NefeshBarYochai
2024-08-13 03:15:33 UTC
Israels drama around the investigation of ten soldiers suspected of
gang-raping a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman torture facility
keeps reaching new lows. The reaction from Israelis, not just on the
right, but also in the Israeli mainstream, has revealed a lust for
sadistic revenge and an obsession with Hamas that is used to justify
releasing all hell on Palestinians, including sexual abuse.
In fact, the media coverage of events last week paints a grim and
revealing picture of Israeli society.
It began when the mainstream Israeli Channel 12 broadcasted a report
concerning the gang rape case. The report features a segment from the
security camera that caught the rape taking place with three of the
soldiers holding their shields up so as to obscure the crime from the
camera. They knew exactly what they were doing.
Also read: Netanyahus willing executioners: how ordinary Israelis
became mass murderers.
But beyond the harrowing aspect of the act itself is the nature of
Channel 12s report. A full fourth of the four-minute report dedicates
itself to the scrutiny of whether the detainee was a Nukhba Hamas
member an elite fighter who participated in the October 7 attack.
Such a focus reflects an obsession. It suggests that some people
deserve to get gang-raped and have objects inserted into their anus,
some less so.
Let us see what Channel 12 says on this issue:
The terrorist that appears in the documentation did not participate
in the massacre of October 7 and was not among the Nukhba forces.
According to AMAN (military intelligence) information, he is a Hamas
policeman who was involved in the drug-control department. In the
intelligence report that was submitted in his case, it was written
that despite this, he is counted with the force perpetrating acts of
terror against Israel and it was emphasized that he represents a grave
risk if released. Likewise, the terrorist was not arrested at the
beginning of the war but in March. In contradiction to what was
claimed, he was not a (military) Company Commander in Jabalia the
source of the mistake is in the interpretation of the initials that
is, not [military] M.P. [in Hebrew, military terminology stands for
Mefaked Pluga, or Company Commander], but rather M.P., which stands
for Mahane Plitim refugee camp [in Hebrew] Jabalia.
So, lets pause here to just reflect upon what was said this is a
civil servant, a policeman. But anyone remotely connected to Hamas is
considered a terrorist, because Hamas is considered a terrorist
organization. Actually, it doesnt really matter for Israel, because
like President Isaac Herzog said in October, there are simply no
uninvolved civilians in Gaza; they are all involved with Hamas.
But why is Channel 12 really going into all of this if it doesnt make
a difference?
Channel 12 is a centrist channel and is the biggest news provider. By
taking us through these details, it is distancing itself from the
perpetrators and their defenders, who are mostly from the far right.
The channel also aired interviews and unhinged statements of the gang
rape suspects attorneys. One of the attorneys, Nati Rom, claims that
the Israeli soldiers were acting in self-defense, as if it wasnt a
premeditated gang rape case at all:
He [the Palestinian detainee] tries to bite two soldiers, he tries to
scratch another soldier, and when a taser is used on him he also
resists, and attacks and scratches this soldier, and thats why they
are forced to use force in order to restrain him.
Another attorney, Adi Kedar, complains that
the military attorney office and military investigation unit are
recruited fully, in a targeted and intentional way with all their
forces We are in a war to invest all these resources for the sake
of the rights of the terrorist against these ten heroes who really
acted above and beyond, and against whom the suspicion is very very
vague, its very disappointing, both at the legal level, as well as
the personal level, and I hope this arrest will soon end.
Channel 12 gave the lawyers airtime for their egregious statements
without comment supposedly a neutral stance. As Tali Shapiro
commented on social media: According to Israeli media, whats
important in the rape case involving military personnel is not so much
the rape but rather how much of a Nukhba the victim is.
Then, on Wednesday, Channel 14, the far-right channel which aired
several snuff videos of these torture facilities earlier this year,
featured a 10-minute interview with one of the rape suspects on its
program, The Patriots. He is sitting there in an army uniform and a
gun across his shoulder, with a black mask. The host begins by stating
that the masked suspect is charged under the case with the Nukhba
terrorist, cursed be his name. The suspect is complaining about what
he sees as a witch-hunt and congratulates the right wing for rising up
to protest it. He receives countless ovations. Asked about the
security camera footage and the soldiers holding up the shields like
that, he says this is just standard procedure. He chided Channel 12
and their journalist, Guy Peleg, for slandering the soldiers in the
other mentioned report.
This is an unbelievable sight to behold here is a partially
subtitled version in Middle East Eye. And imagine, this guy is calling
for law and order. While hailing the right-wing protests of the
arrest, he nonetheless urges them not to break into camps, because
it hurts our good name.
Another shocking development came the same day, during a Channel 12
morning news discussion.
