us what it wrong. The men who are celebrating the boys safe return don’t see the British girl as a fellow human. They have zero empathy for her. For them, she’s of a different species. She doesn’t count. What counts are the young men. If this doesn’t terrify every woman alive I don’t know what will! I want respect. I need respect. Who do these schmucks think they are?  If you think this kind of macho display is unique to Israel, you are dead wrong. This party could have been anywhere. Men go to the defense of other men immediately without passing GO. The men think the boys had themselves some cheap sex and congratulate them on it. What kind of lesson are they giving to their sons? Have all the sex you want, sons. Pick someone who is vulnerable. If you get caught, say you are innocent and 98% of the time you will get off. 

    Back in Ayia Napa, someone leaked a video of the girl that showed her having sex and smiling, apparently enjoying it. Then she capitulated. She said that she had lied and said the sex was consensual.

At this point I didn’t know what to think. Although I’m not a prude, I’m certainly not as adventurous as some in this day and age. Young women don’t save themselves for marriage any more. Well, some do. But I don’t think I want to get into this. I tried to imagine a girl liking a train and I had a hard time with it. The boys had admitted that a number of them had sex with her so the sex part actually happened. Was it consensual? One boy said the sex was loving and consensual. I laughed at that. But that boy will probably get a job in sales. He’s good on his feet.

 

MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 2019

BRITISH TEEN ARRESTED FOR FALSIFYING GANG RAPE COMPLAINT CLAIMS CYPRUS POLICE FORCED HER TO SIGN FABRICATED CONFESSION, The Independent, a British Newspaper. “In the latest turn of events, the teenager told Justice Abroad, an organisation assisting her and her family that the confession was coerced and she only signed as she was exhausted after hours of questioning. Speaking through her family, she also said police had been threatening her friends.”

She was questioned for 8 hours, told that if she signed the confession, she could go back to her hotel. If she refused to sign, she would be put into jail. The policeman threatened to arrest her friends. He dictated the confession as she wrote it. It was not her words. She asked for legal representation but it was refused. The policeman told her that if she didn’t sign the confession, she would be locked up.

Michael Polak, from Justice Abroad, who is representing the girl’s family, said that she had a right to representation under the European Convention on Human Rights. The interrogation session was not recorded.

Allow me to point out that the girl is also being threatened by the Israeli lawyers who are being real tough guys over this. If I were them, I would be happy with getting the boys off but one of them Nir Yaslovitch, warns that he will “come after” the girl and “for every day that boys are in detention-,we will come after the complainant with a large account.” This is clearly a scare tactic but is it wise to frighten the girl when they already have the boys home? I’m a negotiator. This seems excessive and might go the wrong way for him.

 

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2019

LAWYER OF UK WOMAN ON TRIAL OVER AYIA NAPA GANG RAPE CLAIMS QUITS from The Guardian. Andreas Pittadjis, the Cypriot lawyer who has been defending the British girl asked to be relieved of his duties, citing a serious disagreement with his client.

“I do not wish any longer to represent the defendant as I disagree with the line of defence,” he told the tribunal.

Mr. Pitadjis had earlier said that the release of the video that had gone viral and showed several men having intercourse with his client was a far greater offence than the girl’s. Rightfully he had wanted to see all the videos in order to help him prepare a case.

Unfortunately, the lawyer’s leaving means that she must find another lawyer. The case reconvenes on August 19^th and she will be held in custody until then. “Under Cypriot law she cannot be identified unless found culpable.”

 

FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 2019

CROWDFUNDING LAUNCHED FOR BRITISH WOMAN SUSPECTED OF FALSE RAPE CLAIM, The Cyprus Mail, a Cypriot Newspaper. I’ve noticed that the big gun lawyers appear to all be defending the Israeli boys. Initially the girl wouldn’t have required a lawyer. The police and prosecutors would be her lawyers. But now she is a defendant herself.

The girl’s family has started a GoFundMe for £15,000 (€16,243). She’s poor, on foreign soil and scared. This confirms the suspicion I had initially that the boys and the girl appeared to be on different economic levels. Unless something happens to change my opinion, I’m on her side. I think she was railroaded.

