Israelis Say It’s Okay to Rape Palestinian Prisoners

By Mike Whitney
July 30, 2024

The Israeli lawmaker from the ruling Likud party, Hanoch Milwidsky, said that “everything is legitimate” when asked whether it was justified to rape Palestinian prisoners. “To insert a stick in a person’s rectum, is that legitimate?” asked Ahmad Tibi, a Palestinian lawmaker…. “Yes! If he is a Nukhba everything is legitimate to do to him,” screamed Milwidsky back. Maktoob Media

Israel has crossed all lines of barbarism and savagery. This a new level of depravity. Abdi, Twitter

On Monday, Israeli extremists broke into an IDF military base in Beit Lid to protest the detention of nine Israeli reservists who allegedly tortured and sodomized a Palestinian prisoner in their custody. The chaotic disturbance within the building was captured on video and widely circulated on Twitter. (See here) The mob was enraged by the fact that military personnel could be held accountable for the brutal and inhuman treatment of Palestinian detainees. They believe that any punishment meted out to Palestinian prisoners –however cruel and barbaric– is both warranted and justifiable. As numerous people have noted on social media, the protestors were essentially defending the right of the reservists to rape Palestinian prisoners. That is the only conclusion one can draw from their behavior.

Here is the short video of the extraordinary exchange between MK Ahmad Tibi and Likud Member of the Knesset Hanoch Milwidsky who candidly states that pushing a stick up a prisoner’s rectum is acceptable treatment that should not prompt investigation, prosecution or punishment. (Video)

So, according to Milwidsky, Israeli reservists should not be required to comply with basic human rights laws that prohibit the inflicting of cruel and inhuman treatment on prisoners in their care. We wonder what Milwidsky’s reaction would be if Hamas adopted that same policy and applied it to the Israeli hostages it captured on October 7? Is he willing to accept that “Sauce for the goose, is sauce for the gander” or does he think there should be a special legal “carve-out” for those prisoners that Israel arbitrarily labels as “terrorists”, a term that is loosely applied to all two million native Palestinians presently living in Gaza? This is from a post at Antiwar.com:

On Monday, Israeli military police detained Israeli soldiers who were suspected of raping a Palestinian prisoner at the notorious Sde Teiman prison in southern Israel. Israeli media reported that the Palestinian prisoner was transferred from Sde Teiman to a hospital with an injury to his anus that was so severe he could not walk.

When the Israeli military police went to Sde Teiman to detain soldiers suspected of forcibly sodomizing the Palestinian man, they were met with resistance…. The arrest of the suspected rapists sparked protests from far-right Israeli activists. Members of the Israeli Knesset joined protesters as they stormed Sde Teiman…. Later in the day, protesters stormed Beit Lid, the base where the Israeli soldiers are being held.

Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir, leader of the Jewish Power party, praised the detained Israeli soldiers, calling them the “best heroes” and denouncing their arrest as “shameful.”…

Israeli whistleblowers have detailed widespread abuse and torture at the Sde Teiman prison, which holds Palestinians detained from Gaza. The New York Times reported last month that Palestinians who made it out of the facility said they were subject to sexual torture.

Younis al-Hamlawi, a senior nurse who was detained by Israeli forces in Gaza after he left Al-Shifa Hospital over allegations that he was tied to Hamas, told the Times that Israeli soldiers penetrated his rectum with a metal stick, causing him to bleed and leaving him in “unbearable pain.”

The Times report said a leaked report from the UN “cited a 41-year-old detainee who said that interrogators ‘made me sit on something like a hot metal stick and it felt like fire,’ and also said that another detainee ‘died after they put the electric stick up’ his anus. Israeli Police Detain Soldiers Suspected of Raping a Palestinian, Sparking Protests, antiwar.com

The reason this story is now appearing in headlines (instead of buried in the back pages of the newspaper), has nothing to do with Israel’s long-documented history of prisoner abuse. No, because this story isn’t really about prisoner abuse. It’s about the bitter struggle between Israeli Jews over the soul of their country. Regrettably, the fanatics and miscreants appear to be winning that battle. This is how the editors at Middle east Observer summed it up:

We knew that Israeli society was divided. But who would have thought they’d almost get into a civil war over the right to rape and torture Palestinians. Middle East Observer

Continue reading at www.unz.com

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