By Michael Bachner/TPS

Tel Aviv (TPS) – A horrific gang rape of a mentally-handicapped Jewish woman earlier this month, allegedly committed by three Palestinian Authority Arabs who shouted anti-Semitic comments during the attack, has shaken Israeli society and stirred outrage – including towards the police, who apparently kept the case under wraps for weeks for fear of stoking tensions between Jews and Arabs.

The police announced on Wednesday it had arrested two Palestinian Authority Arabs for the rape of a 20-year-old disabled Israeli woman in southern Tel Aviv on Israeli Independence Day several weeks ago. Imad Al-Din Daraghmeh, 42, is accused of filming as he and two other attackers raped, urinated, and spit on the young woman – all while berating her with anti-Semitic slurs. He also allegedly threatened to murder her aunt and brother if she complained to the police.

The second Palestinian Authority Arab suspect arrested is underage and a third suspect escaped and remains at large.

Meanwhile, right-wing politicians and feminist activists are trading accusations of hypocrisy and selective attention to sexual violence, while the police is under fire for silencing the incident for almost two weeks in an apparent effort to avoid ethnic violence over the emotionally charged crimes.

“It’s an unfathomable horror,” wrote Likud lawmaker Yoav Kisch on Facebook on Wednesday. “The more details of the rape investigation involving the young girl that are revealed, the more I shudder.”

Yet Kisch also rebuked both the police and feminist activists for supposed silence.

“I am horrified at the police’s decision to silence the incident in order to ‘prevent riots,’ but it is mainly the silence that infuriates me. Where are all the heroines of women’s rights? Where are the celebrated feminists?” he asked, accusing his “left-wing colleagues” of not speaking out because the suspected perpetrators are Palestinians.

Michal Rozin, a Knesset member with the left-wing Meretz party, wrote a letter to Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan on Wednesday blasting the police’s handling of the case, suggesting that the hush around the case allowed the third suspect to escape.

“This is unacceptable and seriously damages the proper procedure in such cases. I ask you to clarify whether this is a case of police negligence, in addition to the violation of the victim’s rights,” she wrote.

Some activists voiced concern about the politicization of the attack.

“This incident should not be silenced or taken lightly – it’s awful – but such stories also shouldn’t be used to slander a specific group. Those who did it are bad people regardless of their ethnicity,” argued Nitzan Levenberg, an Israeli journalist and feminist activist, in an interview with Tazpit Press Service (TPS).

“The practice of expressing shock and outrage over violence against women only when the perpetrators are the ‘enemy’ exists all around the world,” she added. “It highlights the view of female sexuality as a tool of war, and such cases are used as a justification for bigoted and racist viewpoints.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for his part, lambasted politicians and the press for not loudly deploring the attack.

“This is a shocking crime that must be condemned across the board. But for some reason such a condemnation hasn’t been heard – not in the press and not across the political spectrum,” Netanyahu wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday night.

Netanyahu then intimated that there is a double standard for Jewish victims as opposed to Palestinian ones – and that had the roles been reversed the public outcry would be much greater.

“One can only imagine what would happen in the reverse case,” he said.

Joshua B. Dermer and Michael Zeff contributed to this article.

Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy? Comedian and filmmaker Woody Allen on Wednesday became the target of much hilarity at the 69th Cannes Film Festival opening night which featured the premiere of his new film Café Society, The Independent reported. Master of Ceremonies Laurent Lafitte, known for playing the role of Antoine in the 2010 film Little White Lies, rolled up the old sexual allegations against Allen and against another Jewish filmmaker, Roman Polanski, into one unkind joke:

“You’ve shot so many of your films here in Europe, and yet in the US you haven’t even been convicted of rape,” Lafitte said, and the audience responded in shocked gasps.

See, Polish Jewish director Roman Polanski, whose film The Pianist won the Palme d’Or in 2002, fled the US in 1977 after pleading guilty to the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl in California. Polanski had to live and work mostly in France and can never return to America, unless he’d like to sample the local prison system.

Woody Allen, for his part, faced accusations of pedophilia in 1992 after Dylan, his seven-year-old daughter, had told his ex-wife Mia Farrow that he molested her. Farrow filed charges with the police, but the case was dropped in 1993 after a probe by a police-appointed medical team concluded that Dylan had not been molested. Allen also admitted to having an affair with Farrow’s adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn, whom he later married, in 1997.

“Thank you for coming tonight, sir,” Lafitte told Allen, “although it’s the least you could do. Your film isn’t even in competition. What’s the worst that could happen? …Or that it’s not as good as Manhattan?”

Woody Allen’s Manhattan was met with widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actress for Mariel Hemingway and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for Allen and for Marshall Brickman. Its North American box office receipts of $39.9 million made it Allen’s second biggest box office hit, after Annie Hall.

So it looks like the French have just learned the art of the Roast and are still not so adept at it. Where’s Don Rickles when you need him?

President Reuven Rivlin is facing a politically delicate situation when he soon will be forced to decide whether or not to grant clemency to former president Moshe Katzav, currently serving a prison term for rape and other sexual offenses.

The president’s office issued a statement Sunday saying no formal request has yet been received, but that if and when it is, the president will give the request the same due consideration he gives all such requests, and will consult with all the relevant authorities.

Katzav has never acknowledged his guilt despite his conviction on the charges, nor has he ever expressed remorse.

He was denied early parole on April 6 after applying to the parole board earlier this year.

