Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the leak of a video allegedly showing Israeli soldiers raping a Palestinian prisoner at the notorious Sede Teiman detentions facility last year was the “most serious public-relations attack” Israel has ever experienced.
Netanyahu’s comments came after Israel’s top military prosecutor, Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, admitted to approving the leak of the video and resigned from her post amid outrage and criticism from Israelis who are accusing her of betraying the state.
“It is perhaps the most serious public relations attack Israel has experienced since its founding — I cannot recall one so concentrated and intense,” Netanyahu said. “This requires an independent and impartial inquiry, and I expect that such an investigation will indeed take place.”
The video was leaked last year after Israeli soldiers were arrested by military police on suspicion of raping the Palestinian prisoner, and far-right Israelis, including members of the Knesset and government, stormed Sde Teiman in protest of the arrests. Tomer-Yerushalmi said the video was leaked in response to the criticism of the Israeli military for detaining the soldiers.
“Unfortunately, this basic understanding — that there are actions which must never be taken even against the vilest of detainees — no longer convinces everyone,” she said in a resignation letter.
Israeli government officials haven’t offered criticism of the severe abuse of the Palestinian prisoner, just of the fact that the video was leaked. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has called the leak a “blood libel” against Israel.
Amid the controversy over the leak, lawyers representing the five Israeli reservists who have been indicted for abusing the prisoner are calling for the charges to be dropped. The soldiers have been indicted for “severe abuse” but not for rape or sexual assault, despite the indictment saying that a soldier stabbed the Palestinian with a “sharp object” that caused a tear in his rectal wall.
According to Israeli media reports at the time, the Palestinian prisoner was admitted to the hospital with an injury to his anus so severe that he couldn’t walk. According to Haaretz, the victim suffered a ruptured bowel, severe anal and lung injuries, broken ribs. and required surgery.
