###VII. Sexual and gender-based violence by settlers and other civilians
I will be happy to sit with you in jail someday. You know Sde Teiman ? Rape for the sake of God, as they say. You understand what I mean.
Threat by an Israeli settler to a Palestinian man
The Commission observed a surge in settler attacks on Palestinian communities
in the West Bank immediately after 7 October 2023 and continuing to date. Several developments may have contributed to this, including the enlistment of thousands of
settlers in the ISF reserve duty, arming and mobilizing settlers for regular military service in specialised battalions based in the West Bank, establishing and arming
additional quasi-military militias in settlements and easing gun licence regulations by
Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir.
The Commission received reports about an increasing number of settler attacks involving sexual abuse and harassment, some involving collaboration between settlers
and the ISF. In one such case documented by the Commission, a group of around ten to fifteen Israeli men arrived in a Bedouin village in the West Bank in civilian cars in
mid-October 2023. Some of the men were wearing full army uniforms, some were
wearing army uniforms and sport shoes, and some were wearing civilian clothes and
carrying rifles.
The Commission assesses that the group was composed of settlers and
ISF members, some of whom may have been reserve forces. During their stay in the
village, the group attacked a total of three Palestinian men that day, two human rights
defenders, who had gone to the village to offer protection to the Bedouin community, and later one other man. The Commission has obtained the names of two of the attackers and identified them as settlers from nearby settlements.
During the early stages of the attack, the group held the two human rights defenders for around nine hours in a sheep herding enclosure. The perpetrators also seized the men’s car, money and mobile phones. At around noon, some 40 additional settlers and ISF members joined the group, bringing with them another Palestinian man from the Bedouin village and holding him captive as well. They then ordered the three Palestinians to lay face down on the ground, beat them and threatened to kill them, telling them that “there will be no Arabs left here” and that they would “send the rest of the Arabs to Jordan”. On two occasions throughout the day, Israeli civil authorities, including Israeli Administration officials and a police officer, came to the scene but did not intervene and left shortly after.
The three captive Palestinian men were all subjected to physical and mental abuse during their ordeal. One of the human rights defenders was beaten on his head with a rifle, by a man wearing a military uniform, resulting in severe bleeding. When the victim tried to lift his head and wipe the blood from his face, the perpetrator stepped on his head and smeared dirt on his face. The uniformed man tore the victim’s clothes with a knife, leaving him in his underwear. He then blindfolded him with a piece of torn clothes. He put his foot on the victim’s head and pushed his face to the ground several times, saying, “eat, eat”, as the ground had remnants of straw and sheep food. The victim told the uniformed man that he had undergone heart surgery which prompted the uniformed man to kick the victim in the chest, saying “die, die”. The uniformed man then proceeded to jump on the victim’s back. When the victim asked for water, the uniformed man said he will give him water and urinated on him. He then placed a stick in the area of the victim’s anus, over his underwear, and attempted twice to insert the stick into his rectum but the victim moved away to avoid it. According to the victim, men in military uniforms beat the other human rights defender and extinguished their cigarettes in four different places on his body.
The Commission also documented cases of sexual violence directed at Palestinian men by Israeli civilians in Israel. The Commission collected and verified digital footage of civilian men desecrating the bodies of two Palestinian men in Israel in the aftermath of the 7 October attack.
A video and a photograph were published on Telegram on 8 October 2023, showing the bodies of two dead Palestinian men who had been stripped naked, their heads covered with a piece of fabric and what appear to be military uniforms of Palestinian armed groups next to them. Two men in civilian clothes are then seen urinating on the bodies of the men, one of them kicking one of the bodies repeatedly in the stomach, and a third man kicking the body in the head.
One of the civilian men also poses in a photograph while standing on the heads of the two men lying on the ground. The Commission geolocated the photo to a location in Israel and notes that the civilian men speak in Hebrew while abusing the bodies, encouraging each other to urinate on the bodies stating they are bodies of Hamas
militants, while also using gendered and sexualized insults, such as “slut” and “prostitute”, as well as racist and possibly religious slurs referring to the bodies as “Mohammed”.
