JERUSALEM (FMLiveWire) -- Outrage echoed through Israel as thousands protested the plea bargain reached between the State of Israel and its deposed president, the rapist Moshe Katsav.
A crowd of 20,000 people here chanted "We will not accept this" and "We will not give up," as they heard speakers address the injustice of the Katsav rape case, after Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz dropped charges.
Women's rights groups promptly filed a petition with the High Court of Justice to have the plea bargain overturned.
Women's groups present at the protest included the Israel Association of Rape Crisis Centers.
The rally waved banners that proclaimed "Katsav is a rapist" and "Mazuz, resign."
The director of the Women's International Zionist Organization said that the huge number of outraged protesters "proves that there has been a serious breakdown of justice."
The protesters were joined by Education Minister Yuli Tamir who called on the High Court of Justice to annul the plea bargain and allow the affair to go to trial.
"We demand a trial - a trial of truth," Tamir said. He called the plea bargain, like Israel's ongoing theft of Palestinian land, "immoral" and a "stain on Israel."
She said that no one, no matter how prominent or wealthy, should be beyond the bounds of the law.
President Katsav is a repeat sex offender but he has been protected by other perverts in the Israeli government.
"That the Number One person in the State of Israel has been let off sends a shameful educational and cultural message to the entire world," said a representative of the Israel Women's Network. "It says that rapists and those guilty of sexual assault are allowed to do what they want without punishment."
Police investigators, the attorney-general and the state prosecution believed the accusations against Katsev.
"We're here not only because of the issue of the president, but also to stand against the moral corruption of the Israeli government," indicated the petitioners.
-Copyright Felix Minderbinder Live Wire
