Palestinians Recount Sexual Abuse by Israeli Soldiers | Palestine Policy Roundup 5.19.26
Welcome to the Palestine Policy Roundup, a weekly publication of the IMEU Policy Project.
THE HUMAN COST OF WAR: BY THE NUMBERS:
🇵🇸 GAZA: 857 killed since the beginning of Trump's Gaza plan (Palestinian Ministry of Health); at least 2,400 Israeli violations of Trump's Gaza plan (Gaza Government Media Office); 72,772 killed during Israel's genocide (Palestinian Ministry of Health)
🇮🇷 IRAN: 3,468 killed (Iran Ministry of Health)
🇱🇧 LEBANON: 3,020 killed (Lebanon Ministry of Public Health); 1.1 million displaced (UN)
🇮🇱 ISRAEL: 26 killed (Israel Ministry of Health)
🇺🇲 US: 13 servicemembers killed (US Military)
📺 TUNE IN: WEBINAR ON ANNIVERSARY OF BLOCK THE BOMBS ACT
This Thursday at 10 AM Eastern, join an Al-Shabaka Policy Lab webinar on the anniversary of the introduction of the Block the Bombs Act that will assess the significant momentum of this bill and the path forward for advocacy in support of Palestinian rights. As more Americans express their opposition to continued US complicity in Israel's genocidal and apartheid policies against Palestinians, more members of Congress are catching up and taking historic action. IMEU Policy Project Policy Director Josh Ruebner and Foundation for Middle East Peace Fellow Ahmed Moor will speak on the webinar.
🚨 PALESTINIANS SPEAK ON SEXUAL ABUSE IN ISRAELI PRISONS
Last Monday, a new column published in The New York Times uplifted the voices of Palestinians who are speaking out about Israeli soldiers committing sexual violence against them while held in Israeli prisons.
🔑 KEY TAKEAWAY: A Palestinian farmer interviewed for the column recounted his rape by Israeli prison guards: "A half-dozen guards immobilized him by holding his arms and legs while pulling down his pants and underwear and inserting a metal baton into his anus. The rapists were laughing and cheering, he said. Several hours later, he said, he fainted and was taken to the prison clinic. After he woke up, he said, he was raped once more, again with the metal baton. 'I was bleeding,' he recalled. 'I broke down completely. I was crying.' After being returned to his cell, he said, he asked a guard for pen and paper to write a complaint about the assaults. The request was denied. And that evening, a group of guards came to the cell. 'Who is the one who wants to file a complaint?' one guard jeered, he said, and another guard pointed him out. 'The beating started immediately,' he recalled. And then they raped him with the baton for a third time that day, he said."
SYSTEMIC TORTURE: Several human rights organizations—including Human Rights Watch and Israeli NGOs B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel—and an independent UN Commission have collected testimony from Palestinians who were subjected to abuse by Israeli soldiers.
More than 9,000 Palestinians, including more than 300 children and more than 3,000 who are held without charge, are imprisoned in the Israeli prison system. Those detained include journalists, humanitarian workers, and medical workers. Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh, a Palestinian surgeon who was taken from Gaza by Israeli soldiers, was likely raped to death while in Israeli detention.
Israeli whistleblowers have also detailed the abuse and torture of Palestinians at prison camps where Palestinians abducted from Gaza are held. Palestinian lawyer Khaled Mahajneh described Sde Teiman, one of these camps, as "more horrific than anything we've heard about Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo."
VIOLATING US LAW: Continued US weapons deliveries to Israel would violate the Foreign Assistance Act, which prohibits the transfer of weapons and other support to countries that practice torture and detention without charge.
So far, Israel has refused to hold anyone accountable for this torture. Earlier this year, the Israeli military reinstated soldiers who were accused of abusing Palestinians. The Biden administration also refused to hold their unit accountable under the Leahy Law.
✂️ TRUMP'S CORPORATE GAZA BOARD MOVING FORWARD WITH TAKEOVER
President Trump's corporate-style board overseeing the takeover of Gaza, also known as the so-called Board of Peace, is reportedly preparing to move forward with Trump's plan in areas of Gaza under Israeli military occupation. This comes amid a stalemate in negotiations between Hamas and Israel regarding the disarmament of the former and ceasefire violations by the latter.
NEXT PHASE: Phase 2 of the Trump plan for Gaza would prepare the area for a corporate takeover that would serve to enrich Donald Trump and his donors and allies while denying sovereignty to Palestinians.
This plan, which was devised in part with the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner, would promote the construction of data centers, manufacturing hubs, and other corporate ventures in Gaza to benefit foreign investors, not Palestinian survivors of genocide.