###VII. Sexual and gender-based violence by settlers and other civilians I will be happy to sit with you in jail someday. You know Sde Teiman ? Rape for the sake of God, as they say. You understand what I mean.
The Commission observed a surge in settler attacks on Palestinian communities in the West Bank immediately after 7 October 2023 and continuing to date. Several developments may have contributed to this, including the enlistment of thousands of settlers in the ISF reserve duty, arming and mobilizing settlers for regular military service in specialised battalions based in the West Bank, establishing and arming additional quasi-military militias in settlements and easing gun licence regulations by Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir.
The Commission received reports about an increasing number of settler attacks involving sexual abuse and harassment, some involving collaboration between settlers and the ISF. In one such case documented by the Commission, a group of around ten to fifteen Israeli men arrived in a Bedouin village in the West Bank in civilian cars in mid-October 2023. Some of the men were wearing full army uniforms, some were wearing army uniforms and sport shoes, and some were wearing civilian clothes and carrying rifles. The Commission assesses that the group was composed of settlers and ISF members, some of whom may have been reserve forces. During their stay in the village, the group attacked a total of three Palestinian men that day, two human rights defenders, who had gone to the village to offer protection to the Bedouin community, and later one other man. The Commission has obtained the names of two of the attackers and identified them as settlers from nearby settlements.
During the early stages of the attack, the group held the two human rights defenders for around nine hours in a sheep herding enclosure. The perpetrators also seized the men’s car, money and mobile phones. At around noon, some 40 additional settlers and ISF members joined the group, bringing with them another Palestinian man from the Bedouin village and holding him captive as well. They then ordered the three Palestinians to lay face down on the ground, beat them and threatened to kill them, telling them that “there will be no Arabs left here” and that they would “send the rest of the Arabs to Jordan”. On two occasions throughout the day, Israeli civil authorities, including Israeli Administration officials and a police officer, came to the scene but did not intervene and left shortly after.
The three captive Palestinian men were all subjected to physical and mental abuse during their ordeal. One of the human rights defenders was beaten on his head with a rifle, by a man wearing a military uniform, resulting in severe bleeding. When the victim tried to lift his head and wipe the blood from his face, the perpetrator stepped on his head and smeared dirt on his face. The uniformed man tore the victim’s clothes with a knife, leaving him in his underwear. He then blindfolded him with a piece of torn clothes. He put his foot on the victim’s head and pushed his face to the ground several times, saying, “eat, eat”, as the ground had remnants of straw and sheep food. The victim told the uniformed man that he had undergone heart surgery which prompted the uniformed man to kick the victim in the chest, saying “die, die”. The uniformed man then proceeded to jump on the victim’s back. When the victim asked for water, the uniformed man said he will give him water and urinated on him. He then placed a stick in the area of the victim’s anus, over his underwear, and attempted twice to insert the stick into his rectum but the victim moved away to avoid it. According to the victim, men in military uniforms beat the other human rights defender and extinguished their cigarettes in four different places on his body.
The Commission also documented cases of sexual violence directed at Palestinian men by Israeli civilians in Israel. The Commission collected and verified digital footage of civilian men desecrating the bodies of two Palestinian men in Israel in the aftermath of the 7 October attack. A video and a photograph were published on Telegram on 8 October 2023, showing the bodies of two dead Palestinian men who had been stripped naked, their heads covered with a piece of fabric and what appear to be military uniforms of Palestinian armed groups next to them. Two men in civilian clothes are then seen urinating on the bodies of the men, one of them kicking one of the bodies repeatedly in the stomach, and a third man kicking the body in the head. One of the civilian men also poses in a photograph while standing on the heads of the two men lying on the ground. The Commission geolocated the photo to a location in Israel and notes that the civilian men speak in Hebrew while abusing the bodies, encouraging each other to urinate on the bodies stating they are bodies of Hamas militants, while also using gendered and sexualized insults, such as “slut” and “prostitute”, as well as racist and possibly religious slurs referring to the bodies as “Mohammed”.