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.
Reports of poor conditions and violence against Palestinians detained inside Sde Teiman started to emerge. Whistleblowers shared stories of soldiers committing acts of violence, including one case where a Palestinian died in the prison. Media reports continued to mount, with a CNN investigation in May revealing shocking details of the harrowing conditions inside the prison. Palestinian detainees were subjected to restraint, blindfolding, and forced to sit or stand beneath floodlights throughout the night. Wounded Palestinians were strapped down, forced to wear diapers, and fed through straws. Soldiers beat detainees out of revenge for attacks, and prisoners’ limbs were amputated without anesthesia.
In May, an Intercept investigation found that hundreds of Palestinian doctors had disappeared into Israeli detention, with one surgeon sharing his experience of being beaten and abused at Sde Teiman. A separate report from Haaretz revealed that the Israel Defense Forces were investigating 48 deaths of Palestinians in Israeli custody, 36 of whom were detained at Sde Teiman. The prison was soon referred to as “Israel’s Guantánamo Bay.”
Prompted by the CNN report, Pelli filed a petition to Israel’s Supreme Court, on behalf of five human rights organizations, calling for the closure of Sde Teiman. While rights groups in Israel took action to protect the rights of Palestinians, the U.S. showed little urgency on the issue. The State Department only commented on Sde Teiman when pressed by reporters, stating that they were looking into the allegations and had asked the Israeli government to investigate.
It wasn’t until a leaked surveillance video from Sde Teiman was broadcast on Israeli news network Channel 12, showing soldiers allegedly gang-raping a Palestinian man, that U.S. officials commented again on the prison. The State Department called on the Israeli military to investigate itself. Ten soldiers were arrested in connection with the alleged gang rape, and another soldier was arrested for beating blindfolded and handcuffed Palestinians.
A new report from Israeli human rights group B’Tselem revealed that Sde Teiman was not the only prison where Palestinians were tortured. The report argued that the majority of imprisoned Palestinians faced abuse and torture within Israeli custody. When asked about the possibility of an independent investigation, the State Department declined to address it and maintained that the Israeli military should investigate itself.
The evidence of abuse at Sde Teiman and other prisons is just the latest revelation of abuses by the Israeli military. Despite the evidence, the U.S. has continued to fund Israel’s war on Gaza. Israeli human rights attorney Eitay Mack believes the U.S. should do more to prevent human rights abuses, such as imposing sanctions on specific military units and enforcing the Leahy Law, which prohibits assistance to foreign security forces involved in gross human rights violations.
Sde Teiman is just one example of the systemic abuses in Israeli prisons. Palestinian prisoners are subject to military courts and often face severe violence, sexual assault, humiliation, and denial of adequate medical treatment. The Israeli government has been accused of implementing a policy of torture, with the support of top officials.
The hearings to close Sde Teiman continue, with right-wing protesters disrupting the proceedings. Lawyers for the military argue that there are no longer any issues at the prison, but Pelli argues that the living conditions still violate international law. She warns that the prison population could increase again at any point during the ongoing war.
The U.S. government’s response to the abuses in Sde Teiman and other Israeli prisons has been inadequate. Despite the evidence and calls for independent investigations, the U.S. continues to provide military aid to Israel. It is crucial for the U.S. to take action and hold Israel accountable for its human rights abuses.