Israeli journalist goes on TV, calls for rape of Palestinians to be official policy

Israeli journalist Yehuda Schlesinger called for the institutionalised rape of Palestinian detainees on Israel’s Channel 12. He went unchallenged.

“There are no innocent people” in Gaza

Responding to a question about footage and accounts of Israeli soldiers and guards raping Palestinians, Schlesinger said:

The only problem I have is that it’s not a regulated policy of the state to abuse the detainees because, first of all, they deserve it, and it’s great revenge… maybe it will serve as a deterrent.

Speaking again to Channel 12 in April, Schlesinger said “there are no innocent people” in Gaza and that they “deserve a hard agonising death”.

And on 24 October, Schlesinger posted on X:

There are no innocents in Gaza. There are no ordinary citizens in Gaza. Every adult was trained to kill. Every woman is a monster. Every boy aspires to be a martyr. Every baby will grow up to be a terrorist. Wipe out, kill, destroy, destroy.

For Israel, is rape a weapon?

With regard to a question on video evidence of Israeli soldiers raping a Palestinian, US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that it “ought to be investigated fully by the government of Israel”.

But there are issues with Israel investigating itself. Former US state department official John Paul told CNN in December:

I was part of the human rights vetting process for arms going to Israel, and a charity called Defense for Children International – Palestine drew our attention at the State Department to the sexual assault, actually the rape, of a 13-year-old boy that occurred in an Israeli prison in the Moskobiyyeh

We examined these allegations, we believe they were credible, we put them… to the government of Israel. And you know what happened the next day? The IDF went into the DCIP offices and removed all their computers and declared them a terrorist entity.

The boy was actually 15. Paul resigned from the state department in October over the continued “provision of lethal arms to Israel”.

Israel: many reports of rape

According to reports from witnesses and victims, the sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees borders on the routine. In late July, the UN reported Israel subjected detainees to sexual abuse and ill-treatment and that they “received consistent reports of [Israeli] personnel inserting objects into detainees’ anuses”.

Israeli human rights organisation B’tselem has also reported numerous accounts of the “attempted anal rape of a Palestinian detainee”.

B’tselem further stated:

The witnesses described blows to the genitals and other body parts of naked prisoners; the use of metal tools and batons to cause genital pain; the photographing of naked prisoners; penises being grabbed; and strip-searches
for the sake of humiliation and degradation. The testimonies also reveal cases of gang sexual violence and assault committed by a group of prison guards or soldiers

Rather than condemning the sexual violence, Israeli government ministers and protestors have demonstrated against soldiers facing punishment for an alleged gang rape.

The call for ‘revenge rape’ is no doubt partly spurred on by widespread corporate media reports that Hamas committed mass rape on 7 October. But a UN inquiry, which looked at forensic reports and witnesses, found no evidence that Hamas raped anybody during the attack.

“Astounding”

On social media, people reacted to the reports of abuse:

let me get this straight: Israel’s genocide began under the “Hamas did mass r@pe” hoax without any evidence, but now that there’s testimonies & video footage of Israelis conducting systematic rape of Palestinians, the world is supposed to stand by and do nothing?

is that right?

— Josh (@JoshC0301) August 7, 2024

Others reacted to the discussion with Israeli journalist Schlesinger on Channel 12:

Just astounding. This is a mainstream talk show in Israel, and they are debating whether to legalize, and institutionalize, retributive rape of civilians and combatants, as a matter of policy https://t.co/t8Jv3KfQsj

— Jack Sheehan (@YuleGoat) August 7, 2024

Featured image via B.M. – X