Cult or slavery? Israel watches the strange case of Goel Ratzon

Next week, in mid-September, one of the strangest affairs that ever took place in Israel will come to an end. Tel Aviv’s district court will render a verdict regarding a man who created a very unconventional life for himself. A sort of a harem perhaps, or maybe a cult. This man lived in several apartments in southern Tel Aviv, apartments which barely accommodated more than 30 women and about 80 children they bore for him over the years. The district court will decide if the women and children lived under slavery conditions and if they were victim to severe sexual offenses. This is the first time in the history of the state that a court deals with people living under slavery.

The affair has stirred up the country, especially because of the deviant nature of the charges. In the middle of the night five years ago, in January 2010, scores of policemen broke into the compound in which Goel Ratzon lived with his wives and dozens of children. The ensuing spectacle that appeared on television screens shocked everyone: one after another, women were taken out while holding their babies and children. After them trailed a middle-aged man who introduced himself as the father of the family. He claimed that he did not understand why he was being arrested. Ratzon, with long white hair that reached his shoulders and a well-tended white beard, expressed his surprise at the dead-of-the-night break-in to the journalists who had surrounded the house. “These are my wives and these are my children, what crime have I committed?” he asked.