For all the claims of unwarranted legal severity in Haim Ramon's case, he is not the first man to be tried in Israel for forcing a kiss on an unconsenting woman.

The courts have convicted dozens of defendants of indecent acts for having forcibly kissed women. In most cases, however, the act was accompanied by other, sometimes graver, sexual assaults.

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Haim Hamiel, husband, father and grandfather, invited his neighbor to his apartment on August 22, 2001, ostensibly to see his new furniture and help him cook. After she entered, he held her face and tried to kiss her. She fled from his apartment.

Hamiel denied the kiss, saying he embraced her because she stumbled over a table and almost fell. He said that his conduct was devoid of any sexual connotations. But the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court believed the complainant and convicted him, giving him a three-month suspended sentence and ordering him to pay the complainant NIS 1,000 in compensation.

Shimon Levy, a policeman, was on duty at a Jerusalem police station on January 12, 1999, when a young policewoman entered his room seeking certain documents. As she reached the cupboard, Levy hugged her, raised her face and kissed her forcibly on the mouth. She struggled to loosen his grip and fled the room.

Three years later, the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court convicted him in a plea bargain of a nonconsensual indecent act. He was given a four-month suspended sentence, 200 hours of community service and required to pay the complainant NIS 2,000 in compensation.

"There is no doubt that a forcible kiss could be an indecent act," said Dr. Yoram Rabin, a professor of criminal law from the College of Management Law School. "This article is intended to protect a person, usually a woman, form having her body used for sexual purposes against her will. I have fears about criminalizing courtship practices, but the danger is not the indecent acts article, but the flawed law against sexual harassment and the prosecution's problematic policy of indicting in borderline cases."

In another case, Ofer Glazer, husband of tycoon Shari Arison, was convicted of indecent acts and sexual harassment, including kissing a woman without her consent. On May 13, 2003, while Glazer and the complainant were in an apartment she wished to rent from him in Eilat, he sexually harassed her, including kissing her by force. The Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court convicted him for these acts, as well as for sexually harassing a nurse in Arison's home. He was sentenced to six months in prison, a year's suspended sentence, a NIS 10,000 fine and NIS 15,000 in compensation for each of the complainants. His appeal is pending in the Supreme Court.