This phase also calls for the construction of high-tech reservations in which Palestinians would be forced to live and be subjected to surveillance via their biometric data, such as face scans and fingerprints.
Very few Palestinians currently live in the area under Israeli military occupation. Palestinians who attempt to return to their homes near or behind the yellow line are routinely attacked, and so are Palestinians who find themselves behind the line following Israeli expansions of the area it occupies.
ISRAELI VIOLATIONS: Israel has committed thousands of violations of the Trump plan, including expanding the territory it occupies, obstructing the delivery of humanitarian aid to Palestinians, and attacking Palestinians in Gaza.
According to the conflict monitor ACLED, Israeli attacks on Gaza increased by 35% following the pause in the illegal US-Israeli war on Iran.
Last Sunday, an Israeli attack which targeted a community kitchen killed three Palestinians. Another Israeli attack on a residential building in Gaza City killed seven Palestinians. US-provided weapons were used in the latter attack.
PREPARING FOR PARTITION: The implementation of this plan could serve to partition Gaza. An earlier Trump plan called for the construction of the high-tech reservations behind the yellow line and placing that part of the area under Israeli control. This would also place most Palestinians under an indefinite blockade and permanently displace many.
These reports come as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, boasted about the Israeli military occupying 60% of Gaza—which is in violation of the Trump plan.
The Israeli military appears to be preparing for partition: officials have referred to the yellow line as a border with Israel in control of the part that it currently occupies, and Israel has constructed more than 30 outposts along the line.
📜 REP. RASHIDA TLAIB INTRODUCES NAKBA RESOLUTION
Last Thursday, Rep. Rashida Tlaib introduced a resolution to commemorate the 78th anniversary of the 1948 Nakba and to recognize the ongoing Nakba. The Nakba, which means "catastrophe" in Arabic, refers to the violent ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of Palestinians carried out by Zionist militias and the Israeli military before, during, and after Israel's establishment in 1948.
13 House Members currently cosponsor this resolution—a more than 50 percent increase in support for this resolution from last year, reflecting growing Congressional concern over Israel's ongoing dispossession of the Palestinian people.
WHAT THE RESOLUTION DOES: The resolution calls for the official commemoration of the Nakba and the denunciation of Israel's ongoing displacement of Palestinians from their homes and homeland.
The resolution also calls on the US to resume its funding for UNRWA, which provides humanitarian aid and services to nearly 6 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.
It also supports international law by calling on the US to support the UN-recognized right of return of Palestinians to their homeland and to end US support for Israel's continued displacement of Palestinians.
WHY IT MATTERS NOW: Recognizing the Nakba acknowledges the historical facts that are driving what Palestinians continue to experience today. The resolution also sends a strong message of opposition to Israel's continued displacement of Palestinians from their homes, which is happening with US support.
Israel's settlements—which are illegal under international law—and frequent Israeli military invasions in the West Bank continue to displace thousands of Palestinians. In Gaza, Israel is still committing genocide and forcing most Palestinians to live in tents in less than half of the area, with almost all Palestinian homes being damaged or destroyed.
💡 COSPONSORSHIP REQUEST: IMEU Policy Project strongly encourages House Members to cosponsor Rep. Rashida Tlaib's resolution to recognize the 1948 Nakba and ongoing US complicity in Israeli atrocities.
👀 ICYMI: MEMBERS OF CONGRESS SPEAK OUT
Rep. Ilhan Omar: "Since the start of this war in Iran, more than 3,600 people have been killed and over 26,500 injured in Iran. In Lebanon, 2,700 people are dead and over a million are displaced. And Netanyahu says: 'The war is not over.' We cannot continue to be complicit in Israel's wars."
Rep. Rashida Tlaib: "The Nakba, which means catastrophe in Arabic, refers to the mass expulsion and violent ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from their homes and homeland during the creation of the State of Israel. But we know the Nakba did not end in 1948. We all have witnessed it live. It continues to this day as the Israeli Government commits genocide in Gaza, forcibly displacing Palestinians and kicking them out of their homeland."
Rep. Delia Ramirez: "Settler violence in the West Bank is increasingly putting lives and communities at risk. Yesterday, the EU voted to sanction four settler organizations that have perpetrated violence against Palestinians and illegal land seizure in the West Bank. But the Trump administration has rolled back action to hold these same settler organizations accountable, giving them a free pass to terrorize Palestinian communities. We must continue to demand that the U.S. end its complicity in death and displacement. We must Block the Bombs and hold the perpetrators of violence in the West Bank accountable."