Israeli rape of detainees is the result of a society that sees Palestinians as ‘human animals’
Israel has claimed that it is fighting “human animals” in Gaza. But now, Israeli society's own monstrous sadism, deriving from a deep hate of Palestinians, is on display for the rest of the world to see.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on August 21, 2023. (Photo: Amos Ben-Gershom / Government Press Office)
On August 3, Shaiel Ben-Ephraim shared an interview on social media with two Israeli security officials involved in the Sde Teiman torture facility, which has become a cause célèbre for right-wing protesters demanding the right of Israelis to gang rape Palestinian prisoners with impunity. Ben-Ephraim is an academic who left UCLA as a post-doctorate following allegations of sexual harassment. He describes himself as “Israel analyst. Fighting for liberal democracy. Fanatic Mets fan. Host of Israel Explained and History of the Land of Israel.”
Ben-Ephraim describes his two sources, saying that “the IDF source is quite high up. The other source is not but works there every day.” The “IDF source” says:
“The 100 unit has been assigned to guard the prisoners. Their job is supposed to be to intervene when there is disorder. They are rough people. So they are guarding the prisoners. You are letting animals guard animals without supervision and in nightmarish conditions.”
This is an interesting usage of the idea of “human animals,” a description first uttered during this genocide by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant on October 9, saying “we are fighting human animals and we act accordingly.”
The interviewed security personnel provide the emotional rationale for the sadistic torture enacted upon the Palestinians, it is a hate crime geared toward revenge. The “facility source” says:
“Everyone who served in Gaza is full of hatred. They have an urge to release the animal in them. Anyone who is put in a room with those who raped their girlfriends or killed their friends without supervision – will get whatever we got.”
So they believe their girlfriends got raped or killed by Hamas. This doesn’t need any evidence as such, and it doesn’t matter whether those people whom they are torturing are involved in any way:
“They all tell us they are innocent. So we don’t believe any of them. But yeah, some probably did nothing wrong.”
It is at this point worth remembering Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s claim from October 14 that there are simply no “uninvolved civilians” in Gaza.
The “facility source” knows this is bad and that it shouldn’t be done, but “things happen”:
“Things happen. Bad things. People have been beaten. People have been killed. I saw one person die. People have been sexually assaulted. Yes. Nothing compared to what they did. But we all know we shouldn’t be doing it.”
To date, at least 36 Palestinians have died under torture in this facility. But somehow, it doesn’t compare, it’s “nothing compared to what they did.” The murdered Palestinians are kept in refrigerators at the base. The “IDF source” says:
“Another thing nobody talks about is all the bodies in fridges near the holding pens. There is no place to store them. Just containers full of dead bodies of inmates.”
And there is simply no oversight: “There is not a single security officer on sight to oversee. So that even if there is a major event no one is responsible.”
The level of sadism enacted upon Palestinians really defies description. Palestinians are now coming forth with the most graphic details about their sexual torture, like this victim on video (trigger warning):
“I’ve been shocked by electricity through my anus. I’ve been shocked by electricity on my testicles! This is literally what happened to me – not just me but others who were shocked by electricity. You know why? Because we refused to speak dirty of [Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya] al-Sinwar. You can imagine what I’m saying… Just because I refused to spill out the dirty words, they said ok and then five of them gathered around me, five soldiers, they came to beat me up. One of them forced me to lie down on my back, he opened my thighs and smashed my private area – he literally smashed my testicles. He said: ‘I don’t want you to have kids anymore’.”
One must reflect upon the additional humiliation of speaking like this about one’s own person and body, openly. But these people have been subjected to such physical and emotional destruction, that they are now shouting out to the world to make it stop, not least for their brethren still undergoing this torture.
It is shocking, but is it shocking to the majority of Israelis?
The fact is Israelis have been consuming snuff videos of these torture facilities at least since the beginning of this year, where coverage of the systemic torture has appeared on several Israeli mainstream channels. Has there been outcry?
When there has been criticism of the soldiers actions, it was primarily couched in terms of how these actions reflect on Israel, not on the legality or morality of the abuse. In fact, Israeli leaders have even implicitly justified these heinous actions even while condemning them.
