The man in the famous photo, Ibrahim Salem, spent eight months in Israeli detention, where rape, electrocution and beatings were routine
Via If Americans Knew: By Mohammed al-Hajjar in Deir al-Balah, occupied Palestine and Nader Durgham in Beirut, reposted from Middle East Eye, August 8, 2024
Editor’s note: This article contains distressing details
Blindfolded, arms behind his head and standing by the barbed wire fence of the Israel regime Sde Teiman detention camp.
It was one of the first photos leaked from the notorious army base, where thousands of Palestinian prisoners were held without charge and routinely tortured.
The man in the picture, Ibrahim Salem, was released last week after nearly eight months of detention.
He told Middle East Eye that the photo, first published by CNN, was just the tip of the iceberg of his horrific experience in detention, which included rape, electrocution and frequent beatings.
“Most of the prisoners will come out with rectum injuries [caused by the sexual assault],” Salem, 36, told Middle East Eye.
The prisoners will tell each other it is hemorrhoids, he added, but most are just avoiding admitting they had been raped, sometimes by female soldiers.
In the following eyewitness account, Salem recalls his ordeal, starting from his arrest at a hospital in Gaza until his release.
The abduction
Salem was in the intensive care unit in northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital when Israeli forces raided the facility in December 2023.
He stayed beside his children, who were severely wounded in an Israeli strike on their home.
His siblings, along with several of their children, were killed in the attack.
“When the army came in, they asked for all the men to go down to the square,” Salem said.
But the doctor handed him his children’s reports and instructed him to stay with them in the ICU to explain their critical condition to the soldiers if they came.
“The army came in and asked me: ‘What are you doing here?’ So I gave them the reports and told them in Arabic: ‘Those are my children; they cannot move in the ICU.’ And they were truly in a coma, two of them and the third one was burned,” he recalled.
“Another soldier held the reports, read them and told them ‘take him’.”
As Salem was taken alongside many other men, Israeli soldiers ordered them to take off their clothes before being placed in a big hole at an unknown location.
There, under the rain, soldiers started beating and insulting the Palestinians, who had their hands and legs tied.
Salem says the insults included “we fucked the Nukhba [an elite unit in Hamas’ military wing]” and “we fucked your mother”.
“They went to the man near me and told him: ‘Raise your head.’ So, he did that and they told him: ‘Say, I am the son of a whore. Say, my sister is a whore.’ And things like that, and the man would repeat after them.”
Eventually, the group of roughly 100 men was taken to a detention centre in the Negev desert.
They were left in their underwear while it rained for two nights before being given light overalls and taken to the barracks, he said.
“Of course, your hands are tied behind your back, your legs are also tied and you are blindfolded.”
In the cell, the prisoners’ legs were untied but they were left without food for two days. One small bottle of water was shared among all of them.
Afterwards, they were called in one by one for interrogations.
Sde Teiman
One day, Salem complained, asking the soldiers why he was detained and what he might have done.
That is when he was taken to Sde Teiman, an Israeli military base doubling as a detention camp for Palestinians taken from Gaza since Israel launched its ground invasion of the besieged enclave in October of last year.
“It was the worst nightmare,” Salem said about the 52 days he spent at Sde Teiman.
Detainees were punished regularly there and constantly insulted by guards in what he called an attempt to “harm you mentally”.
“Anyone who moves in a certain way gets punished. If you ask to go to the bathroom, you get punished,” he explained.
“You stand on one leg for two hours, then they would tell you: ‘Do you want me to help you?’ And when you say yes, they tell you to say, ‘I am the son of a whore, I am the brother of a whore’, to say ‘Netanyahu fucked my sister, am Yisrael chai [the people of Israel live]. Now repeat after me, am Yisrael chai! Am Yisrael chai! A hundred times’.”
“They would say: ‘No, I didn’t like that, repeat it once more.’ And you keep repeating it hundreds of times and then you see that you have been standing for two hours, so all this was for nothing.”
Then there was the beating, he said.
“I remember a chair was broken on my chest. While I was tied and handcuffed, he slammed a chair [on me] and it broke on my chest. I do not know [why].”
During that incident, the soldier was on the phone with his girlfriend, Salem added.
