https://arab.news/bfhgf
A great scandal currently playing out in Israel is highly revealing of the fault lines in its society when it comes to the Palestinians. Israeli society is divided between those who think the scandal is about the leaking of a video showing the abuse of Palestinian detainees and those who think the crime is the actual abuse. Yes, for many, the leak is the crime, not the depicted rape.
The reaction in much of Israel has been that the leak was an act of treason, a betrayal rather than an expose of a major crime. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented the leak as a hasbara fail. “It is perhaps the most serious public relations attack Israel has experienced since its founding,” he said. Others might suggest the Gaza genocide is more damaging than a video leak.
This happened in Sde Teiman, an Israeli detention camp in the Negev desert, about 30 km from Gaza, on July 29, 2024, when Israeli military police arrested nine Israeli soldiers suspected of abusing a Palestinian prisoner. The reaction from the Israeli right was swift and furious. Even members of the Knesset joined the mob that stormed the base. Within the Knesset, Likud members debated the legitimacy of raping Palestinian prisoners, with one stating: “If he is a Nukhba (Hamas militant), everything is legitimate to do. Everything.”