The parole board committee stated at the time, “The prisoner views himself as a victim. He is blaming external factors for his situation, still conducting himself in an aggressive manner and is self-centered, focusing on his own needs and losses and on the price he and his family have paid.

“Even in response to our questions, the prisoner did not show regret or empathy for his victims, and continued to mention the heavy price he paid and continues to pay.”

He is serving a seven-year sentence after his conviction in 2010 on charges of rape, sexual harassment and indecent assault.

Jerusalem police have arrested six Arabs from the Jerusalem neighborhood of Abu Tur on suspicion of sexually attacking a Polish tourist and then photographing her.

The teenagers were only 12-14 years old, and one of the youth admitted to sexually attacking the woman, described as being in her 40s.

Police brought the gang was brought to a Jerusalem court Monday night, after the conclusion of the first day of Sukkot, to keep the minors under arrest.

Islamic State and other terrorists have turned sexual violence into an “epidemic” and is a “crime against humanity,” Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor told the Security Council.

In his remarks in a Council session on Women, Peace and Security, Prosor stated:

Sexual violence in conflict has become a weapon of choice because it is cheap, silent and effective. Instead of bullets or bombs, the perpetrators employ barbarism and brutality….

Sexual violence as a tool in war is not a women’s issue. It is a crime of humanity against humanity.

ISIS, Boko Haram and Al Qaeda have publicized and boasted of their rapping women and using them as sex slaves.

Prosor cited several examples and said, “Women are raped numerous times a day. Young girls are forced to call their parents to detail being gang-raped by dozens of men.  The captured women and girls are sold as brides to Islamist fighters for as little as $25 or given as “sabaya” – a reward for fighters.”

No less significant is that many countries, especially those in the Middle East and North Africa, condone crimes against women and often accept mistreatment as a proper way of life.

“If a nation refuses to prosecute domestic sexual abuse, marital rape, and honor killings in times of peace then there is little hope for justice in times of war and conflict,” Prosor stated.

So which country did the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women single out in its annual report last month?

Saudi Arabia, where women lashed for not behaving according to Islamic law in public?

Somalia, where women are sold?

Iran, where there are no laws against domestic violence and where adultery is punishable by stoning?

In Egypt, where there is no law criminalizing domestic violence specifically and where forms of violence against women, including child marriage and female genital?

Of course not.

The only Middle East country named in the report was Israel, where the “occupation” has supposed caused high “unemployment and poverty, especially among women,” in Judea and Samaria.

And what does the United States have to say about sexual violence against women in Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries.

Washington speaks out forcefully against it in the politically proper forums while continuing “business as usual” when it sells weapons and makes deals with Iran to allow it retain its nuclear development infrastructure.

A 19-year-old French Jewish woman was raped and her 21-year-old brother bound and gagged Monday by three hooded, attackers armed with a pistol and a shotgun in Creteil, a suburb east of Paris, according to BFMTV.

The attackers knocked on the door and then shoved their way into the home, demanding money and shouting anti-Semitic slurs. After demanding and receiving the family’s ATM and credit cards and codes, one used the family’s ATM cards to steal money from their bank accounts while the other two remained at the home, holding the two hostage.

The assailants then raped the young woman while the young man was bound and gagged.  A neighbor who heard screams called police.

One of the assailants allegedly told the pair they were being targeted “because you are Jewish,” according to local French media who reported the attack on Tuesday. One of the victims said the attackers repeatedly asked, “Where are the old Jews?”

A rabbi in Creteil confirmed the attack to i24newsTV, but declined to label it an act of “anti-Semitic aggression.” Parents of the victims, however, had no such hesitation, and filed a complaint with police charging an “anti-Semitic attack.”

Reportedly the three suspects knew the family; a witness told BFMTV they also hunted for a younger brother who works in Paris, believing he would be carrying a large amount of money.

Two of the suspects were later taken into custody. A third is still being sought, police told Le Parisien, adding that it is too early to tell if the victims were selected because they are Jewish.

The president of the European Jewish Congress, Moshe Kantor, condemned the attack.

“Unfortunately, it appears that it is ‘open season’ on Jews in France following so many recent violent attacks against Jews and Jewish institutions going all the way back to the brutal torture and murder of Ilan Halimi,” Kantor said, referring to the 2006 torture and murder of a Jewish phone salesman.

Kantor urged the French government to place the fight against anti-Semitic crimes at “the forefront of its agenda.” 

On Tuesday, French lawmakers voted339 to 151 to symbolically recognize the Palestinian Authority as a sovereign independent country. The move does not affect the diplomatic stance of France at this time. However, it signals the sentiment of the nation’s lawmakers and and sends a warning to Israeli policymakers for the future.

Similar “symbolic” resolutions were passed recently in Britain, Ireland and Spain as well.

A cult leader who was found guilty Tuesday of polygamy and numerous other offenses, but was acquitted on one count of slavery.

The Tel Aviv District Court found Goel Ratzon guilty on at least nine charges linked to family-related crimes.

Goel Ratzon, who fathered more than 40 children with numerous wives, was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Hebrew-language media quoted a number of the cult leader’s ex-wives expressing relief at the verdict and sentence.

Ratzon was arrested in January 2010 during a wide ranging sting operation that attracted huge attention in the Hebrew-language Israeli media.

“These were women with good careers, an attorney and other professional standard people,” New York-born immigrant Coby J. told Jewish Press.com on Tuesday afternoon.

“It is a story known to nearly all Israelis, one that has dragged on for years. It is a good thing he is being put away.”