He turned the screen to him and had his girlfriend insult him as well.
“He would tell me: ‘We will play football with your heads in Gaza. We will turn Gaza into a football field to play with your heads and your women’s heads.”
Electrocution
Some of the worst forms of torture took place during interrogations.
One time, when Salem confronted a soldier over the killing of his young nephews, his punishment was electrocution.
“He asked me where the rockets were and where the hostages were. You are asking me? What do I have to do with the hostages and how am I supposed to know where they are anyway?”
“I was in Kamal Adwan [Hospital]. You killed my siblings; you bombed our home. How am I supposed to know where the hostages are?”
When Salem said this to his interrogator, the soldier replied: “We don’t kill children.”
“What about my sister’s children, aged three and five, are those soldiers?” Salem replied.
“This is not a soldier. The kid was five. My sister wanted to just shower her children on a Friday. Is she a fighter? And what about my kids? What did they do to you? Did they participate in the 7 October attack? You kill children.”
The soldier then brought a chair, got someone to blindfold Salem and tied his hands as he asked him why he spoke like that.
“I noticed that he was glueing something on me. Then I started shaking. He was electrocuting me.
“He electrocuted me in sensitive spots and hit me in these spots.”
Raped by female soldiers
Another traumatic episode for many prisoners like Salem was the sexual abuse.
Though it was rampant, inmates rarely spoke about it to each other, he said. It was embarrassing for many to admit, especially when they were raped by female soldiers, who were sometimes in their teens.
It was common practice for soldiers to strip detainees naked, insert objects into their rectum and grab their genitals aggressively when they changed.
When word got around that a prisoner in his 40s was raped, Salem kept getting close to him until he told him what happened to him.
“He told me he was raped by a female soldier,” Salem told MEE.
When he asked him how it happened, the prisoner explained it would take place in the presence of another soldier in the room.
The prisoner would be bent over a desk with his hands placed in front of him, handcuffed.
The female soldier, standing behind him, would insert her fingers and other objects into his rectum.
When he reacted or moved back, the soldier standing in front of him would hit him in the head and force him to bend again.
It was one of many stories he heard in detention, Salem added.
Salem said he was also touched in his private parts by a female soldier and had objects inserted in his rectum at some point.
‘Exposing the occupation’
Salem spent 52 days in Sde Teiman, a few nights in Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank and most of his detention in the Negev.
He was released along with 14 other detainees last week, left at a checkpoint near Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.
Initially, he thought the war might have been over, but a soldier told him: “The war will not end until we kill you all.”
They were warned that anyone looking back would be shot and soldiers started shooting when Salem slowed down to help a released woman.
They eventually made it to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.
When asked about the photo that went viral, Salem said it was taken during a five- or six-hour punishment he was enduring, as he heard a camera click at the time.
He had argued with a soldier after they let a prisoner urinate himself by preventing him from using the bathroom.
Salem was made to remain in that position for long hours, a punishment that, he said, does not begin to describe the ordeal he faced in detention.
“There are greater punishments, greater beatings,” he said.
“Nothing was more humiliating than when they made me take off my clothes, or when they inserted this object into my butt, or when a young female soldier kept [touching my penis].”
“But it is good that people saw the reality of the occupation and I insist on exposing the occupation.
“This is the message of every prisoner I have spoken to.”
Earlier this week, Israeli rights group B’Tselem said the Israeli government has been conducting a policy of institutionalized torture against all Palestinian detainees since 7 October.
Torture was recorded in civilian and military detention facilities across Israel, leading to the deaths of at least 60 Palestinians while in Israeli custody in less than 10 months.
The systematic nature of the abuse across all facilities left “no room to doubt an organized, declared policy of the Israeli prison authorities”.
The policy has effectively turned Israeli prisons into “torture camps,” the rights group said.
In its 182-page report, B’Tselem said the torture prisoners faced included: “frequent acts of severe, arbitrary violence; sexual assault; humiliation and degradation, deliberate starvation; forced unhygienic conditions; sleep deprivation, prohibition on, and punitive measures for, religious worship; confiscation of all communal and personal belongings; and denial of adequate medical treatment.”
The Israeli violations against Palestinian detainees amounted to war crimes and even a crime against humanity, B’Tselem said.
