Reports of sexual violence against Palestinian women

[Scirocco]

In the Al-Shifa hospital thread, there have been several reports of Palestinian women having been sexually assaulted and raped.

All sexual assault is wrong and must be investigated and condemned.

Given the serious nature of these reports, I thought I'd create a separate thread in case anyone wants to discuss it here.

Abuhilahlah’s point is so true. It was so ill judged of the woman to have done this as it means other allegations will not be believed.

This is awful for all of the actual victims of sexual abuse and rape, especially in such difficult circumstances, when concrete evidence of such crimes will be almost non existent.

Good thread on the accusations, the retraction/clarification was made by the female interviewees brother, not by her. There are issues around shame, embarrassment and pressure from Hamas not wanting to let it appear that something so terrible occurred on "their watch"

1\Israel abruptly moved from "believe all women" to "believe Hamas"🧵

Hamas has a vested interests for domestic political reasons in denying the IDF rape of Gazan women on their watch to avoid public blame.

Israel's rape of Palestinian women has been so well documented for years!

2\ A source close to Hamas told me the group were quick to contact the brother of Jamila al-Hissi (the woman that alleged rape took place at al-Shifa) & pressured him to retract the allegation out of fear it Gazans would blame Hamas for rape happening on their watch.

3\ For Palestinians, rape is a matter of utmost shame & disgrace. It can dishonour a family for generations if their women were raped & they failed to stop it or avenge it

That's why most Palestinian victims of Israeli sexual violence NEVER speak up & this topic is a great taboo.

4\ In a socially conservative community, a raped woman would never get married, no one will marry into her family. "Israel raped their daughter/sister/mother" will stick to the family's name & reputation.

That's why most Palestinians will be quick to deny being raped.

5\ Jamila al-Hissi mentioned the word rape in passing in a live interview. She may've misspoke or meant sexual violence or saw actual rape.

But we'll never know b/c Israel prevents any presence of foreign journalists or investigators in Gaza & has been killing local journos!

6\ What we know for a fact is that UN special rapporteurs documented the IDF use of sexual violence against women in Gaza inc. at least 2 reported incidents of rape.

It's been standard practice for the IDF to strip naked & humiliate kidnapped Palestinians, inc. women

x.com/muhammadshehad2/status/1772675305561370680?s=20

Some really good points to consider.

Thank you @BelleHathor I can well imagine that rape is a source of shame and humiliation, so these points are worth keeping in mind. I don't know what is true, but I do think that medical professionals, women's organisations and aid agencies will collect evidence and reports and one day we will know more about allegations of rape/sexual assault of Palestinian women.

Not read full thread but absolutly no surprise at all.
This always happens to women in war (and in life).
I wouldn't be at all surprised if Palestinian women were at greater risk of rape, not only by IDF but also by Palestinian men under cover of the chaos.

I meant that for the other thread ‘ not justifying the rape of women’.
But it is awful whatever the woman’s nationality.

It's easy enough to have it moved - just use the Report button and MNHQ will move it for you

Thank you. I have asked.

Oh my god, this is freaking insane!

Remember after October 7th when Israel claimed Hamas performed mass rapes on alive and dead women? Back then, all the civil rights fighters stormed in and said: "Do you have any proof?" "Show us the proof!" "There is no evidence of rape".

Then Israel provided evidence of rape, and they still said: "So fake", "There was no rape" , "This never happened", "Fake propaganda" "Zero evidence", "They can't locate eyewitnesses".

Then, the UN found, interviewed, and conducted research confirming Israel's claims, and then they said on X/ Twitter, and I quote: "They didn't rape her because they don't treat their hostages badly" (Dr. Anastasia Maria Loupis), "She's not hot, nothing sexual about her" (Jake Shields) “They want us to believe anyone would have the desire to rape those disease infected hags?" and "They think too much of themselves" Syrian Girl 🇸🇾🎗️)

…And to that I say: Wow. What a nice way to talk abou Israeli victims of sexual violence.

But wait, a few days ago, Al-Jazeera interviewed a Palestinian woman who claimed the IDF is raping women in Al-Shifa hospital. And immediately, these "civil rights fighters" jumped on the opportunity to have their say on social media, once again: “They love rape" (Jake Shields), "Israelis forced raped in Al-Shifa hospital" (Suppressed Voice. News), "Various accounts of rape recorded at Al-Shifa hospital" and “Israeli soldiers carried out mass rape at Al-Shifa hospital" (Robert Inlakesh), “The news have been confirmed, painfully rape of a girl in Al-Shifa" (Ivan Pain)

However, the news had not been confirmed.

