Coronavirus hotel operator may be charged with negligence in rape case
The report stated that the decision to concentrate the youths without separating them based on gender and age was wrong and directly contributed to the 13-year-old victim's lack of safety.
By IDAN ZONSHINEThe coronavirus hotel in Jaffa where the alleged rape took place.(photo credit: SASSONI AVSHALOM)
The Welfare Ministry on Sunday published its findings on the investigation into the circumstances leading up to the rape of a 13-year-old girl by 21-year-old Yarin Sherf while the two were quarantined together at a coronavirus hotel in Jaffa in February.According to the indictment filed against him in March, Sherf tried to rape her twice while choking her and inflicting physical trauma on her. He also reportedly plied her with drugs and alcohol.The committee’s report reportedly revealed a chain of systemic failures that eventually allowed Sherf the opportunity to carry out the alleged acts.The hotel was opened for coronavirus patients and at-risk minors who are in systems of youth sponsorship and transitional housing.One of the significant conclusions raised in the report is that the decision not to separate youths based on gender and age was wrong and endangered the girl as well as other youths at the compound.The Welfare Ministry committee found that the head of the Ministry’s Correctional Administration, tasked with responsibility for the youths, made the decision not to separate the hotel’s occupants without a satisfactory professional discussion within the administration beforehand.The report also found that the coronavirus hotel operator had no prior community management experience, let alone experience managing at-risk communities, nor did the training team at the hotel. The hotel operator did not receive dedicated training, two issues which the report said contributed to the failures.The committee determined that there was a lack of proper communication with the operators of the Home Front Command’s coronavirus hotels. The hotel should have catered only to minors.The report said that the hotel did not provide a daily agenda for the young patients, which contributed to the feeling that there were no set boundaries, creating fertile ground for unwanted interactions and a lack of adequate protection for the more vulnerable.According to Ynet, the committee members believe that the hotel operator did not honor his commitment to the ministry, nor did he provide sufficient counselors, one for every eight patients. On the day of the alleged rape, only one counselor was present along with ten patients.Orit Sulitzeanu, who heads the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, said that the committee’s findings demonstrated a “massive oversight” by the Welfare Ministry.“The fact that it was under the auspices of the Ministry which is responsible for at risk youths that this coronavirus hotel was established in such a hurry and without any deep thought indicates abysmal negligence and contempt for human life,” Sulitzeanu said.“The fact that a young girl has been brutally raped in a hotel, something which will affect the rest of her life, is inconceivable,” she said. “Anyone who was involved in this scandalous and unprofessional decision must pay a price, and beyond that, it is strictly forbidden to allow non-professional bodies to operate frameworks for youth.”
