Screenshot from Channel 12 News of surveillance footage of Sde Teiman.
Amidst the ongoing daily genocidal crimes against Palestinians, shocking video footage of a violent gang rape of a Palestinian prisoner carried out by IDF soldiers reaffirmed the moral degeneracy of the Israeli project and a significant segment of its society.
Hamas has been so vilified and the Palestinian people so dehumanized by the Zionist and U.S. governments based on totally debunked and thoroughly false allegations that on Oct. 7 Palestinian liberation fighters committed mass rapes of Israeli women. Now, the same government forces perpetrating the “Hamas mass rape” lie and decrying it as monsterous is calling Israeli soldiers who were caught on video raping bound Palestinian prisoners “heroic.”
For public consumption Washington has decried the prisoner rapes, but called on the Israeli government, the perpetrator of the rapes, to investigate itself. This provides a smokescreen for continues Israeli atrocities while the Pentagon increases both weapon shipments to Israel, and its own military presence in the Middle East.
Leaked security footage documents rapes
Leaked surveillance video footage aired on Israeli Channel 12 television in late July captured the horrific violence against a Palestinian male prisoner held captive in Israel’s notorious Sde Teiman detention facility in the Negev desert. The video, taken from security cameras, was described by Channel 12 as showing IDF soldiers wearing face coverings selecting a prisoner “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 Palestinian prisoner, unable to walk, was discovered in critical condition and hospitalized, suffering extensive internal injuries including broken ribs and a perforated bowel. This exposure of such extreme violence created an uproar so that the Israeli military police were forced to intervene. Nine IDF soldiers were arrested on July 29 for this crime.
Protests call for release of rapists
This video sent waves of revulsion across the world, documenting yet another dimension to the moral depravity of the Israeli project. While the most appropriate reaction to such violence is outrage and demands for justice, a mob of right-wing Zionists which included Knesset members surrounded Sde Teiman, not to protest the crime, but to call the rapist soldiers ”heroic warriers,”protest their arrest, and to demand their release. These riot mobs said that the “IDF soldiers deserve respect and must not be treated as criminals.” These groups also disrupted a court session hearing the case despite the court significantly reducing sentences of the rapists due to pressure from right-wing Israeli politicians.
Security and Justice Ministers back rapists
Such obscene sentiments were cheered on by extreme right-wing politicians like National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, stooping to new lows by expressing the view that any action – even gang rape – is permissible if it is undertaken for the security of the state. He hailed the rapists as “[Israel’s] best heroes.” Justice Minister Yariv Levin said, “He was shocked to see harsh pictures of soldiers being arrested … adding that it was impossible to accept.” The normalisation of rape goes all the way to the top of the Knesset. This is hardly surprising when even surpassing 40,000 massacred Palestinians is not high enough a number to be a red line or a crime to Israel.
These rapists were so emboldened by this support that one IDF soldier rapist came forward, took off his mask and revealed himself on social media to justify committing this internationally recognized crime. He even boasted, “The days we remain silent are over.” This was also broadcast on Israeli TV.
Not isolated incidents
These rapes and other war crimes committed against Palestinian women and men prisoners are not isolated incidents. A UN special committee report from June stated that it was “horrified by violations against Palestinians in Israeli custody and levels of impunity for Israeli soldiers engaged in dehumanizing, cruel and humiliating behavior towards Palestinians, including women and children.”
Sexual abuse and torture started with Nakba
Such conditions did not start on Oct. 7, but go back as far as the Nakba in 1948. A 2015 study found that sexual abuse and torture systematically committed against Palestinians boys and men and stated that the numbers are likely to much higher than recorded.
Eyewitness and personal testimonies from Palestinians since October describe abhorrent systematic torture inflicted on prisoners by the IDF, including rapes of prisoners with projectiles committed by both male and female Israeli soldiers, with some of the perpetrators in their teens. They detailed “frequent acts of severe, arbitrary violence; sexual assault; humiliation and degradation; deliberate starvation; forced unhygienic conditions; sleep deprivation; prohibition on, and punitive measures for, religious worship; confiscation of all communal and personal belongings; and denial of adequate medical treatment.” The UN report also found that “men, women, and even children [faced such threats and violence in addition to] intimidation through the use of dogs by Israeli security forces.”
Israel’s Abu Ghraib
Palestinian human rights groups Samidoun and Al Mezan have described the abuses as reminiscent of the indescribable abuse committed by U.S. soldiers in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. Both prisons were replete with unspeakable physical and psychological torture, including sexual violation and violation of religious rights – all tactics inflicted on Palestinian prisoners. The barbarity clearly links the utter bankruptcy and depravity of both the Zionist project and its imperialist backers.
The corporate Western mainstream news media ran wall-to-wall coverage of false allegations of rape committed by Hamas Oct. 7 despite outpouring of evidence against the claims. This provided cover for Israeli genocide, as Netanyahu explicitly praised those spreading the “Hamas mass rape” lies for helping legitimize and extend Israel’s war on Gaza.
In contrast, the same media has barely covered IDF soldiers caught on camera committing this inhumane crime against a prisoner, then later justifying it. There are little-to-no expressions of outrage from Western government and media institutions, or from liberals who bore the torch against the Palestinian resistance after Oct. 7. To this day, mainstream media reports on the daily acts of genocide committed by Israel in Gaza are prefaced with ‘’it all began on Oct. 7” with “horrific atrocities” they say were committed by Hamas.
US downplays rapes as ‘concerning’
What was the U.S. response? State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller paid lip service to the Palestinian rape victim when questioned about the situation, stating the rape allegations were concerning but that the “reports should be fully investigated by the Israeli government.” This is asking the criminal to prosecute itself.
Washington sends more weapons for more atrocities
This is nothing but a U.S. government smokescreen to allow Israeli soldiers to do what they will without accountability. What is clear from the U.S. response is that Washington will not provide any real criticism for Israeli atrocities no matter how inhumane. In fact, the U.S. committed to providing an additional $3.5 billion in military funding to Israel last week, and it is rushing an aircraft carrier group and a nuclear submarine to the Mediterranean to defend its genocidal apartheid client state. It is clear that the U.S. is committed to maintaining its domination over the Middle East through its relationship with Israel, no matter what crimes it commits.
