As early as the first month of Israel’s war on Gaza, Sde Teiman, a secretive Israeli military prison in the Negev desert, had been raising alarm bells for Israeli human rights attorney Roni Pelli and other rights advocates.
Pelli and her colleagues started to hear reports from whistleblowers about poor conditions for Palestinians imprisoned inside Sde Teiman. They heard of instances of violence committed by soldiers against detained Palestinians, and, in one case, a Palestinian who died there.
Since then, media reports about the prison have mounted, quoting formerly detained Palestinians and Israeli whistleblowers, who spoke in more detail of the harrowing conditions inside the prison. A CNN investigation in May revealed that Palestinian detainees were restrained and blindfolded, forced to sit and sometimes stand throughout the night beneath flood lights; wounded Palestinians were strapped down onto beds, forced to wear diapers, and fed through straws; soldiers beat detainees motivated by revenge for the October 7 attacks; and prisoners’ limbs were amputated due to untreated wounds from restraints, and such operations took place without anesthesia.
Later in May, an Intercept investigation found that hundreds of Palestinian doctors have disappeared into Israeli detention, and included the testimony of one surgeon who was beaten and abused at Sde Teiman. A month later, a separate report from Haaretz revealed the Israel Defense Forces were investigating 48 deaths of Palestinians from Gaza who were in Israeli custody, among them 36 who were detained at Sde Teiman. Israeli media began to refer to the prison as “Israel’s Guantánamo Bay.”
Prompted by the CNN report, Pelli, who represents the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, filed a petition to Israel’s Supreme Court, on behalf of five human rights organizations, for a government order to close Sde Teiman.
“It was so extreme,” Pelli told The Intercept. “We couldn’t ignore it.”
While rights groups inside Israel moved aggressively to protect the rights of Palestinians detained in both its military camps, as well as prisons within its official government prison system, the United States showed little urgency around the issue.
The U.S. State Department only commented on Sde Teiman when pressed by reporters after the release of the CNN report. In May, Vedant Patel, deputy spokesperson for the department, said “we’re looking into these and other allegations of abuse against Palestinians in detention.” He added that the U.S. had been “clear and consistent with any country, including Israel, that it must treat all detainees humanely, with dignity, in accordance with international law, and it must respect detainees’ human rights.” He then claimed the U.S. had asked the Israeli government to investigate the claims itself.
After the Haaretz report of dozens of deaths, there was no new comment. Later that same week in June, the New York Times published an investigation into the conditions at Sde Teiman, which contained testimony from former prisoners that their Israeli jailors had tortured them with anal rape by a metal rod, among other abuses. These explosive findings were buried in the final section of the nearly 4,000-word story, after an introduction that only mentioned “beatings and other abuses,” and a headline that described Sde Teiman as “the base where Israel has detained thousands of Gazans.” Again, the U.S. government had no words.
It wasn’t until a leaked surveillance video from Sde Teiman was broadcast on Tuesday on Israeli news network Channel 12, showing Israeli soldiers allegedly gang-raping a Palestinian man imprisoned there, and subsequent pressure from reporters, that U.S. officials commented again on Sde Teiman.
The State Department responded by calling on the Israeli military to investigate itself.
Ten Israeli soldiers were arrested and face charges stemming from the alleged gang rape. Another soldier was arrested the following day on suspicion of beating detained Palestinians who were blindfolded and handcuffed. The soldier allegedly filmed himself during the incident.
A new report from Israeli human rights group B’Tselem showed that Sde Teiman was not the only Israeli prison where Palestinians have been tortured, building on years of reports of Palestinians being abused in Israeli prisons.
Released this week, one day before the Channel 12 video leak broadcast, B’Tselem’s report argued that the majority of imprisoned Palestinians have faced abuse and torture within Israeli custody. The report calls on the International Criminal Court to “investigate and promote criminal proceedings against individuals suspected of planning, directing and committing these crimes.” It argued that “Israeli investigative bodies cannot be expected to” hold its government accountable for potential abuses since “all state systems, including the judiciary, have been mobilized in support of these torture camps.”
When asked at a Wednesday press briefing whether the U.S. would call for an independent investigation, referring to the report, State Department spokesperson Matt Miller declined to address the possibility and said, “I would have to look at what the specific independent investigation people are calling for and pass judgment on the merits.” He maintained the Israeli military needs to investigate itself.
The Israeli military and the State Department did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication.
Evidence of abuse at Sde Teiman and other prisons are only the latest revelations of abuses by the Israeli military, which includes allegations of war crimes leveled against its leaders by the International Criminal Court. Despite the evidence, the U.S. has continued to fund Israel’s war on Gaza, sending more than $15 billion since October 7.
Eitay Mack, another Israeli human rights attorney, who has represented Palestinians incarcerated by the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank, said the U.S should do more in preventing such human rights abuses such as those seen in Sde Teiman.
He pointed to its ability to issue sanctions, which could target specific individual military units. The 10 Israeli soldiers arrested in the alleged gang rape case at Sde Teiman are a part of the Israeli military’s Force 100 unit. The U.S. already has leveled sanctions against Israeli settlers who commit violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. Mack also mentioned the Leahy Law, a 1997 law that prohibits U.S.
“The Secretary of State may provide assistance to any unit of the security forces of a foreign country if there is credible information that such unit has committed a gross violation of human rights.”
President Joe Biden’s administration has been reluctant to condition military aid in cases where there is acknowledgement of potential violations of international law, such as providing weapons to Israel. Mack emphasized the importance of applying rules of military aid to pressure Israel into compliance with the law, specifically the Leahy Law.
While addressing abuses by individual units is important, Mack recognized that systemic issues in Israeli prisons still persist. Military prisons like Sde Teiman are known for harsh treatment of Palestinian detainees, separate from the civilian-operated Israel Prison Service facilities.
Pelli and her organization, ACRI, have petitioned the Supreme Court to allow the Red Cross access to prisons and military camps to provide necessary medical care to prisoners. They have also filed petitions against policies of starvation and torture towards Palestinian prisoners, citing violations of international law.
Since the war in Gaza, prison conditions have worsened, with detainees facing restrictions on communication and movement within the facilities. The number of imprisoned Palestinians has significantly increased, leading to overcrowding and prolonged administrative detention without charges.
B’Tselem’s report highlighted the lack of rights and protections for Palestinians in Israeli prisons, with many being incarcerated for expressing sympathy or on vague suspicions. The report detailed instances of severe violence, sexual assault, starvation, and denial of medical treatment, indicating a systematic policy of torture.
One former detainee described brutal interrogation methods in Sde Teiman, leading to permanent injury and amputation. B’Tselem alleged that these abuses are part of a broader policy to torture Palestinians, orchestrated by government officials including Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Pelli emphasized that the issue extends beyond military facilities like Sde Teiman, indicating a pervasive problem within the Israeli prison system. In the current situation and with this particular minister, everything is dreadful.
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