Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

“Israel’s military attorney general just gave his soldiers license to rape—so long as the victim is Palestinian,” said one Israeli rights group.

The Israel Defense Forces on Thursday dismissed the indictments of five soldiers accused of raping a Palestinian prisoner at the notorious Sde Teiman prison in July 2024—an attack that sparked worldwide outrage.

The IDF spokesperson’s office said the decision to drop the indictments of five reserve members of Force 100—a special unit of the military police responsible for guarding and controlling high-risk detainees—“was made following an examination of all the considerations, evidence, and relevant circumstances.”

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“Among the factors taken into account were the complexity of the evidentiary basis in the case and the implications of the release of the security detainee to the Gaza Strip, which created significant consequences for the evidentiary aspect of the case,” the office added. “These developments created exceptional circumstances that affect the ability to continue the criminal proceedings while preserving the right of the defendants to a fair trial.”

The dismissal of the indictments, according to The Jerusalem Post, does not mean the soldiers have been exonerated.

The five soldiers were caught on video assaulting a Palestinian prisoner at Sde Teiman on July 5, 2024. Although they used riot shields in a bid to conceal the nearly 15-minute attack, medical reports cited in the case show the victim suffered serious rectal injuries requiring surgery, a ruptured bowel, punctured lung, and fractured ribs. An Israeli medical staffer said that the victim arrived at the hospital in critical condition.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza—welcomed the dismissal of the indictments, which he said had “damaged Israel’s reputation in the world in an unprecedented manner.”

Israeli President Israel Katz raised eyebrows by asserting that “the role of the IDF’s legal system is to protect and safeguard IDF soldiers who engage heroically in war against cruel monsters, and not the rights of the terrorists of Hamas.”

Netanyahu and Katz both called the prosecution of the Sde Teiman reservists a “blood libel.”

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich similarly welcomed the dismissals, declaring that “now all that’s left is to ensure that the ousted military advocate general stands trial.”

Smotrich was referring to Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, who admitted last year to authorizing the leak of the Sde Teiman assault video in order to “confront the false propaganda against the law enforcement officials in the military” by those who denied the allegations against the soldiers.

Human rights groups and others condemned the decision to kill the case, with the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) posting on social media that “Israel’s military attorney general granted his soldiers a rape license—as long as the victim was Palestinian.”

PCATI said that dismissing the indictments “adds to a long series of decisions and actions taken by the army… which cover up the violent violations that have occurred in Israeli prisons and detention facilities Increasingly since October 7, 2023.”

Contrasting the failure to hold the reservists accountable with the draconian prison sentences given to Palestinians who resist Israel’s illegal occupation, US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said on Bluesky: “Just so that we are clear, Israel drops criminal charges on five Israeli soldiers who were caught on camera sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee. But Israel will keep kids in prison for decades because they were throwing rocks? Make it make sense.”

Canadian journalist Justin Ling said that “the abuse inflicted on Palestinian detainees at Sde Teiman prison—including the murder of a Palestinian doctor—was inhumane.”

“This one case, brought because the abuse was *caught on camera*, was a small sign that rule of law in Israel still worked,” he added. “The Israeli government has dropped the case.”

Israeli-American academic Shaiel Ben-Ephraim also noted the strength of the case, including the video footage of the assault.

“They had witness testimony,” he added. “It was a slam-dunk case. Guards I talked to in Sde Teiman said this case was just the tip of the iceberg. And now they are dropping the charges. Of course.”

Former Palestinian prisoners, IDF soldiers, and Israeli medical professionals have all said they witnessed torture and other abuse of detainees at Sde Teiman and other facilities. Victims ranged in age from children to the elderly.

According to an analysis by Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, at least 98 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons and military detention centers during the war. Many bodies of former Palestinian prisoners returned by Israel have shown signs of torture, execution, and mutilation.

The IDF has announced investigations into the deaths of dozens of Palestinian prisoners in its custody during the genocidal war on Gaza launched after the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023.

Nine Israeli soldiers were initially arrested in connection with the recorded Sde Teiman assault. Five of them were indicted in February 2025.

While many Israelis condemned the alleged rape of the Sde Teiman prisoner, others rallied around the accused soldiers—especially on the far right. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir hailed the reservists as “our best heroes.” Smotrich called them “heroic warriors.”

Smotrich and others demanded an investigation into the video showing the attack—not in order to seek justice for the victim, but rather to find out who leaked the damning footage.

The soldiers’ arrests outraged many on the Israeli right. At least one Cabinet member and several members of the Knesset, Israel’s legislative body, joined a mob that in August 2024 stormed two military bases where they believed the arrested suspects were being held.

Other Israelis, including journaist Yehuda Schlesinger, called for legalizing the torture of Palestinian prisoners, because “they deserve it,” and “it’s great revenge.”

Last year, Israel blocked a request from United Nations sex crimes experts to probe alleged sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas fighters during the October 7, 2023 attack, reportedly to avoid attendant scrutiny of rapes and other abuses allegedly committed by Israeli forces against imprisoned Palestinians.

Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

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