By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

In a CNN report that doesn’t offer much detail, the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel (ARCII) holds that Israeli civilians suffered “brutal sexual assaults” that were carried out “systematically and deliberately” during the Palestinian resistance operation on October 7. 

CNN reports that the ARCII findings include testimonies “from eyewitnesses, first responders, forensic experts, and news articles,” and states that “Hamas militants who entered Israel used extreme acts of sexual violence against their victims and, in most cases, killed them ‘after or even during the rape.’”

“The report does not detail how many cases of sexual assault it has documented nor is it clear if it spoke to victims, although it notes that in most cases ‘the victims were killed after or even during the rape,’” CNN states in the article. 

“Many of those who have been raped and tortured were murdered, unable to ever voice their experiences…,” the ARCII report stated, according to CNN. 

ARCII, however, “outlines witness testimony” from “survivors of the massacre (Nova)”, “first responders and forensic experts.”

Unsubstantiated 

This brings into question once again the issue raised by The Palestine Chronicle in its documentary produced in association with Friends of Palestine Network which highlights the repeated claims by Israel about sexual violence committed by the resistance on October 7. 

While sexual assaults on Palestinian women are as old as the Israeli war on the Palestinians, starting during the years of the Nakba – the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948 – there is little evidence that Palestinians utilized sexual violence in their struggle against the Israeli occupation. 

Yet, on December 28, The New York Times, claimed, in a supposedly comprehensive report entitled ‘Screams without Words: How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7’, that Israeli women were raped on October 7. The report was first published digitally on December 28, then in print on December 31.

This report was covered in the documentary which may be viewed here.

Commenting on the topic in the documentary was Palestinian intellectual, Ramzy Baroud, who said sexual violence by the resistance “is just not part of Palestinian culture.”

“As a historian who has been writing about the history of Palestinian resistance within the context people’s history of Palestine, covering all periods of Palestinian history, from the Nakba to the two Intifadas, the current war and everything in between, I haven’t run into anything of this nature, it’s just  not part of Palestinian culture,” Baroud said.

‘Strict Code’

He explained that if no Palestinian resistance movement in history, “even the least disciplined of Palestinian groups and factions”  have not employed this strategy, “why would the most disciplined and religious groups” do so? 

This, Baroud continued, is very important “because religious resistance movements in Palestine have a very strict code regarding the behavior around women.” 

“Even Israeli women captives in Gaza were tended to mostly by women, because men did not want to be in direct contact with these women,” he said. 

Beaten, Strip Searched – Female Palestinian Detainees Tell Harrowing Stories

Baroud emphasized that even though there was “absolutely not only no real evidence,” of sexual violence on October 7, what has to be kept in mind is “the context and the function of these kinds of allegations.”

“It is there to create a distraction from the horrific things that Israel has done to Palestinians. Horrific beyond anything, only comparable to the Nazis…That’s what Israel has done to the Palestinians in Gaza.” 

Baroud contended that it was done “to create an intellectual frame of reference, not just only as functional in the immediate propaganda so that they can put the focus on Hamas and put Palestinians on the defensive.”

He added, “but also because they wanted to create this report so that future historians, researchers and activists are in a way obligated to contend with it even if they disagree with it. But it’s there.”

UN Report on Sexual Violence

On Monday, a group of UN experts called for allegations of human rights violations against Palestinian women and girls in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank to be investigated.  

Rape in Gaza – UN Experts Demand Investigation into Israeli Sexual Assaults on Palestinian Girls

In a statement the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said it had received information that Palestinian women and girls have “reportedly been arbitrarily executed in Gaza, often together with family members, including their children.” 

The experts said they “are particularly distressed by reports that Palestinian women and girls in detention have also been subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, such as being stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers.”

“At least two female Palestinian detainees were reportedly raped while others were reportedly threatened with rape and sexual violence,” the experts stated.

They also noted that “photos of female detainees in degrading circumstances were also reportedly taken by the Israeli army and uploaded online.”

They called for “an independent, impartial, prompt, thorough and effective investigation” into the allegations and for Israel to cooperate with such investigations.

Last month, the Palestine Chronicle published a special report on the treatment of female detainees at the Damon prison, at the hands of Israeli authorities, including being “subjected to humiliating strip searches”.

‘Transported in Cages’ – Shocking Details of How Israel Treats Female Gaza Prisoners

The Palestinian prisoner organizations such as the Palestinian Prisoners Society have also highlighted testimonies shared by female Palestinian detainees of gross violations at the hands of Israeli prison guards including beatings and strip searches.

(The Palestine Chronicle)