The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has published a major new report documenting how the Israeli prison system has become “a network of torture camps,” where physical, psychological and sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners is normalized and routine.

The report, titled “Welcome to Hell,” collects the testimony of 55 Palestinians who were detained by Israeli authorities since October 7 and later released, almost all without charges. This comes as a group of U.N. experts condemned the widespread torture of Palestinians and as Israel’s Channel 12 News aired shocking footage of Israeli soldiers sexually abusing a prisoner at the Sde Teiman army base, where thousands of detainees from Gaza are held.

Sarit Michaeli, the international advocacy lead for B’Tselem, says the abuse in Israeli prisons is “systemic, ongoing and state-sanctioned,” reflecting the cruelty and thirst for revenge among a growing number of Israelis. “They would like to have a completely open field in terms of what they can do to Palestinians,” says Michaeli.

You can find the full report of testimonies here

    • InfiniteGlitch@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 month ago

      I find it more bizarre that most of the world leaders are turning a blind eye to it all and keep the bullshit up with “right to defend themselves”.

      Nothing of this has anything to do with defending.

      • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.net
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        Since october 7th, the US has sent Israel 39 F-35s, the most advanced aircraft in the world. This brings Israels count of F-35s (again, the most advanced aircraft in the world) to 50. Meanwhile, Ukraine has been begging us for F-16s, an outdated aircraft that the US Military has relegated to National Guard service and plans to retire in 2025. The Netherlands and Denmark have been who has donated all of the F-16s Ukraine is receiving.

        I want to point out, literal days after Ukraine received the F-16s, they launched a counter invasion and captured Kursk. This is something that could have been much more impactful back when Ukraine started asking for the F-16s (which I want to make sure everyone remembers is a fighter platform from the 1970s that we are retiring in a few months). I don’t even know… What I want people to do with this information. I just want people to sit with it and draw their own conclusions about America’s priorities, and what it means to ask for and receive aid from the US.

        • homura1650@lemm.ee
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          1 month ago

          Also, the US has been regularlu conditioning its weapons supplies to Ukraine on them not being used in Russia proper; while calls to put any conditions on Israel’s usage of them have been a complete non-starter.

          • Pips@lemmy.sdf.org
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            1 month ago

            The pretty obvious difference here is Russia has nukes and we have no idea what will set Putin off into using them. Palestine does not.

        • Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 month ago

          If your country doesn’t have shitloads of money and/or oil, the United States doesn’t give a shit. They only help when they have something to gain.

        • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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          1 month ago

          20$ they don’t want f-35s sparring with Russia unless the US is the one doing it

          It’s fucked up none the less

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          If we don’t get Israel under control we’re going to have to bomb those F-35s to keep them from going to the Russians. It’s insane to me that we even sold them to a conflict country. Especially one we’re constantly worried is going to start a war with Iran. We sold stealth bombers to the country that constantly threatens to bomb Iran and draw us all into world war 3.

          Will somebody please put the adults in control of our weapons sales?

        • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          I want to point out, literal days after Ukraine received the F-16s, they launched a counter invasion and captured Kursk.

          Woah, woah, stop right here. They’ve captured a few villages in the direction of Kursk. They didn’t capture Kursk. I dunno if you are getting the scale of your claims here, but look at the map first

          • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.net
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            1 month ago

            Okay fair. I’m not familiar with the regional geography. The point is still they got the jets, launched an offensive, and have been stunningly successful

            • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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              Yes, that I agree with, but it seems that jets are not what enabled this offensive. Rather an attempt at less braindead tactics that the Soviet idiocy both sides have been doing previously.

              First they (and Russians) have learned modern tactics in mostly positional warfare, but still doing dumb shit in offensives. This is the logical next step.

      • normalexit@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy nut, but I am very disturbed at AIPAC and similar organizations spending millions in local primaries to unseat candidates that are vocally pro Palestine. Cori Bush and others in the “squad” dare to speak against them and are actively being replaced by big money.

  • Bell@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Do you want to make terrorists? Because this is how you make desperate people feel like their only option is to become terrorists.

      • Amanda@aggregatet.org
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        1 month ago

        I’m pretty sure he does, yeah. He needs a bloody conflict to go on to remain in power (and possibly out of prison). Scared people are easier to rule, and terrorism is scary.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Netanyahu saw the Bush admin create the Iraqi insurgency and said, “hold my beer”.

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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      This is what Westerners love to say, but from the Israeli (or, say, Azeri and Turkish) viewpoint they’ve already outraged all the potential “terrorists” long ago and there’s nobody else who can oppose them but doesn’t do that yet. That is, they feel impunity. And they are right if a Westerner reading this says something like

      Do you want to make terrorists? Because this is how you make desperate people feel like their only option is to become terrorists.

      , not even bothering to send something poisonous in an envelope to an Israeli embassy, even such a little action.

    • Keeponstalin@lemmy.worldOP
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      Absolutely, they are long overdue for basic human rights and civil rights.

      Thanks for the link to the full report, I just added it to the description to help promote awareness

    • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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      Yes, this is the quite likely position of the Israeli government. After all, they are looking for the person who published the video of the crime - not as a witness against the criminals, but because that person exposed them.

