Al Jazeera's documentary 'Bodies of Evidence: Israel’s Darkest Weapon', directed by Awad Joumaa, exposes how sexual violence and torture in Israeli prisons against Palestinians are a legacy of colonial practices, tracing a direct line from British and French imperial methods to present-day abuses.
In 1969, Abdel Latif Ghaith, later director of Palestinian prisoner rights group Addameer, witnessed a young Palestinian woman, Rasmea Odeh, being interrogated naked in a Jerusalem detention cell. Her father was brought in and wept, begging her to confess, but she refused. Odeh later testified before a UN committee in 1979 that she was raped with a stick, subjected to electric shocks to her mouth and genitals, and threatened that her father would be forced to rape her.
UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese states: 'Torture is not new to the Palestinians. Israel has practised torture against the Palestinians since the very beginning of its existence.' She highlights that British emergency regulations from the Mandate period, originally used against Irish insurgents, were incorporated wholesale into Israeli law.
Former ICC judge Cuno Tarfusser describes sexual violence as 'a method to fight the war'. Kifaya Khraim of the Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling notes that Israeli forces exploit social stigma, making it difficult for women to report rape.
The historical chain is concrete: after the Irish War of Independence, Britain redeployed some 650 former 'Black and Tans' paramilitaries to Palestine in 1922, bringing their brutal methods. During the 1936-1939 Arab Revolt, Britain deployed over 20,000 troops, demolished homes, and used civilians as human shields.
In 1950s Kenya, British detention camps in the Pipeline system used castration, rape with bottles, and insertion of objects; the UK settled a lawsuit with Mau Mau survivors in 2013. France systematized sexual violence during the Algerian War, with cases like Djamila Boupacha's rape with a bottle becoming international scandals. Frantz Fanon treated both victims and perpetrators of torture in Algeria.
Israel also adopted French methods: the 1956 Sevres protocol allied Israel with France and Britain against Egypt; France helped Israel build nuclear weapons and taught it to view anti-colonial populations as enemies. The 1987 Landau Commission called torture 'moderate physical pressure', and the 1999 High Court left loopholes for 'necessity'.
In 2024, five Israeli soldiers were charged with sexual abuse at the Sde Teiman detention camp, but charges were dropped in March 2026. Amnesty International called the decision 'disgraceful'. Knesset member Hanoch Milwidsky stated: 'If he is a Nukhba [Hamas fighter], everything is legitimate to do. Everything.'
The 2025 UN Secretary-General's report on conflict-related sexual violence listed Israel and Palestine as a situation of concern. Albanese describes the environment as 'a torturous environment' where pain is deliberate and constant, and where even human rights defenders are targeted.
Source: www.aljazeera.com