Israel now has its own Abu Ghraib.
The investigations into the horrible state of affairs in Sde Taiman was instigated due to international pressure. Human rights organizations and the foreign media had amassed a large amount of incontrovertible evidence that detainees in the facility were being held in inhumane conditions and tortured by staff.
The conditions there are no accident. Internal security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has made it an intentional part of his policy to keep the detainees there under bad conditions for political and populist reasons. That encouraged the soldiers, who understandably despise the Hamas prisoners, to pull out all the stops.
With the danger of international investigations in the ICC and ICJ hanging over the Israeli leadership, they ordered the IDF to clean house. The deciding factor was the British decision to suspend some arms sales to Israel. British diplomats told their Israei counterparts that the conditions at Sde Taiman are one of the main reasons. So doctors alerted their superiors that a detainee had items inserted in his anus, it was decided to launch a proper investigation finally.
My source in the Justice Ministry tells me that this is an incredible can of worms. There are hundreds of suspected cases of abuse at Sde Taiman. This latest one is just the tip of the iceberg. Netanyahu and Gallant have been aware of the problem and displeased with it. However, they did not want too get on the bad side of Ben-Gvir so they let it slide, with terrible consequences.
What needs to happen now is clear. Sde Taiman must be closed. A new facility should be established with greater transparency and where Ben-Gvir has no jurisdiction. In addition, I hope they bring all the perpetrators to justice.
âNowâ has its own black torture site? Puh-lĂ©eme. Israel had been torturing Palestinian hostages for decades.
Seriously, go find a Palestinian internee.
Western media now cover it is all. Well, I just had a check on Andrew Prison Guardâs Atlantic and they still donât cover it there because reasons.
Sde Teiman is âAbu Ghraibâ in the sense that it is now becoming a political scandal in Israel.
The man who wrote that claims that his sources in the government had assured him that the allegations was false.
I feel stupid and ashamed. In May, an expose came out on CNN detailing the abuses in Sde Taiman. Then, the NYT released their own article on it. Both were backed up with Israeli sources, crossed with Palestinian ones.
I dismissed them because my government sources and Israeli media denied them. My whole life I was told that the international media was out to get Israel. That they were all antisemites.
But today, I realized how much I was lied to. By my country. By my friends. By my media. Today, many of the people I talked to who denied these allegations admitted they were true.
And the worst part? None of this is coming to light because the IDF and government have changed their hearts about it. Its coming out because the pressure from the UK, ICC and ICJ was getting too great to ignore. This would get Netanyahu, Gallant and the Chief of Staff in serious trouble. So they finally said the truth. That Israel is routinely torturing inmates. That sexual abuse is fairly common there. That people have been tortured to death.
Worst of all, many of the people in this facility were innocent. Rounded up by accident. But there was no real verification process before they were subjected to this hell on earth.
This canât go on.
Who in Israel doesnât know that they regularly torture Palestinians that they take up in indiscriminate sweeps?
Itâs like Abu Ghraib in that the US was surprised that this time the indiscriminate round up of brown people, their relentless torture, and being paraded in hoods and chains wasnât actually applauded internationally. Nothing about that scenario rang alarm bells about looking a touch off to the US establishment. Same here. This is absolutely business as usual. There isnât a white imperialist state for whom this isnât SOP.
âNot a single person was arrested.â Not surprising, considering this lawmakerâs statement:
âIf he is a Nuhkba, everything is legitimate to do.â
The Guardian:
Rockets fired from Lebanon kill one Israeli citizen amid retaliation fears
(onebox shows outdated headline)
AP:
Lice, scabies, rashes plague Palestinian children as skin disease runs rampant in Gazaâs tent camps
I hope the WHO or some other world body doesnât get declared a terrorist organization if/when they point out the ramifications of this. It might plague Gazaâs occupiers, after all.
Or, maybe some US politician will do more than talk about fixing this.
There are so many graphic and forthright examples of the ongoing horrors that we canât post them all.
People donât want to confront the reality, IMO. Just gotta keep our hearts and minds on point and do what we can.
She wrote a whole book on the topic, in fact⊠Itâs very good and people should read it:
