150 activists protest 'seduction center' in Tel Aviv for promoting sexual violence
Demonstration follows allegations of rape, incitement to violence filed by three female students earlier this week.
By Dmitry Reider
About 150 demonstrators broke into a Tel Aviv conference held on Thursday night by a private firm called the Center for the Art of Seduction. The event was held to honor graduates of courses offered by the center.
Thursday night's protest was the second action taken against the center this week. On Tuesday, three female law students at the University of Haifa had filed a complaint with the Haifa police, against both the center and one of its graduates on allegations of rape, incitement to violence and solicitation. None of the three complaining students was the direct victim of the alleged rape.
The center purportedly teaches men how to develop romantic relationships with women.
The recent complaints follow an earlier post on an online forum for course graduates, by an individual simply identified as "Russo." The post originally appeared in 2006, but recently received new attention among Israeli Internet commentators.
In the four-year-old post, Russo recounted how he had met a woman from the Czech Republic who was a medical resident and had sexual relations with her against her will. Russo described the chronology of his encounter with the woman in detail, and in stages which ultimately led to the "seduction" stage.
He wrote in detail about how the woman had refused to take off her clothes, but how he eventually had sex with her anyway.
"I want to thank the Center for the Art of Seduction, which gave me the tools to do what I did yesterday," Russo wrote in the posting.
Someone identified on the forum only as "Izmir," and who is also believed to be the founder of the center - Yigal Stark - posted a response of his own, stating: "Fun to read!"
A subsequent comment on the forum raised the issue of possible rape allegations related to the incident. The user Izmir responded that Russo had been given detailed instruction by the center's lawyer to ensure that his deeds would not be considered rape.
Stark said on Thursday that the goal of his firm was to improve relations between couples and "to achieve harmony and happiness between men and their women partners."
He added that the center opposes any conduct that could be considered as harassment. He said the group's Internet forum features many stories, including some that are fantasies.
According to Stark, the posting that was the subject of the police complaint did not reflect the center's approach, and it is impossible for the group to determine if the incident actually occurred.
Though I'd offer an update after I posted about this in Tirade Tuesday. It was a pretty successful protest - more people showed up than I thought, and I was really glad I skipped class to be able to go. I'll post more about my experience and what happened in the comments.
By Dmitry Reider
About 150 demonstrators broke into a Tel Aviv conference held on Thursday night by a private firm called the Center for the Art of Seduction. The event was held to honor graduates of courses offered by the center.
Thursday night's protest was the second action taken against the center this week. On Tuesday, three female law students at the University of Haifa had filed a complaint with the Haifa police, against both the center and one of its graduates on allegations of rape, incitement to violence and solicitation. None of the three complaining students was the direct victim of the alleged rape.
The center purportedly teaches men how to develop romantic relationships with women.
The recent complaints follow an earlier post on an online forum for course graduates, by an individual simply identified as "Russo." The post originally appeared in 2006, but recently received new attention among Israeli Internet commentators.
In the four-year-old post, Russo recounted how he had met a woman from the Czech Republic who was a medical resident and had sexual relations with her against her will. Russo described the chronology of his encounter with the woman in detail, and in stages which ultimately led to the "seduction" stage.
He wrote in detail about how the woman had refused to take off her clothes, but how he eventually had sex with her anyway.
"I want to thank the Center for the Art of Seduction, which gave me the tools to do what I did yesterday," Russo wrote in the posting.
Someone identified on the forum only as "Izmir," and who is also believed to be the founder of the center - Yigal Stark - posted a response of his own, stating: "Fun to read!"
A subsequent comment on the forum raised the issue of possible rape allegations related to the incident. The user Izmir responded that Russo had been given detailed instruction by the center's lawyer to ensure that his deeds would not be considered rape.
Stark said on Thursday that the goal of his firm was to improve relations between couples and "to achieve harmony and happiness between men and their women partners."
He added that the center opposes any conduct that could be considered as harassment. He said the group's Internet forum features many stories, including some that are fantasies.
According to Stark, the posting that was the subject of the police complaint did not reflect the center's approach, and it is impossible for the group to determine if the incident actually occurred.
Though I'd offer an update after I posted about this in Tirade Tuesday. It was a pretty successful protest - more people showed up than I thought, and I was really glad I skipped class to be able to go. I'll post more about my experience and what happened in the comments.