The Channel 12 journalist and panelist Yehuda Shlezinger commented on
the gang rape case:
It interests my anus what they did to this Hamas person From my
perspective, the problem here is that it is not a regulated policy
from the state to abuse prisoners. First of all they deserve it.
Maybe it will serve as deterrence.. Its a worthy revenge, its just a
pity that its not done in an institutional manner.
Later, Ynet published an article with a title suggesting that
Shlezinger apologized. Here is his apology:
It was a mistake to say those things in a live broadcast. I was
wrong. We need to get into them (sic), in the strongest possible
manner, like I saw the heroic soldiers do it in Khan Younis, Jabalia,
and Rafah The terrorists need to be executed according to law. To
let the state deal with them, to remember and to remind what Amalek
did to you.
So, Shlezinger is now once again referring to the biblical Amalek
story, suggesting total genocide down to babies and animals. This is
his apology. By the way, the systematic abuse of prisoners is
already established state policy but not necessarily gang rape.
Channel 12 tried to distance itself from Shlezingers views expressed
on air. The production regretted the discussion and noted that it
was said to Shlezinger that those things should not have been said.
The host, Niv Raskin, said that he distances himself from those
sayings, and that it would have been right to do so in the broadcast
itself (which he didnt do the challenge to Shlezinger came from
Haaretz journalist Josh Breiner). Raskin notes that Shlezinger
expressed remorse over the sayings and issued an apology. But the
apology, as we see, invokes genocide and is merely a regret of
having advocated for rape on air.
The broadcaster Keshet unequivocally condemned the statements that
were said today on live broadcast, asking the production not to
invite Shlezinger to the morning program in the near future.
A day later, on Thursday, Middle East Eye released another testimony
of a male Palestinian prisoner who was subject to rape, reporting on
the systematic sexual abuse, but this time with an additional angle
female teenage soldiers raping men. It must be noted that the whole
phenomenon of men testifying openly, with their name and on video, is
something that had not existed pre-October 7. The shame related to
such occurrences meant that, on the rare occasion where it was
reported, it would be anonymous. But now we have seen a series of such
testimonies, which demonstrates not only the systematic nature of the
abuse but also the fact that these men are now willing to put their
privacy and personal dignity aside to help change the reality for
their brethren still undergoing the abuse on a daily basis.
Ibrahim Salem, who was released last week after nearly eight months of
detention, told Middle East Eye of his torture and interrogation at
Sde Teiman (trigger warning):
I noticed that [the soldier] was glueing something on me. Then I
started shaking. He was electrocuting me. He electrocuted me in
sensitive spots and hit me in these spots.
The report continues:
Though it was rampant, inmates rarely spoke about it to each other,
he said. It was embarrassing for many to admit, especially when they
were raped by female soldiers, who were sometimes in their teens. It
was common practice for soldiers to strip detainees naked, insert
objects into their rectum and grab their genitals aggressively when
they changed. When word got around that a prisoner in his 40s was
raped, Salem kept getting close to him until he told him what happened
to him.
He told me he was raped by a female soldier, Salem told MEE. When he
asked him how it happened, the prisoner explained it would take place
in the presence of another soldier in the room. The prisoner would be
bent over a desk with his hands placed in front of him, handcuffed.
The female soldier, standing behind him, would insert her fingers and
other objects into his rectum.
Salem said he was also touched in his private parts by a female
soldier and had objects inserted in his rectum at some point.
Last week began with the Israeli human rights NGO Btselem releasing a
new report on Monday titled Welcome to Hell The Israeli Prison
System as a Network of Torture Camps, which makes the point that Sde
Teiman is only the tip of the iceberg. So everything above is not
exceptional. Its the product of a system.
And this is partly why this one story of gang rape is making the
headlines in Israel, although for various and opposing reasons. The
right wing wants the story to be justified and to go away so that
soldiers can continue abusing Palestinian detainees with impunity. The
center and left mostly want it prosecuted so that it can be chalked up
to a few bad apples. This was the case with the murder case of Elor
Azarya in 2016 where the medic-soldier shot an already incapacitated
Palestinian suspect in the head at point-blank range. Azarya was also
caught on video. Although what he did happened tons of times,
according to his comrades, he was to serve as the bad apple, which
in turn would prove the innocence of the system. Azaryas trial was a
sham, and he eventually returned home to a heros welcome after a
nine-month prison term. This is roughly what we should expect here.
The Israeli center needs to differentiate between the murdering
Zionist, the gang-raping Zionist, and the liberal Zionist.
But the rot is way too overwhelming. It wont help to close down Sde
Teiman. This story is about the systemic usage of sexual violence as a
weapon of genocide. And Sde Teiman is just a reflection of Israeli
society, a cog in a network of torture that reflects and replicates an
overall rape culture.
https://mondoweiss.net/2024/08/israeli-medias-coverage-of-the-rape-of-palestinian-detainees-shows-support-for-sexual-violence-in-service-of-genocide/
gang-raping a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman torture facility
keeps reaching new lows. The reaction from Israelis, not just on the
right, but also in the Israeli mainstream, has revealed a lust for
sadistic revenge and an obsession with Hamas that is used to justify
releasing all hell on Palestinians, including sexual abuse.
