Dubai: An Israeli academic and former intelligence officer in the regime’s military has called for the use of rape as a deterrent against Palestinian resistance fighters.

Mordechai Kedar, a fluent Arabic speaker and lecturer on Arabic literature at Bar Ilan University, said in a radio interview earlier this month that the nature of Arab culture left Israel with few options other than resorting to measures such as rape to deter Palestinian resistance operations against its occupation.

The interview, conducted in Hebrew, was recently translated into English and has since made news in Israel’s left wing publications and in alternative news sites abroad.

Left wing Israeli magazine +972 translated a portion of the interview on its website:

Kedar: “A terrorist, like those who kidnapped the boys and killed them, the only thing that will deter them, is if they know that either their sister or mother will be raped if they are caught. What can we do? This is the culture that we live in.”

Interviewer, Yossi Hadar: “Yes, this sounds bad, but...”

Kedar: “It sounds very bad, but this is a lesson. This is the Middle East. Only the knowledge that...

Hadar: “Well, we can’t do things like this...”

Kedar: “I’m telling you, I’m talking about them, I’m not talking about what we can do or not do. I’m telling you what they live in. This is the only thing that deters a suicide bomber. If he knows that when he pulls the trigger, or blows himself up, his sister will be raped. That’s it. That’s the only thing that will bring him back home, to keep the honour of his sister. This is the culture of the Middle East. I didn’t create it, but this is the situation.”

Bar Ilan University responded to the controversy by defending the academic in comments published by Haaretz. “Dr Kedar did not call and does not call to fight terror with anything but legal and moral means,” said the university.