On Monday, thousands of Israelis stormed military facilities and government buildings to protest the detention of ten soldiers accused of gang-raping a Palestinian prisoner. Adding to the shock, Israeli media and Ministers in the Knesset defended the soldiers’ actions, while the lawyers for the accused rapists claimed “self-defense.”
The events of July 29 garnered significant attention on social media, finally highlighting an issue detailed in a recent United Nations report. The report described how Israel has “systematically targeted and subjected Palestinians to SGBV [Sexual and Gender-Based Violence] online and in person since October 7, including through forced public nudity, forced public stripping, sexualized torture and abuse, and sexual humiliation and harassment.” For Palestinians and those who have been following the issue, the real shock was not that Israeli soldiers were raping detainees—who are being held without charges—but the brazenness with which members of the Israeli political class and society publicly defended such actions.
Israel’s Security Minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, called the accused gang rapists “heroes,” while other elected officials joined thousands of violent protesters outside a military court and the Sde Teiman detention center, known locally as a torture center, located inside a military base in the Naqab (Negev) area.
While some tried to frame the issue as being limited to members of the far-right Religious Zionism alliance parties, a video later emerged from the Israeli Knesset showing a heated debate over the right to rape Palestinian prisoners with sticks. When MK Ahmad Tibi, from the Ta’al Party, questioned, “To insert a stick in a person’s rectum, is that legitimate?” Hanoch Milwidsky, an elected official from the Likud Party, responded, “Yes! If he is a Nukhba, everything is legitimate to do to him!”
Israeli Likud Party MK Hanoch Milwidsky defends raping Palestinian prisoners with a stick if accused of being Hamas’ Nukhba fighters.
A shocking admission came from a Knesset Member from Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party that raping Palestinian prisoners, accused of being members… pic.twitter.com/4f3q7XI214
— MintPress News (@MintPressNews) July 29, 2024
Meir Ben Shatrit, one of the ten Israeli reservist soldiers who worked as a guard at Sde Teiman, spoke on camera following his release and assured the public that the arrest was a mere sham, according to reports. Two of the soldiers initially arrested have now been released, while Israel’s Honenu legal aid organization, representing four of the remaining eight, has claimed that their clients were acting in self-defense.
“You feel they want to thank you, there were days when they applauded us.”
Israeli reservist Meir Ben Shatrit, arrested by Israeli military police for torturing and sodomizing Palestinian detainees at Sde Teiman Prison, described his arrest as a mere sham after being released… pic.twitter.com/gRKAoaLc4L
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) July 31, 2024
None of the Israeli soldiers accused of severely torturing a Palestinian prisoner and inserting a stick into his anus, leading to the man’s hospitalization, have expressed any regret. This has prompted comparisons to the case of Elor Azaria, an Israeli soldier who shot an already maimed Palestinian in the head in 2016 while the victim lay on the concrete in the West Bank city of al-Khalil. Israelis held protests for Azaria, condemned his arrest, and started a crowdfunding campaign that raised over $100,000 in two days to cover his legal fees. In the end, he received an 18-month prison sentence but only served nine months and was not expelled from the Israeli military.
Reports of Palestinian detainees being raped after October 7 have been emerging since late November. The widespread nature of these cases indicates that such actions are normalized and possibly even encouraged. Israeli media have released headlines framing the Israeli soldiers accused of gang rape as victims or using heavily biased language. For example, the Jerusalem Post’s English headline reads, “Ministers, MKs criticize arrests of soldiers suspected of terrorist prisoner abuse.”
The Israeli claim is that the prisoner who was gang-raped was a Hamas fighter from the elite Nukhba forces, an allegation asserted not backed by any established evidence. The Sde Teiman detention facility was specifically designed to hold detainees without charges. If proof had been uncovered, the prisoner would have been transferred to an Israeli military prison.
Reports from Human Rights Lawyers, CNN, The New York Times, Haaretz, the United Nations, and other sources have covered various cases of torture and rape. It is well-established that Israeli soldiers are raping Palestinian detainees across multiple detention facilities, in Gaza, and inside Israeli jails. The open acceptance of this practice in the Israeli public highlights that the idea of sexualized torture has become acceptable at various levels of the Israeli government, media, military, and society.
Feature photo | Jewish activists cheer in front of armed and masked Israeli reservists from the ‘100 force’ wave the Israeli flag while holding signs that reads: ” The hero soldiers should be released – The conception generals and Military Advocate General should be detained”. Matan Golan | AP
Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe.’ Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47
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