In fact, the media coverage of events last week paints a grim and
revealing picture of Israeli society.
It began when the mainstream Israeli Channel 12 broadcasted a report
concerning the gang rape case. The report features a segment from the
security camera that caught the rape taking place with three of the
soldiers holding their shields up so as to obscure the crime from the
camera. They knew exactly what they were doing.
Also read: Netanyahus willing executioners: how ordinary Israelis
became mass murderers.
But beyond the harrowing aspect of the act itself is the nature of
Channel 12s report. A full fourth of the four-minute report dedicates
itself to the scrutiny of whether the detainee was a Nukhba Hamas
member an elite fighter who participated in the October 7 attack.
Such a focus reflects an obsession. It suggests that some people
deserve to get gang-raped and have objects inserted into their anus,
some less so.
Let us see what Channel 12 says on this issue:
The terrorist that appears in the documentation did not participate
in the massacre of October 7 and was not among the Nukhba forces.
According to AMAN (military intelligence) information, he is a Hamas
policeman who was involved in the drug-control department. In the
intelligence report that was submitted in his case, it was written
that despite this, he is counted with the force perpetrating acts of
terror against Israel and it was emphasized that he represents a grave
risk if released. Likewise, the terrorist was not arrested at the
beginning of the war but in March. In contradiction to what was
claimed, he was not a (military) Company Commander in Jabalia the
source of the mistake is in the interpretation of the initials that
is, not [military] M.P. [in Hebrew, military terminology stands for
Mefaked Pluga, or Company Commander], but rather M.P., which stands
for Mahane Plitim refugee camp [in Hebrew] Jabalia.
So, lets pause here to just reflect upon what was said this is a
civil servant, a policeman. But anyone remotely connected to Hamas is
considered a terrorist, because Hamas is considered a terrorist
organization. Actually, it doesnt really matter for Israel, because
like President Isaac Herzog said in October, there are simply no
uninvolved civilians in Gaza; they are all involved with Hamas.
But why is Channel 12 really going into all of this if it doesnt make
a difference?
Channel 12 is a centrist channel and is the biggest news provider. By
taking us through these details, it is distancing itself from the
perpetrators and their defenders, who are mostly from the far right.
The channel also aired interviews and unhinged statements of the gang
rape suspects attorneys. One of the attorneys, Nati Rom, claims that
the Israeli soldiers were acting in self-defense, as if it wasnt a
premeditated gang rape case at all:
He [the Palestinian detainee] tries to bite two soldiers, he tries to
scratch another soldier, and when a taser is used on him he also
resists, and attacks and scratches this soldier, and thats why they
are forced to use force in order to restrain him.
Another attorney, Adi Kedar, complains that
the military attorney office and military investigation unit are
recruited fully, in a targeted and intentional way with all their
forces We are in a war to invest all these resources for the sake
of the rights of the terrorist against these ten heroes who really
acted above and beyond, and against whom the suspicion is very very
vague, its very disappointing, both at the legal level, as well as
the personal level, and I hope this arrest will soon end.
Channel 12 gave the lawyers airtime for their egregious statements
without comment supposedly a neutral stance. As Tali Shapiro
commented on social media: According to Israeli media, whats
important in the rape case involving military personnel is not so much
the rape but rather how much of a Nukhba the victim is.
Then, on Wednesday, Channel 14, the far-right channel which aired
several snuff videos of these torture facilities earlier this year,
featured a 10-minute interview with one of the rape suspects on its
program, The Patriots. He is sitting there in an army uniform and a
gun across his shoulder, with a black mask. The host begins by stating
that the masked suspect is charged under the case with the Nukhba
terrorist, cursed be his name. The suspect is complaining about what
he sees as a witch-hunt and congratulates the right wing for rising up
to protest it. He receives countless ovations. Asked about the
security camera footage and the soldiers holding up the shields like
that, he says this is just standard procedure. He chided Channel 12
and their journalist, Guy Peleg, for slandering the soldiers in the
other mentioned report.
This is an unbelievable sight to behold here is a partially
subtitled version in Middle East Eye. And imagine, this guy is calling
for law and order. While hailing the right-wing protests of the
arrest, he nonetheless urges them not to break into camps, because
it hurts our good name.
Another shocking development came the same day, during a Channel 12
morning news discussion.
The Channel 12 journalist and panelist Yehuda Shlezinger commented on
the gang rape case:
It interests my anus what they did to this Hamas person From my
perspective, the problem here is that it is not a regulated policy
from the state to abuse prisoners. First of all they deserve it.