Founded in April 2014, Middle East Eye is an independently funded digital news organisation covering stories from the Middle East and North Africa, as well as related content from beyond the region.
Second article:
Israeli rape of detainees is the result of a society that sees Palestinians as ‘human animals’
Israel has claimed that it is fighting “human animals” in Gaza. But now, Israeli society’s own monstrous sadism, deriving from a deep hate of Palestinians, is on display for the rest of the world to see.
by Jonathan Ofir, reposted from Mondoweiss, August 6, 2024
On August 3, Shaiel Ben-Ephraim shared an interview on social media with two Israeli security officials involved in the Sde Teiman torture facility, which has become a cause célèbre for right-wing protesters demanding the right of Israelis to gang rape Palestinian prisoners with impunity.
Ben-Ephraim is an academic who left UCLA as a post-doctorate following allegations of sexual harassment. He describes himself as “Israel analyst. Fighting for liberal democracy. Fanatic Mets fan. Host of Israel Explained and History of the Land of Israel.”
Ben-Ephraim describes his two sources, saying that “the IDF source is quite high up. The other source is not but works there every day.”
The “IDF source” says:
“The 100 unit has been assigned to guard the prisoners. Their job is supposed to be to intervene when there is disorder. They are rough people. So they are guarding the prisoners. You are letting animals guard animals without supervision and in nightmarish conditions.”
This is an interesting usage of the idea of “human animals,” a description first uttered during this genocide by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant on October 9, saying “we are fighting human animals and we act accordingly.”
The interviewed security personnel provide the emotional rationale for the sadistic torture enacted upon the Palestinians, it is a hate crime geared toward revenge. The “facility source” says:
“Everyone who served in Gaza is full of hatred. They have an urge to release the animal in them. Anyone who is put in a room with those who raped their girlfriends or killed their friends without supervision – will get whatever we got.”
So they believe their girlfriends got raped or killed by Hamas. This doesn’t need any evidence as such, and it doesn’t matter whether those people whom they are torturing are involved in any way:
“They all tell us they are innocent. So we don’t believe any of them. But yeah, some probably did nothing wrong.”
It is at this point worth remembering Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s claim from October 14 that there are simply no “uninvolved civilians” in Gaza.
The “facility source” knows this is bad and that it shouldn’t be done, but “things happen”:
“Things happen. Bad things. People have been beaten. People have been killed. I saw one person die. People have been sexually assaulted. Yes. Nothing compared to what they did. But we all know we shouldn’t be doing it.”
To date, at least 36 Palestinians have died under torture in this facility. But somehow, it doesn’t compare, it’s “nothing compared to what they did.”
The murdered Palestinians are kept in refrigerators at the base. The “IDF source” says:
“Another thing nobody talks about is all the bodies in fridges near the holding pens. There is no place to store them. Just containers full of dead bodies of inmates.”
And there is simply no oversight: “There is not a single security officer on sight to oversee. So that even if there is a major event no one is responsible.”
The level of sadism enacted upon Palestinians really defies description. Palestinians are now coming forth with the most graphic details about their sexual torture, like this victim on video (trigger warning):
“I’ve been shocked by electricity through my anus. I’ve been shocked by electricity on my testicles! This is literally what happened to me – not just me but others who were shocked by electricity. You know why? Because we refused to speak dirty of [Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya] al-Sinwar.
You can imagine what I’m saying… Just because I refused to spill out the dirty words, they said ok and then five of them gathered around me, five soldiers, they came to beat me up.
One of them forced me to lie down on my back, he opened my thighs and smashed my private area – he literally smashed my testicles. He said: ‘I don’t want you to have kids anymore’.”
One must reflect upon the additional humiliation of speaking like this about one’s own person and body, openly. But these people have been subjected to such physical and emotional destruction, that they are now shouting out to the world to make it stop, not least for their brethren still undergoing this torture.
It is shocking, but is it shocking to the majority of Israelis?
The fact is Israelis have been consuming snuff videos of these torture facilities at least since the beginning of this year, where coverage of the systemic torture has appeared on several Israeli mainstream channels. Has there been outcry?
