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Friday March 13, 1998

Israel Supreme Court rules against sexual harassment

BATSHEVA TSUR
Jerusalem Post Service

JERUSALEM -- Sexual harassment is any behavior with sexual connotations that is forced by one person on another against the latter's will, the Supreme Court declared Monday in a precedent-setting ruling.

The definition of sexual harassment at a workplace or place of learning was handed down in a decision which overturned an acquittal of Zohar Ben-Asher, a teacher at Seminar Hakibbutzim in Tel Aviv, for embracing and caressing a student against her will.

Court President Aharon Barak, and Justices Yitzhak Zamir and Tova Strassberg-Cohen, issued a 44-page ruling in answer to an appeal by the state against Ben-Asher's acquittal of harassment charges by a civil servants' disciplinary court.

The student testified that Ben-Asher had touched her against her will several times and that she had moved away. He suggested that she go out with him and come over to his house. She told him she had a boyfriend and studied late, but he repeated his behavior, the student said. Her version was backed up by testimony from friends.

Ben-Asher said he believed in education which encouraged close -- even physical -- contact between teachers and students.

"[This] behavior prevented her from studying quietly like any other student," the justice found. "It is especially serious because we are dealing with the behavior of a teacher towards a student."

Ben-Asher's behavior could be considered harassment because he imposed his will on the student against her will. His invitation to his home went beyond any accepted educational method, the court added, noting that for sexual relations not to be considered harassment, free will is required.

"Sexual harassment can come in the form of words or deeds that have sexual connotations when the goal is to get sexual pleasure -- from intercourse or from embracing or touching...There is also sexual harassment that is intended to make a workplace unbearable so that a worker will have to leave," the court wrote. "It is especially pernicious when it comes from a person who is in a higher position and is aimed at someone who is subordinate."

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