Maybe it will serve as deterrence.. Its a worthy revenge, its just a
pity that its not done in an institutional manner.
Later, Ynet published an article with a title suggesting that
Shlezinger apologized. Here is his apology:
It was a mistake to say those things in a live broadcast. I was
wrong. We need to get into them (sic), in the strongest possible
manner, like I saw the heroic soldiers do it in Khan Younis, Jabalia,
and Rafah The terrorists need to be executed according to law. To
let the state deal with them, to remember and to remind what Amalek
did to you.
So, Shlezinger is now once again referring to the biblical Amalek
story, suggesting total genocide down to babies and animals. This is
his apology. By the way, the systematic abuse of prisoners is
already established state policy but not necessarily gang rape.
Channel 12 tried to distance itself from Shlezingers views expressed
on air. The production regretted the discussion and noted that it
was said to Shlezinger that those things should not have been said.
The host, Niv Raskin, said that he distances himself from those
sayings, and that it would have been right to do so in the broadcast
itself (which he didnt do the challenge to Shlezinger came from
Haaretz journalist Josh Breiner). Raskin notes that Shlezinger
expressed remorse over the sayings and issued an apology. But the
apology, as we see, invokes genocide and is merely a regret of
having advocated for rape on air.
The broadcaster Keshet unequivocally condemned the statements that
were said today on live broadcast, asking the production not to
invite Shlezinger to the morning program in the near future.
A day later, on Thursday, Middle East Eye released another testimony
of a male Palestinian prisoner who was subject to rape, reporting on
the systematic sexual abuse, but this time with an additional angle
female teenage soldiers raping men. It must be noted that the whole
phenomenon of men testifying openly, with their name and on video, is
something that had not existed pre-October 7. The shame related to
such occurrences meant that, on the rare occasion where it was
reported, it would be anonymous. But now we have seen a series of such
testimonies, which demonstrates not only the systematic nature of the
abuse but also the fact that these men are now willing to put their
privacy and personal dignity aside to help change the reality for
their brethren still undergoing the abuse on a daily basis.
Ibrahim Salem, who was released last week after nearly eight months of
detention, told Middle East Eye of his torture and interrogation at
Sde Teiman (trigger warning):
I noticed that [the soldier] was glueing something on me. Then I
started shaking. He was electrocuting me. He electrocuted me in
sensitive spots and hit me in these spots.
The report continues:
Though it was rampant, inmates rarely spoke about it to each other,
he said. It was embarrassing for many to admit, especially when they
were raped by female soldiers, who were sometimes in their teens. It
was common practice for soldiers to strip detainees naked, insert
objects into their rectum and grab their genitals aggressively when
they changed. When word got around that a prisoner in his 40s was
raped, Salem kept getting close to him until he told him what happened
to him.
He told me he was raped by a female soldier, Salem told MEE. When he
asked him how it happened, the prisoner explained it would take place
in the presence of another soldier in the room. The prisoner would be
bent over a desk with his hands placed in front of him, handcuffed.
The female soldier, standing behind him, would insert her fingers and
other objects into his rectum.
Salem said he was also touched in his private parts by a female
soldier and had objects inserted in his rectum at some point.
Last week began with the Israeli human rights NGO Btselem releasing a
new report on Monday titled Welcome to Hell The Israeli Prison
System as a Network of Torture Camps, which makes the point that Sde
Teiman is only the tip of the iceberg. So everything above is not
exceptional. Its the product of a system.
And this is partly why this one story of gang rape is making the
headlines in Israel, although for various and opposing reasons. The
right wing wants the story to be justified and to go away so that
soldiers can continue abusing Palestinian detainees with impunity. The
center and left mostly want it prosecuted so that it can be chalked up
to a few bad apples. This was the case with the murder case of Elor
Azarya in 2016 where the medic-soldier shot an already incapacitated
Palestinian suspect in the head at point-blank range. Azarya was also
caught on video. Although what he did happened tons of times,
according to his comrades, he was to serve as the bad apple, which
in turn would prove the innocence of the system. Azaryas trial was a
sham, and he eventually returned home to a heros welcome after a
nine-month prison term. This is roughly what we should expect here.
The Israeli center needs to differentiate between the murdering
Zionist, the gang-raping Zionist, and the liberal Zionist.
But the rot is way too overwhelming. It wont help to close down Sde
Teiman. This story is about the systemic usage of sexual violence as a
weapon of genocide. And Sde Teiman is just a reflection of Israeli
society, a cog in a network of torture that reflects and replicates an
overall rape culture.
https://mondoweiss.net/2024/08/israeli-medias-coverage-of-the-rape-of-palestinian-detainees-shows-support-for-sexual-violence-in-service-of-genocide/