Tel-Chai Nation

We're hopefully nearing the end of a most unfortunately protracted legal saga, as the Jerusalem court's ruled Haredi child molestor Malka Leifer can be extradited back to Australia:

After six years of court proceedings, the Jerusalem District Court finally ruled today (Monday) to extradite suspected sex offender Malka Leifer to Australia where she is wanted on 74 charges of sexual abuse and rape of minors.

The ruling is another major milestone in a case that has been beset by alleged political interference and highly unusual legal claims about mental competence for extradition, which has severely delayed the extradition process.

Leifer can now appeal the extradition decision to the Supreme Court. If the court rejects the appeal, the justice minister can then sign off on the extradition, a decision which can also be appealed to the Supreme Court.

Should the court reject that appeal, Leifer will be extradited to Australia.

And let's hope the supreme court does reject any appeal filed, which her disgraceful lawyers, relatives and clan-based gurus who've been bankrolling them are likely to do, no doubt in order to undermine Israel's reputation overseas, among other twisted beliefs. The Tzohar organization, which has ideally been campaigning for Leifer's extradition, said the following:

The Tzohar Rabbinical Organization hailed a decision Monday by a Jerusalem court to approve the extradition of accused child molester Malka Leifer.

In a statement released by Tzohar, Rabbi David Stav, chairman of the organization, called the decision by the Jerusalem District Court Monday to back Leifer’s extradition a “critical step” in combating sexual abuse.

“Today’s decision is a critical step in addressing the impression that religious figures can never turn a blind eye to the pain of victims of sexual abuse. The efforts to keep Malka Leifer in Israel and away from an Australian court were nothing less than a desecration of God’s name and a stain on our country’s reputation for pursuing justice, so we can all hope she will now be held accountable for her alleged actions.”

Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, who as Director of the Tzohar Center for Jewish Ethics has also written extensively about the case said, "Israel must never become a refuge for sexual abusers. We need to always act in partnership with all other nations in ensuring that these criminals are being brought to justice. Anything less would be gross negligence and is a failure for our national responsibility to act morally and ethically.”

Wise words indeed. What Leifer and company have done is a disparagement of the Judaist religion, and cannot be tolerated by any sect, Orthodox or otherwise. The law is going to have be modified in this country to ensure sex offenders can't exploit the Law of Return to escape justice overseas, and those who commit crimes that severe are those who definitely must be exiled.

Manny Waks, director of the Kol V’Oz (Voice and Strength) organization for the prevention of child sex abuse, slammed the Israeli judicial process for the time it took to reach an extradition order saying that these failings must be examined.

We completely agree. This case has taken too long, and it is questionable if it would have finally moved forward on Monday had there not been intense media coverage of the case. What needs to be looked at is why the courts let Leifer consistently delay the extradition process with claims of being mentally unfit.

That should have been a decision resolved earlier on in this process. Instead, courts in Jerusalem allowed endless testimony and appeals, which delayed what should have been a simple issue.

While we do not want courts to make decisions without hearing all sides and without going through all of the necessary motions, we also do not want courts to drag their feet. Victims deserve to have their day in court and to obtain justice if a crime is suspected of having been committed.

What Leifer’s case also shows about Israel is that too often Jews from around the world flee here to evade justice in the country where they committed their alleged crimes.

A recent CBS report found there were dozens of cases where wanted criminals who had engaged in sexual abuse fled to Israel. According to the report, there may be 60 known cases, and that is likely the tip of the iceberg. CBS tracked down some of these alleged offenders, being hid by religious communities in Israel which, in some cases, provide the alleged criminals and abusers with financial assistance.

This needs to come to an end. Even Jews who are allowed into Israel under the Law of Return should not simply be let into the country without first looking into where they are coming from, what they might be running away from and if there is an open investigation anywhere against them.

One of the ways to help this situation would be for Israel to pass legislation in the Knesset that allows for a faster and more efficient extradition process. It is also worth reconsidering granting automatic citizenship to people eligible under the Law of Return without looking into their past and seeing if there is an open investigation against them in their country of origin.

It'll remain to be seen if anybody in the Knesset - especially on the right - is willing to work on modifying the laws to ensure monsters like Leifer can't do this again.

Labels: Australia, haredi corruption, Israel, Judaism, misogyny, Moonbattery