Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noh-2eFssyA

A new article in the British Medical Journal documents horrific sexual abuse against Palestinians in Israeli detention. Oxford surgeon Nick Maynard co-authored the paper. He has served three times in Gaza.

Maynard said the abuse is systematic. He took testimonies from a young nurse and doctor who were abducted from their hospitals in Gaza. They described electric shocks passed through their penises. They said their genitals were beaten day after day while being told: "This will stop you having any more terrorist children."

Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, an orthopedic surgeon, was detained and killed under torture. Reports say he was raped systematically every day for two weeks.

Over half of 165 Palestinian children surveyed said they witnessed or experienced sexual violence in detention. Many suffer permanent damage, needing reconstructive surgery or losing fertility.

This violence is used as a tool for ethnic cleansing. More than 70 percent of displaced Palestinian households in West Bank cite threats of sexual violence as a decisive reason they fled their homes.

Israeli courts do almost nothing. Between 2017 and 2021, over 1,200 cases were investigated and less than 1 percent led to convictions. In the Sde Teiman gang rape case, top military lawyers dropped charges against soldiers after pro-rape riots in Tel Aviv. Politicians joined those riots.

Source: British Medical Journal, Owen Jones interview.