“There were days when [the military investigators] applauded us.”
In the end, any Israeli leaders who have come out in support of the investigations of those accused of raping Palestinian detainees have done so simply for public relations reasons, not for anything more.
Remember, Israel is currently facing multiple international legal cases, at ICJ for genocide, and at ICC for crimes against humanity (arrest warrants sought for Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Galant), and similar to those charges, the threat of the accusations of rape is seen primarily as an optics issue for Israel, not a legal one. Netanyahu just likens the ICC Chief Prosecutor to a Nazi judge and incites more biblical revenge. Now, the sadism of sexual torture is becoming so obvious it is starting to reflect on Israel’s image and thus, President Isaac Herzog issued a call for calm, to allow the gang rape investigations to occur without the brouhaha of mass protests at army bases against the proceedings. Being a liberal racist and genocide inciter, Herzog’s message qualified that “hate” towards “the damned Nukhba terrorists” was “surely understood and justified.” But we must consider that “our enemies” are “persecuting us”, also in the “international legal arena”:
“The morality of IDF and its soldiers has always been our pride, towards ourselves and towards the family of nations and international law. This morality stood and stands tested also against the most cruel of enemies, among them the damned Nukhba terrorists, the hate towards whom is surely understood and justified. We must not forget that our enemies attempt to persecute us again and again, also in the international legal arena – the commanders, the fighters and the public representatives. We must under no circumstances provide them with allegations against IDF and the state of Israel.”
In other words, Israel should be showing itself as managing the few bad apples in a serious way, so that the persecutors (who are also prosecutors) are countered with Israel having certain legal processes which should thus be sufficient to rebuff international legal intervention.
But it really is too late for that. Israel’s genocide is so massive, that prosecution of a few bad apples won’t change it. The Israeli narrative of hate and revenge is so encompassing, that it will have its outlets in one way or another, whether it is a soldier smashing testicles, or a soldier blowing up a whole building in Gaza as a photo-op.
To judge by the testimony of one of the rape suspects, the “interrogation” was a sham anyway. “You feel they [the interrogators from Military Police] want to thank you”, he said. “There were days when they applauded us.”
Human animals
There is now apparently nothing that Israelis can do which Israeli leaders wouldn’t try to justify. What they are fighting against has been defined authoritatively (as far as they are concerned) as inhuman, so there is no way to apply human rights here – human rights apply to humans, not to “human animals.”
The response to this is also beyond rationality – “hate” is now sanctioned by the highest authority as “understood and justified.” Everything is understood through this lens, and if Israeli soldiers end up acting like animals, it’s only a natural response to the real animals.
Israel’s late Defense Minister Moshe Dayan once said “Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother,” and this ‘mad dog’ and ‘master of the house gone mad’ doctrine has instructed Israel for many decades. Variations on this idea have been repeated by Israeli officials time and again. Former Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon, the initiator of the false flag terror attack on Cairo in 1954, advocated “going crazy” if ever Israel were crossed. During the 2006 war with Lebanon, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Palestinians need to understand that “the master of the house has gone mad,” while promising “James Bond-type operations, bim bam!”
After Israel’s 2008-9 Gaza onslaught, Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s Foreign Minister at the time, Tzipi Livni, stated that “our troops in the Gaza strip behaved like hooligans, which I demanded of them.” She also stated that Israel “is a country that when you fire on its citizens it responds by going wild — and this is a good thing.”
Israel has indeed gone wild, and is apparently trying to behave like a mad dog. But whatever happens, it’s “nothing compared to what they did.”
Every accusation is a confession. Israel has claimed that it is fighting “human animals.” But now, its own monstrous sadism, deriving from a deep hate of Palestinians (which didn’t first start on October 7), is on display for the rest of the world to see. The “self-defense” claim, which was reportedly used by the lawyers defending the gang rape suspects, is something that Israel has been using for everything it does to Palestinians. It just might be that the gang rape of a shackled prisoner will finally help some people understand that this racist justification is really just an excuse for something else far more sinister.
Jonathan Ofir is an Israeli musician, conductor and blogger / writer based in Denmark.