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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        And that’s another layer of fucked up to calling all critics antisemitic. It can normalise actual antisemitism when it bubbles up.

    • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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      It’s interesting how in an attempt to rebuke claims that being against Israel is antisemitic, we have now escalated to mocking the idea of Antisemitism as a whole every time there’s disturbing news about Israel…

      I am not a fan of this trend. Antisemitism still exists, and nowhere am I finding any indication that anyone is earnestly making the argument that Israel has the right to rape prisoners.

      So what is the point of this comment, other than to preemptively normalize antisemitism as an acceptable response to Israeli human rights abuses?

      EDIT: You’ll downvote this, but you’ll upvote the “guess I’m antisemitic” comment, don’t act like you don’t see the creeping normalization. No fucking different than right-wingers “I guess x is racist, so I’m a racist now” narratives. I know you think you’re joking, but when people tell me who they are, it’s still prescient to believe them.

      • lady_maria@lemmy.world
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        Mocking the kinds of abhorrent claims of “antisemitism” that Israel makes is not even remotely the same as mocking the idea of actual, real life antisemitism.

      • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        we have now escalated to mocking the idea of Antisemitism as a whole every time there’s disturbing news about Israel

        That’s not what’s being done and you know it

      • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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        we have now escalated to mocking the idea of Antisemitism as a whole

        That is the reality if the Israeli government keeps pretending that all their human rights violations are in the name of Jews everywhere. You can’t hold on to being the victim if you are the one abusing now.

      • febra@lemmy.world
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        Being against Israel isn’t antisemitic. Zionism is a nationalist movement. Nationalism sucks. You’re welcome.

      • theparadox@lemmy.world
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        nowhere am I finding any indication that anyone is earnestly making the argument that Israel has the right to rape prisoners.

        It literally happened a little over a week ago.

        https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-hamas-war-idf-palestinian-prisoner-alleged-rape-sde-teinman-abuse-protest/

        Paragraphs 5-7. I recall there being a video of the moment but I don’t know if it is included in the linked article.

        A member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, speaking Monday at a meeting of lawmakers, justified the rape and abuse of Palestinian prisoners, shouting angrily at colleagues questioning the alleged behavior that anything was legitimate to do to “terrorists” in custody.

        Lawmaker Hanoch Milwidsky was asked as he defended the alleged abuse whether it was legitimate, “to insert a stick into a person’s rectum?”

        “Yes!” he shouted in reply to his fellow parliamentarian. “If he is a Nukhba [Hamas militant], everything is legitimate to do! Everything!”

        nowhere am I finding any indication that anyone is earnestly making the argument that Israel has the right to rape prisoners.

        An Israeli lawmaker was asked if anal rape with a stick was legitimate and the Israeli lawmaker replied “Yes” and clarified that “Everything is legitimate to do” so long as the recipient is Hamas. Is he in the majority? No, but someone is earnestly making the argument.

        Here’s the thing. The fact that I’m making the effort to demonstrate this utterly fucked up reality is, I guarantee, going to convince someone here that I’m antisemitic. I don’t think it will matter to them that I have family that is Jewish or that I’m 50% Ashkenazi by blood.

        The fact that this is happening, and that any Israeli lawmaker would defend it, literally makes Jews worldwide less safe. It gives real, actual antisemitism more perceived legitimacy.

        Edit: Video Link. Couldn’t find anything outside twitter/insta/tiktok, none of which I ever visit directly. Kind if telling that American news outlets don’t have it posted anywhere I could easily find but whatever. While I’ve had folks attest to the accuracy of the translation, I don’t speak Hebrew so feel free to continue to pretend it isn’t happening.

        https://x.com/ireallyhateyou/status/1817904053462196523

  • febra@lemmy.world
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    Meanwhile their politicians are freeing these rapists, and discussing in the Knesset (basically their parliament) if rape is an appropriate punishment. Their TV channels are discussing the same thing publicly, and bringing IDF soldiers on the shows to defend raping prisoners. I don’t understand how a society can become so disgustingly genocidal. Nazi shit.

    • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
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      They will of course find it not to be rape as according to Israeli law, only a citizen is capable of being raped. Captured Palestinians are not citizens.

      And it is ridiculous how many people on social media somehow think this makes everything okay.

  • NutWrench@lemmy.world
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    It probably happened. If you’ve shown the whole world that you bomb refugee camps and international food relief convoys, then you don’t get “the benefit of the doubt” anymore.

  • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    It’s time to hold Netanyahu accountable for his atrocities. If the U.S. refuses to participate in ICC proceedings, we should at least discontinue our abusive, manipulative, toxic relationahip with Israel.

    Israel has a rich legacy of treating their neighbors like absolute shit while using the U.S. as their personal weapon. They should defend themselves from the neighbors they have mistreated for the last several decades. It’s time for them to grow up and be responsible for their own actions.

  • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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    I’m glad it’s being documented, but we all pretty much expected this, right? These are the same guys that use injured Palestinians as hood ornaments in public. They get in trouble for that then, but in private, who knows what you can get away with?