The State Department on Tuesday refused to label Israeli soldiers raping Palestinian prisoners as a war crime.
Said Arikat, a reporter for Al Quds, asked State Department spokesman Vedant Patel about the Israeli soldiers who were detained for raping a Palestinian prisoner at the notorious Sde Teiman detention facility. The Palestinian was transferred to a hospital with damage to his rectum that was so severe he could not walk.
The condition of the prisoner confirms some of the worst allegations about conditions in Sde Teiman. Both Israeli whistleblowers and former Palestinian prisoners have detailed torture and widespread abuse carried out by Israeli soldiers at the facility.
“Apparently rape and killing and torture and all this thing – it happens regularly in Israeli detention camps. Does that constitute a war crime to you?” Arikat asked Patel.
Patel replied, “So the reports of abuse are deeply concerning, and we have been clear and consistent with Israel and the IDF that they need to treat all detainees humanely and with dignity in accordance with humanitarian law.” He added that the US was going to let “due process” play out in the case against the Israeli soldiers.
Arikat followed up, asking, “Now, if proven to be true, that does constitute a war crime, doesn’t it?”
Patel said, “I am not a legal expert, Said. Certainly I imagine it would be inconsistent with Israeli law.”
In contrast, the US government was quick to label Russian actions in Ukraine as war crimes, and President Biden even declared as early as March 2022, less than one month into the invasion, that Russian President Vladimir Putin was a “war criminal.”
The arrest of the Israeli soldiers suspected of rape sparked protests involving far-right activists and members of the Israeli Knesset, and one member of the coalition government. Protesters stormed Sde Teiman and one other military base in defense of the Israeli soldiers.