Israelis soldiers accused of raping Palestinian prisoners get arrested. Some Local jews protest the against the arrests.
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Everything is legitimate’: Israeli leaders defend soldiers accused of rape
Israeli society is divided over the arrest of 10 soldiers for the brutal gang rape of a Palestinian prisoner caught on video.
Simon Speakman CordallProtesters wave Israeli national flags in support of soldiers being questioned for detainee abuse, outside of the Sde Teiman military base, on Monday, July 29, 2024 [Tsafrir Abayov/AP]
Video has emerged of a gang rape of a Palestinian prisoner by guards at the Sde Teiman detention facility in the Negev desert, southern Israel.
The video, which has been verified by Al Jazeera, shows the prisoner being selected from a larger group lying bound on the floor. The victim is then escorted to a wall, where guards, using their shields to hide their identity from the camera, proceed to rape him.
The attack is believed to have been so brutal that, after he was transferred to hospital, Israeli media reported that the victim was unable to walk.
Ten soldiers were ultimately arrested for the rape on July 29, in a case that has rocked Israeli society. The soldiers belong to a unit known as Force 100, which is tasked with guarding the Sde Teiman facility, according to Haaretz.
Military prosecutors released three of the arrested soldiers on August 4, adding to the two previously released by investigators following a military court hearing in Kfar Yona on July 30, at which protesters gathered in support of the soldiers under arrest.
Protesters hold signs during a demonstration against Israeli military prosecutors near a military court on July 30, 2024, in Kfar Yona, Israel [Amir Levy/Getty Images]The video has shocked many within Israeli society. Some observers, including a local rights group and two UN agencies, have voiced concerns about the treatment of Palestinian prisoners.
However, for some, including the country’s far-right finance minister, the outrage has centred on the “crime” of recording the video, rather than the alleged rape itself.
Taking to X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday night, Bezalel Smotrich demanded “an immediate criminal investigation to locate the leakers of the trending video that was intended to harm the reservists and that caused tremendous damage to Israel in the world and to exhaust the full severity of the law against them”.
Others, including the hard right and ultranationalist politicians, such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, within Israel, have argued that any action – even gang rape – is permissible if it is undertaken for the security of the state.
Defending the indefensible
Following the arrest of the reservists on July 29, far-right mobs, some of which included government ministers, stormed the facility at Sde Teiman in southern Israel later the same day.Unable to find and free the imprisoned soldiers, they then turned to the base at Beit Lid, 60km away, where the soldiers were being held for questioning, to call for the soldiers’ release.
That unrest continued during a high court hearing, convened on Wednesday to hear the petitions of Sde Teiman prisoners who are alleged to have been tortured. The proceedings were interrupted by demonstrators, who included victims of the October 7 Hamas-led attack, who shouted “Disgrace” and “We are the sovereign”.
Israeli pressure group Guarding the Soldiers – a new organisation formed in defence of the soldiers accused of rape – was quoted in Israeli media as saying: “The hearing in the high court this morning is absurd and a gift to [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar and murderers.”
Israeli politicians, including cabinet members, have also defended the accused. Ben-Gvir, who is responsible for the prison service, told Israeli media on the day of the reservists’ arrest that it was “shameful” for Israel to arrest “our best heroes”. The same day, Smotrich, who had been among the right-wing mob to storm the prison, published a video message, saying that “IDF soldiers deserve respect” and must not be treated as “criminals”.
On being asked by Ahmad Tibi, one of the Arab MPs within the Israeli Knesset last week if it was legitimate “to insert a stick into a person’s rectum”, Hanoch Milwidsky, a member of Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party, responded: “If he is a Nukhba [Hamas militant], everything is legitimate to do! Everything!”
‘Just the tip of the iceberg’
The video of the alleged gang rape at Sde Teiman is the latest piece in a growing body of evidence of abuse, sexual assault and the systematic withholding of food and medical care that Palestinians endure within the Israeli prison system.A report titled Welcome to Hell, published this week by the Israeli human rights advocacy group, B’Tselem, includes interviews with 55 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli detention centres since October 7. In firsthand accounts, the prisoners, the majority of whom were later released without charge at locations across the occupied Palestinian territory, Gaza and within Israel, recount being assaulted, insulted and sexually abused by guards.
“The conditions at Sde Teiman aren’t unique. They’re just the tip of the iceberg,” the organisation’s spokesperson, Shai Parnes, told Al Jazeera by phone from Jerusalem.
“We heard similar accounts of sexual abuse, starvation and assault from separate prisoners held in 16 different locations across Israel. It was depressing. As we gathered the testimonies, we realised that every witness account was almost identical, no matter what their age, gender or location was. There’s no doubt. This kind of abuse is systematic,” he said.
