General Discussion

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/28/world/middleeast/israel-un-abuse-report.html?unlocked_article_code=1.mlA.hdbH.9PWGj18etKfb&smid=url-share

"The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, told Israel there had been an “increasing number of cases” of sexual violence against Palestinian detainees, according to a letter shared by Israel’s U.N. ambassador.

... Hamas is also included on an associated list of countries and groups accused of using sexual violence as a weapon of war.

Mr. Danon denounced the decision, denied the accusations and accused the U.N. chief, António Guterres, of lying and of choosing not to fully investigate claims against Israel. “To put us and Hamas terrorists on the same list,” Mr. Danon said in a video. “That’s unacceptable.”



The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/opinion/israel-palestinians-sexual-violence.html?unlocked_article_code=1.mlA.Vr0S.EasZjUuBsJ3_&smid=url-share

"It’s a simple proposition: Whatever our views of the Middle East conflict, we should be able to unite in condemning rape.

Supporters of Israel made that point after the brutal sexual assaults against Israeli women during the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu and many U.S. senators, including Marco Rubio, condemned that sexual violence, and Netanyahu rightly called on “all civilized leaders” to “speak up.”

And yet in wrenching interviews, Palestinians have recounted to me a pattern of widespread Israeli sexual violence against men, women and even children — by soldiers, settlers, interrogators in the Shin Bet internal security agency and, above all, prison guards.

There is no evidence that Israeli leaders order rapes. But in recent years they have built a security apparatus where sexual violence has become, as a United Nations report put it last year, one of Israel’s “standard operating procedures” and “a major element in the ill treatment of Palestinians.” A report out last month, from the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, a Geneva-based advocacy group often critical of Israel, concludes that Israel employs “systematic sexual violence” that is “widely practiced as part of an organized state policy.”