The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/opinion/israel-palestinians-sexual-violence.html?unlocked_article_code=1.hlA.Cl1s.faoqnQlOhzp0&smid=url-share


Male and female Palestinians describe brutal sexual abuse at the hands of Israel’s prison guards, soldiers, settlers and interrogators.

It’s a simple proposition: Whatever our views of the Middle East conflict, we should be able to unite in condemning rape.

Supporters of Israel made that point after the brutal sexual assaults against Israeli women during the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu and many U.S. senators, including Marco Rubio, condemned that sexual violence, and Netanyahu rightly called on “all civilized leaders” to “speak up.”

And yet in wrenching interviews, Palestinians have recounted to me a pattern of widespread Israeli sexual violence against men, women and even children — by soldiers, settlers, interrogators in the Shin Bet internal security agency and, above all, prison guards.

What does this standard operating procedure look like? Sami al-Sai, 46, a freelance journalist, says that as he was being taken to a prison cell after his detention in 2024, a group of guards threw him to the ground.

[malaise]

1. K & R

for visibility

[3_Limes]

2. What else does Israel need to do to prove to our government that it's time to withdraw our support?

How much longer can we pay them to do this?There has to be some limit. Somewhere.

[leftstreet]

3. DURec

[republianmushroom]

4. One mustn't be insensitivity to the Israelis.

[Johnny2X2X]

5. "systematic sexual violence" that is "widely practiced as part of an organized state policy."

End support now! Israel has to make peace with their neighbors and that can never happen with the power imbalance that currently exists because of the US funding of the IDF.

[RainCaster]

6. Agreed

Now is the time

[whathehell]

7. "Practiced as an organized state policy"

Sickening, not to mention a bona fide War Crime.

[Johnny2X2X]

8. IS there any doubt

Is there any doubt that we're soon going to be reading that exact statement about immigrant detention centers here in the US? There's already evidence of widespread sexual abuse at these concentration camps. One center segregated young and attractive detainees for special attention. Many reported rapes aren't being investigated.

[W_HAMILTON]

9. """We""" should be able to unite in condemning rape?

"""We""" have a rapist for president, for god's sake!

I did all I could to stop the rapist from being elected since I knew he would enable even greater atrocities from Israel, but alas, """we""" cannot all say the same.

[Duncan Grant]

10. A must read, imho -- behold right-wing ideations.

If you are still uninformed about contemporary events in Israel, this reporting is a good place to start. Then, take a good look at the IDF’s chilling atrocities.

“Rampant sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners is a thing; it’s been normalized,” said Sari Bashi, an Israeli American human rights lawyer who is the executive director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel. “I don’t see evidence that it has been ordered. But there’s persistent evidence that the authorities know it’s happening and are not stopping it.”

Another Israeli lawyer, Ben Marmarelli, told me that based on the experiences of the Palestinian detainees he has represented, rape of Palestinian prisoners with objects “is going on across the board.”

[maxrandb]

11. You cant talk about Israelis raping Palestinian men, women and children

that would make you an antisemite.