WUNRN
ISRAEL
RAIDS POLYGAMIST COMPOUND
By
ISABEL KERSHNER
January
14, 2010
Yossi Zeliger/European Pressphoto Agency
Goel Razon, a 60-year-old Israeli, was brought to court in Tel
Aviv,
The police said that the suspect, Goel Ratzon, was either 59 or 60, and was taken into custody Tuesday after a seven-month investigation. A news blackout on the case was lifted Thursday.
Mr. Ratzon, considered the “savior of the universe” by his followers, has aroused the curiosity of the public, the police and the social services for years, and was the subject of a television documentary last year. But so far he has not been charged with any crimes. He was legally married to one or two women, according to the police, though he considered all the women his wives.
Mr. Ratzon maintained his cultlike community in several apartments in a neighborhood of south Tel Aviv. The police entered three apartments on Tuesday and found 17 women and “at least 40 children,” a police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, said.
Mr. Rosenfeld said that Mr. Ratzon was suspected of keeping people in conditions of slavery, an offense under an Israeli law against human trafficking, as well as other crimes.
Some of the women worked outside the compound. The extended family lived according to Mr. Ratzon’s “book of rules,” according to the police, and the women had to pay hefty fines for violations. Among other things, it was “forbidden to talk nonsense” ($55 fine) or to work “while a ‘man’ of over 12 years of age is in the house,” which brought the heftiest penalty, around $800.
Mr. Ratzon denied breaking any laws and told the authorities that the women lived with him by choice and could come and go.
Gabi Zohar of the Center for Cult Victims in Israel told Israel Radio on Thursday that his organization gathered evidence leading to Mr. Ratzon’s arrest.
“What took place inside this house was a form of terror,” Mr. Zohar said. “There was very serious abuse,” he said, adding that the women had joined Mr. Ratzon willingly at first, but had undergone brainwashing.
The documentary shown last year on Israel’s commercial Channel 10 offered a glimpse into Mr. Ratzon’s world. Some women in the film described him as a kind of messiah.
Explaining what he saw as the
attraction, Mr. Ratzon said: “I am perfect. I have all the attributes a woman
wants.”
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