Juan Cole
Informed Comment / July 30, 2024
Ann Arbor – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that on Monday, military police raided the Sde Teiman detention center where Palestinian prisoners are being held, detaining 9 Israel soldiers suspected of gang raping and severely sexually torturing detainees. One further suspect was not apprehended. The soldiers belong to the Force 100 unit, which has been detailed to Sde Teiman as prison guards.
It is being reported that they were taken into custody because of the recent transfer of a Palestinian prisoner to the Soroka Medical Facility in Beersheba with severe injuries to his nether regions.
Soldiers at Sde Teiman put up resistance to the military police, with a fight breaking out, though the MPs clearly won that one.
Rejecting these charges against the soldiers, a right wing mob that included members of the Parliament from the Likud and the Religious Zionist and Jewish Power blocs, then attempted several times to storm through the gates of the facility and finally succeeded in breaching the military barricades, attacking MPs and reaching the area where Palestinians are held. One soldier said that no one seemed to be in control. The unruly crowd chanted its support for torture and even called for the summary execution of the Palestinian prisoners.
Journalist Haggai Matar observed, “In essence, soldiers are in open rebellion for the right to rape prisoners, and more and more coalition politicians are joining them – from Likud, Jewish Power, and more.”
The mob, including the parliamentarians, then attempted but failed to storm the Beit Lid base, where the nine detainees were being held for interrogation.
An Israeli military spokesman said, “Following suspicions of serious abuse of a detainee held at the Sde Teiman detention facility, the Military Police opened an investigation at the behest of the Military Prosecutor’s Office.” Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi is Israel’s military advocate general, who ordered the detentions. The Israeli military said after the right wing mob’s assault that the soldiers had not been arrested, only detained for questioning.
The turmoil and governmental and army infighting caused the Israeli government to announce a postponement of the expected attack on Lebanon in reprisal for an alleged Hezbollah drone on the occupied Syrian Golan Heights that left several Druze children dead.
Israeli army radio said that the Palestinian prisoner who was tortured had been arrested in the Gaza Strip several weeks before and had been identified as an “unlawful combatant” and was being held at Sde Teiman under a permanent detention order. The radio station said that this prisoner was observed in serious condition, unable to walk, and was transferred to the hospital, where he underwent surgery. Since that time, the military police had begun gathering evidence and initiating an investigation.
The ten accused soldiers were prison guards at Sde Teiman. They were detained on suspicion of gang rape. One appears to be AWOL and has not yet been detained.
Israeli analyst Shaiel Ben-Ephraim wrote on “X,” “Israeli sources are now confirming the horrific CNN and New York Times reports of the conditions in Sde Taiman. They include electric shocks, amputations due to bad conditions, severe beatings, surgery without anesthesia, playing loud music until inmates’ ears bleed, deaths due to bad sanitary conditions, systematic torture and sexual abuse. Sources in the Israeli justice department are saying the evidence is so clear and the cases so severe, it will be an open and shut case for international courts. This is a horror that will never be forgotten. A permanent stain on the state of Israel.”
Professor Rula Jebreal relayed Israeli television footage of the Israeli parliament or Knesset debating the day’s events, where a member from the Likud Party of Benjamin Netanyahu was asked if it was all right to stuff a stick up a man’s rectum, and he replied that yes, if the man is a terrorist. So there is a pro-rape faction in the Israeli parliament.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyanu didn’t say anything for three hours after his extremist allies tried to storm the base, then called for calm. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant issued a communique in support of the troops and rejecting the assault on the military base.
The International Criminal Court has requested warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant over war crimes in Gaza, and some observers believe that they authorized Monday’s detention of the accused soldiers only because otherwise the ongoing abuse at that base might increase the likelihood of their being indicted.
The minister of national security, Jewish Power extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir attacked the MPs and military prosecutor. He said, “The sight of military policemen arriving to arrest our best heroes in Sde Teiman is nothing short of shameful. I advise the defense minister, the chief of staff and the army authorities to support the soldiers and take advantage of the prison service [which is under Ben-Gvir’s responsibility]. Summer camps for and tolerance of terrorists are over. Our soldiers must receive full support.”
Ben Gvir had earlier urged summary executions of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons.
Arab 48 writes, “Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara mentioned Ben-Gvir in a memorandum to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding a petition being considered by the Supreme Court regarding ‘the conditions of detention at the Sde Teiman facility.’ Baharav-Miara wrote that ‘if the Sde Teiman detention facility is not returned to its intended purpose immediately, this will have far-reaching consequences,’ adding that it has become clear that Ben-Gvir’s National Security Ministry is ‘effectively halting efforts to implement the necessary solutions.’
Since the beginning of the Israeli war on Gaza last October, Sde Teiman has served as a detention center for Palestinian prisoners, the paper says, “who are held in inhumane conditions, where they are kept handcuffed and legged and blindfolded at all times.” The prisoners are held until it is determined whether they will be given long jail sentences or released. Many men are scooped up in Gaza without the Israeli army having a firm knowledge of whether they just happened to be in the vicinity or were enemy combatants. All the Palestinians released from Sde Teiman appear to have been the victims of severe torture.
Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment; he is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan and the author of, among others, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
