It should be understood that rape—sexual coercion—is immoral. It takes tribalism and legal jargon to conjure up a reason as to why rape may be allowable. For those who value the rights of the individual and human dignity, sexual violence and coercion is repulsive.
Unfortunately, rape as a means of punishment and torture is not new. As a political and ideological weapon it’s one which has sullied history with the anguish of countless victims. It can be an act used to shame, humiliate, and punish the victim and their community. It was a rallying point for the early Britons when their Queen Boudica and her daughters were sexually abused by the Roman invaders. And now, the Israeli government and its military has set an example that it not only tolerates rape but will endorse it.
In leaked footage, shared on Israeli television and broadcasted across the world, a Palestinian man was shown being violently raped by Israeli soldiers. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the former Military Advocate General of Israel, who “leaked” the footage was herself arrested. The initial arrest of the rapists led to widespread pro-rape protests through Israel as politicians came out in support and one of the violators was touted on Israeli television. The five Israeli Defense Force (IDF) rapists have since been absolved of any crime and are treated as heroes.
These “heroes” are symbolic of a government and society that is waging a multi-front war against its neighbors and continues perpetration of a genocide. Meanwhile, in a wider world where violence has turned into content and viewers can scroll through multiple atrocities in minutes, one scroll of the feed after another, an unarmed man being raped by armed soldiers may not seem like a big deal. But for anyone who retains a set of principles, it should be.
Some supporters of Israel claim the act as righteous, not only because of who the victim was but who the rapists are. They are soldiers for the state of Israel and represent its government and policies. If the rest of the world does not care, why conceal it? Those who are disgusted by it lack the means or power to oppose it.
Despite what should be considered an obvious standard for behavior, in July 2024 Knesset member Hanoch Milwidsky was asked, “To stick a stick in a persons rectum, is that legitimate?” He responded, “Yes! If he is Nukhba [Hamas elite unit], everything is legitimate to do [to] him.”
The medical findings of the Palestinian man who was raped by the five IDF soldiers included a ruptured bowel, severe anal/rectal injuries, a punctured lung, broken ribs, and trauma to the torso. When he was presented to the hospital he was bleeding from his anus and was forced to walk himself into surgery. The footage of the rape has been corroborated and witness statements were taken down. It was not a fabrication or propaganda from the enemies of Israel. It was men doing horrible things to another man because of the uniform they wore.
It’s often said that rape is about power. In this case, it’s ideological down to the bone. From within Israel and amongst its foreign allies, the rape has been validated and endorsed directly or by the absense of pursuing justice. By celebrating the men who committed it, they have attached legitimate authority to such obscenity.
Inside a caste society like India, custodial rape is common. Victims are considered lesser due to their social status and the stigma of raping and abusing them is not looked down upon. It’s instead viewed as a right—or at least acceptable. In some regards the imbalance between Israeli and Palestinian is a caste system. Apparently acts of rape are allowable under such a power imbalance.
The French military during the Algerian War of Independence often used rape and sexual abuse as a weapon of war and punishment against both male and female prisoners. The use of batons to rectally violate boys and men and the rape of women was committed by French authorities to shame and demean the victim. The practice was not always formally sanctioned, but it was widely known. The rape and torture of Djamila Boupacha—who had a broken wine bottle inserted into her upon capture as a method of interrogation—and Louisette Ighilahriz were publicized examples which drew international attention. But their abusers faced no justice, although they weren’t celebrated like in Israel.
According to the U.S. Department of Defense (now War), in 2021 there were nearly 40,000 known cases of sexual assault in the military against its own members. Cases often involve a higher ranking officer raping a female lower rank, which is either covered up or dismissed. A 2023 statistic from the DoD suggests that only 4% of military offenders were convicted. If rapists and abusers are willing to rape their own brothers and sisters in uniform, what would they be willing to do to enemy combatants, or a foreign civilian populace?
In 2004, when the images and information surrounding Abu Gharib became public, there was worldwide outcry. The treatment of prisoners at the hands of American military captors was understood to be immoral, regardless of what the victims had been accused of doing. It was understood to be wrong no matter what the abusers’ uniform represented. Some of the victims were awarded money and the revelations served as a temporary bloody nose for the United States.
U.S. soldier Steven Dale Green admitted in an interview before his death that he had participated in the gang rape of a 14-year old Iraqi girl. The victim, Aber Qassim al-Janabi, after being raped by Green and four other U.S. soldiers was shot and her body burned. The rapists were punished.
In the case of al-Janabi, the victim was an innocent civilian. When committed against fellow servicemembers, the act of rape is done against a familiar and is understood as a betrayal. But in the Algerian War, because the victims were fighters or participants in an insurgency attempting to eject a foreign occupier, the argument was made that rape and torture are just pragmatic tools. And in Israel, because the man was captured as a belligerent, his status as a “Hamas terrorist” determined that anything could and should happen to him. Everything is legitimate. That is why Israeli officials feel comfortable doubling down in their support of rape as an act and lionize the rapists.
When there was once a brief pretense of moral values like honor, people who committed atrocities were viewed as outliers. It was important to retain a semblance of being “good,” so examples were made of abusers or their crimes covered up. But in modern warfare, when a government can drop bombs on cities, starve populations, and kill with reckless abandon, then what does a few rapes matter?
Shame on any government or person who would adore men such as these, as Israel has done. If they even know what shame is.