‘At odds with international law’
Allegations of the systematic abuse of prisoners within a justice system which critics say is fundamentally at odds with international law have also been detailed in a separate report published on Monday by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR), and in an unpublished report – seen by Al Jazeera in March – from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).Responding to warnings of overcrowding within the prison system from the security agency Shin Bet in early July, Ben-Gvir repeated his call for Palestinian prisoners to be executed, tweeting that one of his principal goals since attaining office had been to “worsen the conditions of the terrorists in the prisons, and to reduce their rights to the minimum required by law”.
He said: “Everything published about the abominable conditions” of the Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons “was true”.
Palestinians hold placards during a protest in solidarity with Gaza and Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails, in Hebron, the occupied West Bank, on August 3, 2024 [Mussa Qawasma/Reuters]
Human rights up for debate
The United States, Israel’s principal ally, called the allegations of sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners “horrific”, saying Israel must investigate “swiftly” and “fully”.State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told the media on Wednesday: “There ought to be zero tolerance for sexual abuse, rape of any detainee. Period. That’s a fundamental belief of the United States.”
On Thursday, the European Union also expressed dismay. Peter Stano, a spokesperson for the EU’s diplomatic service, told Politico: “The EU is gravely concerned by the allegations of human rights violations and abuses, including torture and sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees at the Sde Teiman military facility in Israel and elsewhere.”
Nevertheless, many within Israel continue to defend the conditions in which Palestinian prisoners are being held, as well as the rape alleged to have been carried out by the soldiers at Sde Teiman.
“Look, the question really isn’t about rape,” Ori Goldberg, a Tel Aviv-based political analyst, told Al Jazeera. “The question is – can Israel, or Israelis, be reproached for anything they do in defence of the state?”
In the opinion of some, Goldberg explained, no act, no matter how immoral it might appear to the outside world, is off limits, if it is carried out to further the security of Israel.
“We even had a journalist on breakfast television criticising not the rape but the ‘disorganised’ way it was carried out,” Goldberg added.
That outlook remains a minority view, he cautioned. Nevertheless, even among the Israeli liberals who argue against that view of their country and its actions, little thought is given to the Palestinian victims.
“Oh, it’s got nothing to do with the victims,” Goldberg said, ‘this is all about Israel.”
Doctor who reported abuse of Palestinian detainee: I blamed fellow prisoners
Anesthesiologist Yoel Donchin, who treated terror suspects at Sde Teiman, confirms seeing signs of serious sexual abuse, says he didn't think Israelis 'would do something like that'
By ToI Staff3 August 2024, 1:30 pm
A doctor who worked at the Sde Teiman detention facility said there was no way he could have ignored the signs of serious sexual abuse that he reported seeing on a Palestinian detainee he treated recently at the Israel Defense Forces base in southern Israel.
Speaking to the Kan broadcaster in an interview aired Friday evening, Doctor Yoel Donchin confirmed a report from medical sources that the detainee had presented at the field hospital with broken ribs and signs of physical abuse on multiple bones. He also confirmed that something round had been inserted deep into the detainee’s rectum, causing a tear in the lower bowel and damage to one of the lungs that required emergency surgery.
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In the past week, ten IDF reserve soldiers have been detained on suspicion of abusing the Palestinian terror suspect, eight of whom remain in custody.
According to the IDF, the soldiers were suspected of aggravated sodomy (a charge equivalent to rape), causing bodily harm under aggravated circumstances, abuse under aggravated circumstances and conduct unbecoming of a soldier.
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The veteran anesthesiologist told Kan that although he felt an obligation as a doctor to report the signs of abuse, it had not crossed his mind that the detainee had been tortured by his Israeli guards.
“Just as I would if a child or a woman turned up at a hospital with signs of abuse, in this case, our impression was that this was an incident that needed to be reported,” he said.
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A heated argument erupts between soldiers at the Sde Teiman detention facility in southern Israel after Military Police investigators arrived to detain suspects for questioning, July 29, 2024. (Screenshot: X, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
“The first thing that came to my mind was that the other prisoners had… what, we [Israelis] would do something like that?!”
“If he’s a big [Hamas elite force] Nukhba criminal and he killed people, he’ll stand trial, but I’m not the judge,” the doctor, who said he has been criticized for both whistleblowing and for treating suspected terrorists, insisted.
Israeli soldiers and police clash with right wing protesters, after they broke into the Beit Lid army base on July 29, 2024 in Kfar Yona. (Oren Ziv / AFP)
Following Donchin’s report and a subsequent investigation, the reservists were arrested by masked Military Police detectives at Sde Teiman on Monday.
After the arrests, a mob of far-right activists and lawmakers broke into the base and demonstrated, and later stormed the Beit Lid base where the suspects were being held and questioned.
Far-right activists protest against the detention of nine Israeli reserve soldiers suspected of abusing a Hamas terror suspect, at the Sde Teiman military base near Beersheba, July 29, 2024. (Dudu Greenspan/Flash90)
The doctor also told Kan that though he had seen cases of “injuries from zip ties” used as handcuffs, as reported in a CNN investigative report published in May, he had not seen another case of such serious abuse while working at the Sde Teiman facility.
