Among candidates for U.S. sanctions, Israel’s Prison Service should be next on the list. This is apparently the realm where all the sadistic instincts of the minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, find their outlet.

On October 26, large forces of the Prison Service’s Keter unit, a tactical intervention unit, accompanied by dogs, one of them unleashed, stormed into the prison. The wardens and the dogs went on a rampage, attacking the inmates whose screams left the whole prison in a state of terror, Abu Halil recalls. The walls were soon covered with inmates’ blood. “You are Hamas, you are ISIS, you raped, murdered, abducted and now your time has come,” said one warden to the prisoners. The blows that followed were brutal, the inmates were shackled.

The beatings became a daily affair. Occasionally the guards demanded of prisoners that they kiss an Israeli flag and declaim, “Am Yisrael Chai!” – “The People of Israel live.” They were also ordered to curse the prophet Mohammed. The usual call to prayer in the cells was prohibited. The prisoners were afraid to utter any word starting with the sound “h” lest the guards suspect they had said “Hamas.”

On October 29, the inmates of Abu Halil’s cell requested a squeegee to wash the floor. The response to that was to send the terrifying Keter unit into their cell. “Now you will be like dogs,” the guards ordered. The prisoners’ hands were cuffed behind their back. Even before they were shackled, they were ordered to move only with their upper body bent over. They were led to the kitchen, where they were stripped and forced to lie one on top of the other, a pile of 10 naked prisoners. Abu Halil was the last. There, they were beaten with clubs and spat on.

A guard then started to stuff carrots into the anus of Abu Halil and other prisoners. Sitting at home now, reciting his story, Abu Halil lowers his gaze and the flow of words slows down. He’s embarrassed to talk about this. Afterward, he continues, dogs hunched over them and attacked them. They were then allowed to put on their underwear before being led back to their cell, where they found their clothes thrown into a heap.

    • acargitz@lemmy.ca
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      8 months ago

      Fuck that shit. You didn’t have to choose which Serb, Croat, or Bosnian butcher was the lesser evil. Why even start to go there now?

      Stop the war, protect civilians, end the apartheid, make peace and hand Israeli and Palestinian war criminals over to the ICC. Anything else is just prolonging the barbarism.

      • kurwa@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        If Israel gave Palestinians full rights, Hamas would have never been a thing. I agree that the war should stop, killing each other is never the answer.

    • chakan2@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Lol…omg…lol…sure it is. Do you like women’s rights? Do you like LGBQ peeps? Do you like freedom of speech?

      If so, you’re picking the wrong horse in this one.

      I hope they wipe each other out at this point before the rest of the world gets in to the battle over who’s all powerful sky wizard is more cool.

      • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
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        8 months ago

        The illusion that israel supports LGBT is hillarious. Gay marriage is banned in israel.

      • Grimy@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Nobody likes seeing woman, LGBTQ and freedom of speech rights getting attacked. Its just any sane person likes genocide even less.

        Not to mention Israel essentially created Hamas.

        • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
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          8 months ago

          It’s a typical Israeli\Turkish\Azeri talking point.

          Gay etc people are near you, you know some. Thousands of people being intimidated, robbed, abused and murdered are far away.

          It’s a way to dehumanize the latter, a very subtle dog whistle for people in the West who indeed are fine with genocide far away.

          Through women and gay people etc this makes the society of the perpetrator closer, more alive to you. It becomes “this bright modern country with such nice views and nightlife” versus some dirty stinky villagers trying to ruin that comfort. Makes the perpetrator seem “civilized” (Israelis - civilized, the joke is clear for anyone to experience these people, Azeris - civilized, now that’s postmodernism) and their lives more important. Makes you imagine that you are on their place.

          Only in fact, of course, the other side too has nice views, nice homes etc, at least until those get bombed by your nice pictures provider countries. And they don’t hate their women and even gay people (when you don’t call that gay and don’t talk about that) that much.

        • Atin@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          If Hamas had better weapons they would kill every Christian, Jew and Muslim between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. They have never made any secret of it and frequently chant about it at anti Israel protests.

            • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
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              8 months ago

              This is not entirely correct, Hamas is kinda hostile to Christians too, some more than others. I don’t think there are many Maronites in Gaza, for example. But they are more reasonable than Israelis try to make it seem.

              They are just a weaker Muslim version of some imaginary Israel with no counterweights to puppies like Ben-Gvir (sadly not imaginary anymore) and no Western support.