The Arab man you mentioned was indeed convicted under the same law (I guess properly translated to English as “rape by deception”). He misrepresented himself as unmarried and as Jewish, while he was actually married and Muslim. The verdict was rather racist, but the defendant, Sabbar Kashur, admitted he lied about his status, his basis for appeal was that consensual sex is not rape, not that he hadn’t lied. His sentence was reduced from one and a half years to 9 months in prison, but the law itself was not challenged (that can only be changed in the legislature). Here is one good English article, I’m sure there are many others http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/man-will-appeal-prison-term-for-lying-during-seduction-in-jerusalem/.

Thank you for this comment and drawing attention to this point. I wasn’t aware of this case you mentioned involving a trans man who was convicted of “rape by fraud,” however, as soon as you mentioned it I was immediately reminded of another case that I read about in Israel involving a Muslim man who was often perceived as being Jewish. I don’t think he ever lied about his religion, but he made friends with a Jewish woman and they had sex, then later she found out he was Muslim and had him arrested. I believe that it was under the same law that you mentioned, though maybe I am not remembering the details here correctly, it’s been a while since I read about it.

I wonder if you have any more information about that, or any thoughts on how these things might be connected?

Certainly the case of the trans man you mentioned is itself relevant to the present situation. I wonder if you have a link to the story?

Just thought this would interest you, because while not germane to the violence/panic issue, it goes straight to the heart of cissexist attitudes — whether or not grounded in law — that enable and excuse the violence. And certainly goes well with your list of examples.

About the violence, I’ve recently become an active protester against violence against gays and transgenders. I honestly don’t know why we can’t simply label violence against them a hate crime and a felony across the board.

The first time somebody gets 25 years with no parole for assaulting a transperson, I’m reasonably sure it’ll give somebody pause before attempting it again.

So what I would say is just don’t try to argue anything that pathologizes anyone else’s body or anyone’s identity. If you’re opposed to something related to some part the transition process or something like that, you can *state* that; however, I don’t have much interest in hearing arguments around that, and I certainly do not want to see any personal attacks on trans people on that basis (doing so could result in comments not getting though moderation, or being banned entirely from the site).

That having been said, I’m glad to hear that you’ve thought through the implications for and burdens placed on trans women by the dominant “disclosure” narrative. Violence is almost unquestionably legitimated by placing this burden on us.