ICYMI: IOF Soldiers Have Been Openly Bragging About Their Sexualizing Of Palestinian Women – Muslim Girl
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On Friday, February 23, ‘Land Palestine,’ an activism account on social media dedicated to sharing information on the ongoing genocide in Palestine, posted a photo of an Israeli-French IOF soldier, Benjamin, who is seen posing with many undergarments of murdered Palestinian women nailed to the wall — a move the signifies how obsessed IOF soldiers are with sexualizing women in Palestine.
While this photograph has caused outrage and disgust across social media, this is not the first time Israel’s soldiers have taken such repulsive videos and photographs. On January 11, Younis Tirawi, a reporter on Palestinian affairs, shared a video on X where an IOF soldier called the discovery of Palestinian women’s lingerie the “most important.”
In another video from the Middle East Monitor, an IOF soldier from the Hermi Unit described the underwear of Palestinian women as “Hamas flags.” As the video continues, another soldier says, “I have pursued my enemies, overtaken them, and not returned until they were destroyed.”
However, since the genocide against the Palestinian people began, such stories are only among the several that have emerged, proving the repeated acts of sexual violence carried out against Palestinian women.
According to Al Jazeera, experts from the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner on February 19 “expressed alarm over credible allegations of egregious human rights violations to which Palestinian women and girls continue to be subjected in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.”
The experts shared gruesome details of the inhumane treatment female Palestinian detainees have experienced. They have been degraded, treated unjustly, denied menstrual and feminine hygiene products, food, and medicine, and have even been kept outside in cages without food or water in the cold and rain.
Palestinian women kept in detention have also been “subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault.” They have been stripped naked and searched by Israeli men, two Palestinian women have been raped, and others threatened with other forms of sexual violence.
While the majority of the sexual violence carried out against Palestinian women has been led by men, it’s important to keep in mind that male IOF soldiers are not the sole perpetrators. Female IOF soldiers are just as guilty.
In a study for Berghahn Journals, it is reported that Palestinian women testify to experiencing various forms of sexual abuse whilst they visit relatives in Israeli jails or when they attend court hearings of their relatives. During these times, those who inflict sexual abuse are either male or female prison guards and military court officials.
In the journal research, the author sheds light on the story of Aisha Awdat who testifies that she was raped by an Israeli investigator in March 1969.
Another story is that of Rasmea Odeh, who was also raped in 1969 while she was interrogated.
While the majority of the sexual violence carried out against Palestinian women has been led by men, it’s important to keep in mind that male IOF soldiers are not the sole perpetrators. Female IOF soldiers are just as guilty.
But the stories don’t stop there. In 2015, two female soldiers raped a Palestinian woman, and one of them was a doctor who performed a vaginal procedure on her. Yet on the other side, sexual violence does not stop at Palestinian women. For example, in the case of former Amal security chief Mustafa Dirani, he “filed a NIS 6 million suit in 2000 charging that interrogators had raped him, sodomized him, kept him naked for weeks and humiliated him” so they could extract information from him. When this story was reported by the Jerusalem Post in 2005, Dirani’s lawyer was not able to present his evidence in the Tel Aviv District Court, and “Israel [denied] Dirani was abused and said he made up the allegations of abuse to justify giving Israel information.”
In a 2003 testimony, a 38-year-old man recalls horrific details of a male being forced to commit sexual acts with a donkey by border policemen. The man says that he knew that story to be true because of the obscene noises that he had heard, and several people in his village shared the same story.
But what’s worse is that the rape of Palestinian women has had a long history — as long as when the occupation first started. In Reza Mazali’s short story “Income Tax, Ramallah,” when Palestinians were taxed before the first intifada, she said that a man went with his two daughters to have his debt removed. He begged and pleaded, but no one listened. He visited again, but this time with one daughter. Officers told him they were not seeing anyone but took his daughter behind a curtain. The father watched in horror as he realized what had happened when one soldier came out, buttoning up his pants.
The world’s reactions to these reports, compared to how it responds to unproven claims of violence by Hamas, show a clear bias in international relations and the media.
The response of the U.S. to the rape and sexual assault of Palestinian women and girls has been nothing short of disappointing. When false reports of Hamas raping and sexually assaulting Israelis emerged, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that the White House has “no reason at all to doubt these reports.”
However, according to Anadalou Anjasi, a state-run news agency in Turkey, when reports of the rape and assault of Palestinian women and girls emerged, Miller said that he’s “seen” the allegations but cannot “confirm” the reports.
When he was asked about the credibility of the Hamas reports, Miller explained that because Israeli medical experts have reported these violations, it is “something we would look at of course.” On the other side, Miller said that if credible experts come forward and testify to these rape allegations by IOF soldiers, they would consider those reports credible.
The shocking reports of sexual violence against Palestinian women and men by Israeli soldiers highlight serious violations of human rights in the conflict. The world’s reactions to these reports, compared to how it responds to unproven claims of violence by Hamas, show a clear bias in international relations and the media. It’s critical that the international community takes a clear stand, demanding thorough and fair investigations into these serious allegations, and ensuring that justice is served for the innocent victims.
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