Partners for Progressive Israel Responds to Reports of Rape and Sexual Torture of Palestinians
May 13th, 2026 – We are appalled — but not surprised — at the new reporting in American media that echoes what a number of Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations have been fighting to uncover: widespread sexual torture of Palestinian men, women, and even children who are detained in Israeli military prisons and who are subject to state-sponsored violence in the West Bank.
Rape and sexual torture are all too commonplace in conflict and militarized environments accompanied by intense and long-term dehumanization. We applaud the courage of these survivors, who face not only social stigma but documented campaigns of intimidation from perpetrators, and who have shared their stories at great personal risk. We also want to recognize the the organizations committed to documenting these abuses, including the West Bank Protection Consortium, B’tselem, the Public Committee Against Torture-Israel, and more.
The practices that are described in these reports are in violation of Israeli law and international law, and we demand that this abuse is subject to an independent investigation, repudiated, and prosecuted with the same rigor that so many have rightly demanded in response to the documented rape of Israeli civilians by Hamas on October 7th, 2023 and the subsequent sexual torture of Israeli hostages in Gaza.
People in detention — and young people particularly so — have the right to be free from torture or inhumane treatment, the right to medical care and visits from groups including the Red Cross, and to their legal representation. These reports of the use rape and sexual torture by both members of the Israeli military and vigilantes in the West Bank must be immediately subject to an independent investigation, and treated with utmost seriousness and care.
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