When there has been criticism of the soldiers actions, it was primarily couched in terms of how these actions reflect on Israel, not on the legality or morality of the abuse. In fact, Israeli leaders have even implicitly justified these heinous actions even while condemning them.
“There were days when [the military investigators] applauded us.”
In the end, any Israeli leaders who have come out in support of the investigations of those accused of raping Palestinian detainees have done so simply for public relations reasons, not for anything more.
Remember, Israel is currently facing multiple international legal cases, at ICJ for genocide, and at ICC for crimes against humanity (arrest warrants sought for Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Galant), and similar to those charges, the threat of the accusations of rape is seen primarily as an optics issue for Israel, not a legal one. Netanyahu just likens the ICC Chief Prosecutor to a Nazi judge and incites more biblical revenge.
Now, the sadism of sexual torture is becoming so obvious it is starting to reflect on Israel’s image and thus, President Isaac Herzog issued a call for calm, to allow the gang rape investigations to occur without the brouhaha of mass protests at army bases against the proceedings.
Being a liberal racist and genocide inciter, Herzog’s message qualified that “hate” towards “the damned Nukhba terrorists” was “surely understood and justified.” But we must consider that “our enemies” are “persecuting us”, also in the “international legal arena”:
“The morality of IDF and its soldiers has always been our pride, towards ourselves and towards the family of nations and international law.
This morality stood and stands tested also against the most cruel of enemies, among them the damned Nukhba terrorists, the hate towards whom is surely understood and justified.
We must not forget that our enemies attempt to persecute us again and again, also in the international legal arena – the commanders, the fighters and the public representatives.
We must under no circumstances provide them with allegations against IDF and the state of Israel.”
In other words, Israel should be showing itself as managing the few bad apples in a serious way, so that the persecutors (who are also prosecutors) are countered with Israel having certain legal processes which should thus be sufficient to rebuff international legal intervention.
But it really is too late for that. Israel’s genocide is so massive, that prosecution of a few bad apples won’t change it. The Israeli narrative of hate and revenge is so encompassing, that it will have its outlets in one way or another, whether it is a soldier smashing testicles, or a soldier blowing up a whole building in Gaza as a photo-op.
To judge by the testimony of one of the rape suspects, the “interrogation” was a sham anyway. “You feel they [the interrogators from Military Police] want to thank you”, he said. “There were days when they applauded us.”
Human animals
There is now apparently nothing that Israelis can do which Israeli leaders wouldn’t try to justify. What they are fighting against has been defined authoritatively (as far as they are concerned) as inhuman, so there is no way to apply human rights here – human rights apply to humans, not to “human animals.”
The response to this is also beyond rationality – “hate” is now sanctioned by the highest authority as “understood and justified.” Everything is understood through this lens, and if Israeli soldiers end up acting like animals, it’s only a natural response to the real animals.
Israel’s late Defense Minister Moshe Dayan once said “Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother,” and this ‘mad dog’ and ‘master of the house gone mad’ doctrine has instructed Israel for many decades. Variations on this idea have been repeated by Israeli officials time and again.
Former Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon, the initiator of the false flag terror attack on Cairo in 1954, advocated “going crazy” if ever Israel were crossed. During the 2006 war with Lebanon, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Palestinians need to understand that “the master of the house has gone mad,” while promising “James Bond-type operations, bim bam!”
After Israel’s 2008-9 Gaza onslaught, Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s Foreign Minister at the time, Tzipi Livni, stated that “our troops in the Gaza strip behaved like hooligans, which I demanded of them.” She also stated that Israel “is a country that when you fire on its citizens it responds by going wild — and this is a good thing.”
Israel has indeed gone wild, and is apparently trying to behave like a mad dog. But whatever happens, it’s “nothing compared to what they did.”
Every accusation is a confession. Israel has claimed that it is fighting “human animals.” But now, its own monstrous sadism, deriving from a deep hate of Palestinians (which didn’t first start on October 7), is on display for the rest of the world to see. The “self-defense” claim, which was reportedly used by the lawyers defending the gang rape suspects, is something that Israel has been using for everything it does to Palestinians.
It just might be that the gang rape of a shackled prisoner will finally help some people understand that this racist justification is really just an excuse for something else far more sinister.
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