JERUSALEM  An Israeli court convicted the country’s former president, Moshe Katsav, of two counts of forcible rape on Thursday, a verdict that many Israelis described as a low point in the nation’s history, but also redemptive, in that it upheld the value of equality before the law.

“There are no two states of Israel, just one state,” said Shimon Peres, Mr. Katsav’s successor as president. “There are no two kinds of citizens here; citizens of only one kind exist in Israel  and all are equal in the eyes of the law.”

The verdict capped an unusual four-year spectacle that began with accusations of sexual offenses against Mr. Katsav while he was still the head of state.

“Never before has a president in the democratic world been found guilty of such deeds,” wrote Zeev Segal, the legal commentator for the newspaper Haaretz and a professor of law at Tel Aviv University.