Palestinian Women 'Raped by Israeli Soldiers.' Silence From Western Media
Powerful new testimony reveals Western hypocrisy is alive and well – rape is only a crime and an outrage when it serves Western political interests. “We have also documented a case of gang rape… on a woman……She said she was filmed during the assault… [they] stripped her, kept beating her in her genitals … humiliated her for four hours. She said the cameras were recording the whole time.” The average Westerner who reads only mainstream media coverage of the Middle East might think this is what Hamas fighters did to Israeli women on Oct. 7. But actually, it's what Israeli troops are alleged to have done to Palestinian women.
Earlier this month, Kifeya Khraim from the Palestinian NGO the Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC) and another advocate for Palestinian women, who was not named, testified at a UN Commission of Inquiry on the Palestinian women facing “systematic sexual violence and intimidation by Israeli forces.” Khraim began her statement by recounting the story of a home invasion in the occupied West Bank in July 2023 when female Israeli soldiers with large dogs forced Palestinian women to undress and “made [them] walk around the house naked.”
Women are routinely sexually abused during home invasions by the Israeli military. They’re forced to disrobe – sometimes in front of their male relatives – and adopt humiliating poses for the soldiers to film them, Khraim said. During some West Bank home invasions, the other advocate testified, Israeli soldiers touched Palestinian women sexually and threatened them with rape, all while their male relatives were handcuffed.