 

SUNDAY, AUGUST 10, 2019

ISRAELI MAN DONATES $9,000 TO UK TEEN WHO ACCUSED ISRAELIS OF RAPE IN CYPRUS

Finally, some good news for the girl. Her crowdfunding page has reached its goal and surpassed it. One man who donated £18, wrote, “I am Israeli , and i am very ashamed these days to be Israelly . I am sorry for what happened to this girl , hope she gets better soon and will find some justice.” 

Others are writing similar sentiments. There’s good and bad in every culture.

If you are interested in donating, the Go Fund me link is Help Teen Victim Get Justice In Cyprus

 

COMMENTS

There were three lawyers for the boys, Yaniv Habari, an Israeli lawyer based in Cyprus, Nir Yaslovitck, another Israeli lawyer, and the third, Ioannis Habaris, who I couldn’t find listed anywhere. He might be from Cyprus. I’m fairly sure that the lawyer needs to be from Cyprus. I think Habari was probably able to practice in both Cyprus and Israel, an advantage since he works at improving Israeli investment in Cyprus.

Cyprus is a valuable business partner for Israel at this time. There’s a Leviathan Gas field in the Energy Triangle that’s located halfway between Cyprus and Israel with 40 trillion cubic feet of gas which Israel needs. Diplomatic relations and Israeli investment in Cyprus has increased greatly in recent years as a result. Also, Cyprus is the closest place to Israel that has civil marriages. Israel only recognizes religious marriages between Jews. Netanyahu visited Cyprus in 2012.

Britain has a historical link to Cyprus. Cyprus was a protectorate of England until 1914. It was occupied territory the during WWII era and a Crown colony until 1950. English is widely spoken on the Island and 1.3 million British tourists visit yearly.

Cyprus has a good reason to maintain good relations with both countries. That shouldn’t affect the criminal system. The law is supposed to be above all that.

I wondered what was the difference in the standard of living between Israel and Cyprus. I checked Great Britain too just to be fair. I’m using the Average Monthly Net Salary in Euros after tax.

 

Israel                         2,094.63 Euros

Great Britain            1,956.52 Euros

Cyprus                       1,135.74 Euros

This is enough of a difference between salaries that the Cyprus police might be vulnerable to a payoff to get the boys free. It’s very curious to me how quickly they were rescued and returned to Israel.

Another oddity I found was that the boys and the girl didn’t have a common language between them. The boy’s lawyer says that they didn’t speak English, that only one of them spoke English. Of course, there is no reason why two willing people could not have consensual sex even if they didn’t have a common language but it’s something to consider. The reason is that 11 of the boys would not have had the language expertise to “chat the girl up” as the British say. The boy the girl knew invited her to his room at about 12:30 AM on Wednesday morning and she willingly went. Once there, other boys came in and raped her. She said she saw 12 boys. She probably wasn’t counting so she could be wrong on this. The boys laughed and took phone videos of her having sex. The boys did not come all together. There were 3 groups of them. They didn’t know each other prior to the trip.

There has been no mention of Tonic Immobility, something I’ve written quite a lot about. Many don’t know about it. Did the Cypriot police who saw the video know about Tonic Immobility? Would they know the difference between enjoyment and Tonic Immobility? I wonder.

The Sun also reported that the boy’s lawyer said she had been coerced into falsely accusing them by her friend. Who is the friend? Has anyone tried to locate him or her and interview them? Her friends beat up the boys. Who were these friends? It seems there were plenty of people around. Were they interviewed by either the police or the multiple news agencies that have been covering this story? The only people talking are the boys and their lawyers.

I found another thing curious. When I initially googled Cyprus Rape the only newspapers that came up were Israeli papers and they were fairly biased in nature. I had to go out of my way to find more balanced reporting.

Where are the cellphones now? Were they returned to the boys when the charges were dropped? Were the videos preserved by the police? Can the girl and her lawyers view them?

In another article by The Guardian, Nir Yaslovitch, one of the boy’s lawyers, said that the investigators confronted the British girl with the video and she was unable to offer an explanation. It seems like they were browbeating her. I mentioned Tonic Immobility above. Does this young girl understand what happens during trauma? Do the Cypriot police? Why were the defence lawyers working with the police so closely that they were trading information?

Orit Sulitzeanu, the director of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers, said that whatever the outcome, there are ethical questions remaining including an important one that has yet to be covered. It regards “what kind of consent” the girl could have given. Heavy drinking was going on and the boys might have taken advantage of the situation.

In addition, what did the hospital say? Was a rape kit done? Were photos taken? Did she get medical treatment?