"Rape by deception" - for pretending to be Jewish?

Hear about this story? A woman in Israel shags a guy who she thinks is Jewish. Turns out he's actually an Arab. She goes to the police. Arab guy gets jailed for rape.

What do you reckon? The verdict sounds like a complete load of horsesh!t to me, but maybe I'm missing something here. Read it for yourself:

A Palestinian man was convicted of rape in Jerusalem after he had consensual sex with a woman who he had tricked into thinking he was also Jewish. Shabbar Kashur, 30, was sentenced to 18 months behind bars after he accepted a plea bargain for the charge “rape by deception.”
Kashur first met the woman in downtown Jerusalem in September 2008. At the time, he had told her that he was a single Jewish man who was looking for a long term relationship. They talked for a minute, and then went to a nearby building and had sex, according to the complaint.
The woman later found out that the man was not Jewish at all, and was an Arab from East Jerusalem. She filed a criminal complaint for indecent assault and rape. Because he took the plea that was offered to him, the charges were lessened to rape by deception.
Arabs currently make up over 20 percent of the population in Israel, but relationships between the two cultures are rare amid the ongoing violence in the region. There are very few integrated neighborhoods in Israel, and even fewer relationships.
One judge said that even though the two of them had had consensual sex, the woman never would have said yes if she had realized that the man was not Jewish.
“If she hadn’t thought the accused was a Jewish bachelor interested in a serious romantic relationship, she never would have cooperated,” the judges said.

The original article is here. The man claims he never even told her he was Jewish, and she just assumed. I dunno... let's assume he did actually lie about it.

Now, let's be honest. People lie all the time to get sex. Mostly it is the men who do so. Is that wrong? Of course. Is that rape? Er...

I mean, fellas, let's be real. If you are about to get it on with someone who may be hot but you're not in love with, and he/she asks, "Do you love me?" what are you gonna say?
Further up the bullsh!t scale, some guys might go all out and lie their asses off to get some ass. You know, pretend they're single when they're not, or pretend they really do want a relationship when they are just out to hit it and quit it. Such guys are douchebags, no doubt. But not rapists, surely?

It sounds like Shabbar Kashur falls into this category. From the sounds of it, maybe he deserves to have the Jewish woman's brother kick his ass. But 18 months in jail, following 2 years of house arrest?

In the past, men have been charged with fraud for this kind of thing, according to this article. And I can maybe accept that. Because while he may have deceived her, she still entered the sexual act of her own free choice, right?

But where do you draw the line on this stuff? Because rape by deception certainly does and should exist as a legitimate and serious charge. For example, if someone knows they have HIV but tells you otherwise and has unprotected sex with you; or if someone who is 19 pretends to be 15 in order to have sex with someone underage. Those are two examples. But those are two pretty heinous things to happen. Finding out the guy was actually an Arab? That's in a totally different class, no matter whether you like Arabs or not.

And that's what I find quite repugnant about this. It seems based on the assumption that Shabbar Kashur's Arab-ness is a horrible trait akin to having a disease or taking advantage of young girls. You'd have to regard this as a racist decision, which is a reflection of the entitled attitude of a dominant majority population (in this case, Jews in Israel).

Rape is primarily about power and dominance. I just don't see that as a factor in the sex act here.

Perhaps the woman involved might realise that some of the old-fashioned values - like not sleeping with someone until you know them pretty well - actually have some basis in common sense. Not that I'm justifying his deception, but that's the risk you take when you are over-eager to jump in the sack with total strangers.

And don't for a minute think that I'm trying to minimise rape or its impact. I'm not at all. Indeed, I think cases like this are insulting to the many real victims of rape who need the help of a justice system which is being tied up by frivolous cases like this.

But I may well be wrong about all this, and I'm open to persuasion. Feel free to share your thoughts.
Interesting clip below about the case and the context in which it occurs.