By Alireza Akbari
The gruesome footage showing the inhumane treatment of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons grabbed news headlines globally with many human rights campaigners denouncing the occupation.
According to Ramy Abdu, the chairman of the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Israel has deliberately killed or tortured to death over 70 Palestinian detainees in its custody since October last year.
There have been numerous reports of Palestinian detainees being ruthlessly tortured in Israeli prisons, including through sexual abuse, in the past 11 months of the genocidal war.
Amid growing calls to end the genocidal war and release Palestinian detainees held illegally and arbitrarily by the occupation, Meir Ben-Shitrit, the main accused in the gang rape of a Palestinian detainee at the Israeli prison, shocked the world by appearing on primetime Israeli TV shows.
The fact that a rapist was invited on television shows and glorified for sexually abusing innocent Palestinians left people worldwide astonished and outraged.
Even more disturbing was how Ben-Shitrit was treated by the hosts of the shows he appeared on.
He was applauded and treated like a celebrity on the Israeli Channel 14 show aired a few weeks after the sodomy case came to light. The studio audience gave him several standing ovations, and he was even offered financial support.
"Soldiers followed standard procedure," Ben-Shitrit claimed during the show, referring to the Palestinian detainee who was taken behind the wall of shields by a group of Israeli forces and raped.
One of the TV show hosts attempted to whitewash the crime of rape committed by their guest, saying it is “logical because it’s also against the other Nukhbas (resistance fighters).”
“I put myself in your place, in your situation. You stand in front of these people, really, the most despicable people one can imagine,” stated the other host, justifying the unjustifiable.
In response, Ben-Shitrit boldly asserted that the Israeli settlers should "kiss our hands."
When asked about the reaction of Israeli settlers after he revealed himself as the perpetrator of sodomy in an Israeli prison, Ben-Shitrit responded that he received "a lot of love."
He emphasized that most settlers, even those in Tel Aviv, expressed their support to him with many hugs. "I even got a holiday package," he added.
The Sde Teiman sodomy case is not the only instance of violation of international laws against Palestinian detainees by Zionists. Ibrahim Salem, 34, recounted the deep sense of dread he felt when an Israeli soldier ordered him to undress during his time in captivity.
"They told me to strip," Salem recalled, reflecting on the torment he endured during his eight months in Israeli detention. "That's when I knew I was beginning my journey to hell."
Another former detainee, Muhammad al-Kurdi, 38, stated that his colleagues “didn’t know whether I was dead or alive... I was imprisoned for 32 days... It felt like 32 years."
The viral footage of another former detainee Ameer Abu Eram further exposed the brutal treatment of the regime against Palestinians. Abu Eram lost 40 kilograms during just 10 months in Israeli jails.
According to reports, Palestinian detainees have faced sexual, physical, and psychological abuse in numerous Israeli prisons, with these inhumane acts intended to humiliate and break their morale.
Instances of verbal and sexual abuse have also been reported at Israeli checkpoints in the occupied West Bank. One such case occurred at the Hebron checkpoint, where a young Palestinian woman reported that an Israeli soldier exposed himself to her and made sexually explicit comments.
The sexual abuse extended beyond the Israeli forces, as settlers, on the other hand, saw the Sde Teiman case as a catalyst, allowing them to voice what they had harbored in their minds for years.
In early August, a group of masked settlers entered Khirbet Wadi a-Rakhim in the South Hebron Hills, located in the southern occupied West Bank.
During their encounter with a Palestinian family, one of the masked settlers verbally harassed the Palestinian landowner, saying, "You look sweet... You look so fresh... I would be happy to sit with you in jail someday. I would be happy. You know Sde Teiman."
A steady and alarming rise in systematic sexual violence carried out by Zionists against Palestinians has sparked global outrage, with people and activists worldwide protesting the Zionists' tactic of dehumanizing Palestinians while trying to pose as heroes for their heinous acts.
Amid several appearances on the regime’s network defending his heinous act, online users were outraged by Ben-Shitrit’s attitude toward Palestinians.
"Remove your mask if you’re so proud of what you did," one user wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "Coward, show your face if you think what you have done is okay," wrote another.
Another user proposed a solution to stop Israeli sexual harassment against Palestinians: "If this is true, we should firmly boycott Israel!"
“This level of evil can't be topped. How do you commit such a heinous crime and then get hosted on national TV? How depraved is this society? It's shockingly appalling how the West still backs these atrocities. Where are those Western values again,” wrote another user.
Contrary to the global reactions condemning the Zionists' sexual harassment of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers in the studio—representing a broader segment of their community—applauded and gave several standing ovations to the rapist's remarks.
This response underscores that Ben-Shitrit’s mindset is shared by all settlers, according to experts, who believe this outlook among settlers reflects the absence of morality and humanity.
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