https://antiimperialistnews.substack.com/p/sde-teiman-footage-shows-the-extreme
Every accusation is a projection
Aug 08, 2024

https://x.com/SMohyeddin/status/1820966395829518767

After nearly a year of rape accusations from Israel to justify genocide in Gaza, we finally have video evidence of mass rapes, only those rapes were not carried out by Hamas, they were carried out… by the IDF.

Disturbing footage shows one prisoner at Sde Teiman concentration camp being sodomised by a guard as other guards hid behind riot shields. The prisoner’s injuries included a torn rectum, broken ribs, ruptured bowels, and damaged lungs. The footage corroborates claims by Unrwa, human rights groups, and journalists, of systemic rape and torture at Sde Teiman concentration camp.

One Israeli doctor, who examined the victims, told Haaretz: “I couldn’t believe an Israeli prison guard could do such a thing”. I appreciate the doctor speaking out, but I’m not sure why he was surprised because this is what Israel is like. It’s about a week since Israeli politicians argued in the Knesset that such behaviour is okay and Israeli citizens rioted to protect the right to rape Palestinians.

One of the accused IDF rapists is a known extremist who has previously been threatened with removal from the military and who has boasted that he was treated nicely by military police during his arrest and was thanked for his actions.

The wife of one of the accused rapists said of his victim: “This is a murderer, what do I care about his ass?” This sentiment is widely echoed by journalists and politicians in Israel.

Anti-imperial Nexus is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

The rape footage was shown on Channel 12 in Israel, and bearing in mind Israeli journalists have previously been threatened by Mossad, and Al-Jazeera was declared a terrorist organisation for truth telling, Channel 12 might be in trouble. However, the channel is far from perfect and has been happy to push pro-genocide propaganda, such as claims that Israel’s prisoners get VIP treatment. Whether Channel 12 now resorts to truth telling or reverts to propaganda is anyone’s guess.

There has been an outcry in Israel over the leaked video, but not in the way you might imagine of a civilised society. Israeli politicians have responded by condemning the release of the footage, rather than the rape it showed. Bezazel Smotrich even demanded a probe to find the leaker so they can be punished for doing the right thing.

Let’s not forget, Smotrich is the guy who said it would be justified to starve two million Palestinians to death, only the world won’t allow Israel to do this. Make no mistake, in the days before the internet, Israel would have been allowed to starve two million Palestinians to death. Mass starvation was how European colonisers operated, just ask the people of Ireland or Bengal.

Smotrich is often portrayed as a fringe lunatic in Israeli politics, but the truth is he is the country’s finance minister. He has described the accused rapists as “heroic warriors”, even though polygraph tests indicated they were lying when they protested their innocence.

An Israeli politician called Zvi Sukkot said: “Leaking and disclosure of investigative materials is a criminal offence that harms the proper legal process, the rule of law, public trust, and the principle of justice.” This totally sounds like a guy who has his priorities in order.

It’s not just Israeli politicians coming out with sane and rational takes, the Israeli journalists are every bit as normal. For example, Israel Today political reporter Yehuda Schlesinger said on TV: “I don't give a rat's ass what they do to Hamas… It's just a shame that we don't do it in an institutionalised way, as part of regulations for torture of prisoners, because then the next guys who think about doing another October 7th will say, ‘Do you see what they're doing to [us] in Israel?’“

I’m old enough to remember when Zionists were telling us “rape isn’t resistance”, now they’re telling us rape is a good deterrent actually.

I understand the soldiers who carried out the rape that was caught on video were among those who were recently arrested. However, they deny wrongdoing, presumably because they think it’s fine to rape Palestinians, because they can’t sensibly claim they didn’t do what we saw them do.

Unsurprisingly, the US has refused to condemn the IDF and is insisting Israel should be allowed to investigate mass rapes committed by its military, which is no different than saying Hamas should investigate the actions of the Al-Quassam Brigades. The US is continuing to fund a rapist military, and it’s not like they can pretend this is an aberration when all the evidence points to institutional rape.

An Israeli human rights group called Yin Desh has pointed out only 1% of accused IDF soldiers are ever prosecuted for their crimes. Another Israeli human rights group called B’Tselem reports that at least 60 prisoners have died at Sde Teiman since October. Yet, rather than apologise for its behaviour, the Israeli military apologised for arresting the soldiers, probably because the head of the military was receiving death threats.

The people who used rape as justification to commit genocide will do anything to protect their own right to rape. If we were to apply the logic of Israel’s propaganda, the IDF’s mass rapes would justify the following:

the destruction of every hospital, school and university in Israel

the destruction of 80% of homes in Israel

the slaughter of 10% of the Israeli population

the mass starvation of Israeli civilians

the complete destruction of the IDF

the assassination of all Israeli politicians

Am I calling for any of these things? Of course not, because I’m not a monster, but what the video of rape at Sde Teiman shows is that not only are Zionists hypocritical, not only was Israel’s reaction to October 7th ludicrously over the top, but Israel’s pro-genocide propaganda is absolutely fucking insane.