The Shomrat gang rape was a series of sexual assaults which occurred in August 1988 at the kibbutz of Shomrat in Israel. The assaults were committed at various locations in and around the kibbutz and continued for a week. The victim was a 14-year-old girl from the kibbutz. The crime was committed by 11 rapists, including both teenage boys and adults, some of them members of Kibbutz Shomrat. The crime led to a change in Israeli law's treatment of rape, which now states that a man must seek and verify the express consent of a woman before having sexual contact with her and that if such permission is not given, it is rape.
At first, the Haifa District Court Prosecutor's office decided to close the file “for lack of public interest” because the victim was unable to testify in court. Only after a public struggle were indictments filed against seven rape suspects in the Haifa District court; their trial began in June 1991. They were acquitted, but the state filed an appeal to the Supreme Court against four of them - Ofir Barry, Nadav Biton, Tzafir Tzavison, and Arik Chazon. All four were subsequently convicted and sentenced to prison terms of up to a year and a half.
Incident
The perpetrators were aged 16 and a half to 18 and a half. Three of them were students at the regional school Ashrat in Kibbutz Evron, near Nahariya: two boys were from Kibbutz Shomrat, one from nearby Kibbutz Sa'ar, and two of the accused were from Nahariya. Two boys were from Yavne and Rishon LeZion and were staying at Kibbutz Shomrat.
The rape was committed between August 11 and 14, 1988. First, Ofir Barry, a kibbutz member, convinced the victim to join the ride in the car of his friends, Nadav and Eli Biton, residents of Nahariya. The boys drove the victim by car to the kibbutz fields, where they raped her for the first time. The next day, when she was sitting with other boys and girls near the Youth Society building, Barry called her, but she refused to come. In response, he said he would tell everyone what happened the night before. Since she was afraid, she joined him and another boy, a kibbutz member. The two tried to convince her to sleep with them, but she refused and went back to her room. There came the boy she met earlier, who tried to convince her that he would protect her and not let others touch her, but after sleeping with her, with her consent, he informed his friends that "there is a woman who is fucking", thus encouraging the continuation of the acts of rape. This boy was not accused of rape since she slept with him consensually. As part of the events, there were cases where more than one boy raped her simultaneously. The acts of rape continued in the victim's room, in the kibbutz's furniture factory, in the Moshav Bostan HaGalil and on the beach in Acre.
According to the testimonies of all those involved, the sexual relations were initiated by the group of boys. She claimed that the acts were done against her will and that she made threats against the perpetrators. According to the boys, the acts were consensual without protest or threats. After they began to use physical and not only verbal violence against her, the victim complained to the kibbutz nurse and told her about the acts. The nurse provided her with medical treatment but avoided reporting the case to the authorities. After two days, the victim also told her mother about the acts, who convinced her to file a complaint with the police five days after the end of the acts of rape.
After the affair was revealed, the four kibbutz members were removed from it for six months by a judge's decision and stayed in other kibbutzim. The kibbutz decided to finance their legal defense. After their return to the kibbutz, the victim's family left the kibbutz.