CNN’s report was based on testimony from three Israeli whistleblowers who had been at Sde Temian, as well as from former detainees, claiming widespread abuse of the detainees, including extreme use of physical restraints, amputations due to prolonged use of handcuffs, beatings, neglect of medical problems, arbitrary punishments, and humiliating and degrading treatment, such as denial of toilet use.
Israel has detained thousands of Palestinians since the Hamas invasion and massacres on October 7, including terrorists caught in Israel following the assault, combatants caught in Gaza during the IDF’s operations, as well as others suspected of connections to terror organizations or terrorist activity. Many of the unlawful combatants from Gaza were taken to Sde Teiman.
The guards detained in connection with the suspected sexual abuse are from the Force 100 unit, a prison riot control unit of the Military Police that also deals with transfers of security prisoners between different detention facilities.
I dunno what to say honestly
I can see beating him to death but rape?
I can see beating him to death but rape?
We do the same thing in Guantanamo Bay.
Hold off on the WE bruhWe do the same thing in Guantanamo Bay.
THEM nasty cacs do that shit
We do the same thing in Guantanamo Bay.
Do not remember any other American soldiers fighting for the right to continue raping prisoner s
“Today, we're gonna teach you about great American sex. Get up!” he wrote. “The two _______ took off their blouses, and started to talk all kind of dirty stuff you can imagine, which I minded less. What hurt me most was them forcing me to take part in a sexual threesome in the most degrading manner. What many _______ don’t realize is that men get hurt the same as women if they’re forced to have sex, maybe more due to the traditional position of the man."
He tried to recite prayers while the women molested him. "Stop the fuck praying! You're having sex with American _______ and you're praying? What a hypocrite you are!" said ______________ angrily, entering the room,” he wrote. “I refused to stop speaking my prayers, and after that, I was forbidden to perform my ritual prayers for about one year to come.”
Guantanamo Detainee: I Was Gang-Raped by Female Interrogators
A just-published diary from one of Guantanamo Bay’s longtime detainees shares in gruesome detail the abuses he suffered, and alleges he was sexually assaulted by female guards.
www.thedailybeast.com
Animals
“Today, we're gonna teach you about great American sex. Get up!” he wrote. “The two _______ took off their blouses, and started to talk all kind of dirty stuff you can imagine, which I minded less. What hurt me most was them forcing me to take part in a sexual threesome in the most degrading manner. What many _______ don’t realize is that men get hurt the same as women if they’re forced to have sex, maybe more due to the traditional position of the man."
He tried to recite prayers while the women molested him. "Stop the fuck praying! You're having sex with American _______ and you're praying? What a hypocrite you are!" said ______________ angrily, entering the room,” he wrote. “I refused to stop speaking my prayers, and after that, I was forbidden to perform my ritual prayers for about one year to come.”
Guantanamo Detainee: I Was Gang-Raped by Female Interrogators
A just-published diary from one of Guantanamo Bay’s longtime detainees shares in gruesome detail the abuses he suffered, and alleges he was sexually assaulted by female guards.www.thedailybeast.com
Animals
Damn that’s serious
These nigs went full sisters in Shawshank Redemption
FixedMaking a note to never step foot in current parts of Palestine.
I like that better
Da fuck.....???
Usnotreal is proving everyday to
Be a demonic infestation..of faggot demonci
Parasites .
These are the muthafuckas running the democratic party..
And they expect to be re elected being the demons helper..
Yea ok
Death to Satan and all his spineless
Helper slaves
Like zionist
Usnotreal is proving everyday to
Be a demonic infestation..of faggot demonci
Parasites .
These are the muthafuckas running the democratic party..
And they expect to be re elected being the demons helper..
Yea ok
Death to Satan and all his spineless
Helper slaves
Like zionist
Lmao
The thing that got me like wtf is a hand full of locals was like fuck naw… they ain’t arresting them for that, let’s go free them
the same muthafuckas talk about crime in chicago...
meanwhile they approve support and protect RAPIST,
too many evil zionist, making ALL Jews look like heartless,
demonic pieces of stale pale SHIT.......
They Need to Douche...
Now when that scum drip pussy ben shapiro talk about
how "blacks" are more prone to violence simply based off of stats
from an organization FORMED to demonize and imprison free
"black" men FBI...
Just say, what about isreal murdering babies and raping young boys.
whats more violent than that...
WHOSE KEEPING STATS ON THAT....??
AINT THE FUCKIN FBI....!!
If I wasnt such a clean holy divine knigga,
Id smack the scum stains off his pussy face!!
But my hands to clean fo that!
Damn. They fucked up.
It’s way deeper
Fucking devils. 
when you point out the fact,
the devil exist...
they call you
anti semetic
the devil exist...
they call you
anti semetic