A court in northern Israel has sentenced three relatives of a rape defendant after finding they plotted to harass the complainant and derail her testimony. Judge Moran Margalit of the Nazareth District Court, sitting in Nof HaGalil, said the group invaded the victim’s personal space with calculated cruelty and effectively subjected her to a second assault.
According to the ruling, the scheme was led by the defendant’s aunt, Zohara Heimer, 60. She moved near the complainant’s home, befriended her while pretending to work in theater, and offered her paid work in a play. Using that trust, she drew the young woman into personal conversations about her life and the rape, secretly recorded those talks, and passed the recordings to another defendant in the case. The court said this caused delays in the criminal proceedings and severe suffering for the complainant.
The most disturbing episode came in May 2020, several months into the plan, when Heimer brought her daughter, Keren Bar Goldstein, 34, to the complainant’s home under the pretext of a birthday gift. Bar Goldstein then conducted a fake card reading, using details she had received from her mother. She told the complainant the cards supposedly showed that there were only two attackers, with names beginning with the Hebrew letters B and M, and that the cousin whose name begins with A had not assaulted her, only been present in the room and washed his hands. The apparent goal was to implant false memories and persuade the woman to change her police testimony.
The defendant’s father, Doron Mordechai, 61, Heimer’s brother, was also aware of the plan, instructed his sister to check what the complainant was saying, and helped conceal the effort to free his son from the serious case. The judge criticized all three sharply for acting with great sophistication and for failing to take genuine responsibility. Heimer received 4 years in prison, 12 months suspended, and a 50,000-shekel payment to the complainant. Bar Goldstein was sentenced to 10 months in prison, 9 months suspended, and 20,000 shekels in compensation. Mordechai received 8 months of community-service jail, a suspended sentence, and a 15,000-shekel payment.