Because very quickly Al-Jazeera admitted that this story was completely fabricated, made up by a woman who wanted to "arouse the nation's fervor".

And what did one commenter say after it was revealed they helped to spread fake news? "This is what happens when Israel murders every journalist they see."(Tiberius). 🙄

So, three things to learn from all of this:

• Al-Jazeera is a joke. They care very little about actual facts.
• All of the users I quoted above - all with a lot of followers (maybe even some of you follow them, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least given the lack of critical thinking and bigotry on these boards) - are also a joke. They also care very little about actual facts.
• If you, like these jokes I mentioned, also insist that Hamas didn't rape anyone, despite the evidence to support it, while believing that the IDF raped women in Al-Shifa, despite having no evidence to support it, then please, stop pretending that you care about the safety of women. You don't care about women, you don't care about rape victims, and you don't care about the truth. You only care about yourself.

So if you want to make amends, hear the
testimonies and go through the many pieces of evidence of Hamas sexual crimes on October 7th.

Unfortunately, I have now found MN cannot move threads, only delete them.

By the way Sigmund it had been about an Israeli women. Many women on MN have believed Israeli women as well as Palestinian women. There was a particularly detailed thread about the rapes of Israeli women on the Feminism Sex and Gender board and deniers were challenged.

It is not only Al Jazeera who has misreported. There was also some misreporting about rapes of Israeli women/girls.

Al Jazeera withdrew their report when they realised their Al Shifa hospital rape report was wrong/disputed by Hamas.

BelleHathor posted some interesting considerations regarding the Al Shifa discredited report.

Sorry @ScrollingLeaves for mis-informing you

I have no idea who these people are that you mention here. I wouldn’t listen to anyone who made statements like that, and I haven’t come across anybody like that on here, certainly not the regular posters.

@SigmundinaCafe
Did you read the UN report?
The conclusion was there were reasonable grounds to believe that acts of sexual violence and degrading treatment had been perpetrated on 7/10, mainly because of credible accounts of seeing evidence of restraint and stripping.The accounts of rape in Be’ eri were inaccurate and the grounds for this conclusion are now in public domain. No forensic evidence was gathered, no eye witness accounts were obtained and no survivors came forward.
They were much more confident that the hostages had been subjected to conflict related sexual violence and expressed concern that this was likely to be of an ongoing / recurrent nature. This is in keeping with the account of Ms Soussana.
Mrs Jamila’s account of sexual was not as an eye witness going by the clip that was linked here so not very credible.
All of the people who have made these claims have been exposed to incredibly horrible scenes, scenes we would hope never to see ourselves , and it’s up to trained journalists to fact check before they publish. But Al Jazeera is not the only one- the Telegraph and the Times as well as the Jerusalem post published the “beheaded babies” stories

Please don’t worry, but thanks. It is useful to have found out.

Israeli Sexual violance against Palestinian children in Israeli jails was documented confirms Josh Paul, (Former) Director at U.S. Department of State, Resigned in Protest of Israel's war on Gaza.

https://x.com/malcolm_ishmeal/status/1772861662363541948?s=61&t=nilGqPeurpC5xVqZAZdZog

If who wants to make amends? Who are you talking to? I have no idea who the people you're talking about in your post are, or what your post has to do with sexual violence against Palestinians?

Idf must have learnt from Al Jazeera, reporting rapes to then quietly backtrack on their stories
https://twitter.com/WarMonitors/status/1773417215414444536

What are you saying?

Sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees has been reported for decades, both in adults and children. If the UN are considering "stripping of clothing" to indicate sexual assault, then Israel don't even keep that behind closed doors, we've all seen it now.

In times of war propaganda is key. All sides will always use it.
False or unverified accusations from any party are usually unhelpful.
What remains true is that there have been accusations of sexual abuse of men, women and children by IDF soldiers, prison guards etc via the UN, Amnesty International and Human Rights Monitor and more for years.
What is known is that on at least one occasion the IDF used a gag to prevent reporting of a soldier who had committed rape.
If you watch the documentary done on one of the massacres that was part of founding Israel they openly talk about rape.
I know that people like to claim the IDF is the most moral army who never uses rape, but we all know rape is used in war and I think we all know if we're honest with 9urselves tha one soldier they used the gag for is unlikely to be alone.
Does that mean rape is happening "systematically"? No
Is there good cause for a proper, unhindered investigation? Yes.