Israeli sexual violence helping push Palestinians from West Bank: Report

Sexual violence and other forms of gender-based abuse committed by Israeli settlers and soldiers are helping to force Palestinians to leave the occupied West Bank, according to a report.

Researchers from the West Bank Protection Consortium detailed at least 16 cases of conflict-related sexual violence attributed to Israeli settlers and soldiers, according to the report: Sexual Violence And Forcible Transfer In The West Bank: How The Exploitation Of Gender Dynamics Drives Displacement, which was released on Monday.

“The evidence shows how sexualised violence is used to pressure communities, shape decisions about remaining or leaving their homes and land, and alter patterns of daily life,” the report said.

The researchers found that incidents of “sexualised harassment, intimidation and humiliation have intensified,” and warn that the real number of attacks likely remains underreported.

The West Bank Protection Consortium is a partnership of a number of international humanitarian organisations.

The report is based on interviews with 83 Palestinians from across 10 communities in the Jordan Valley, the South Hebron Hills and the central West Bank.

Researchers found that more than 70 percent of the displaced people interviewed said that threats to women and children, particularly sexualised violence, were the decisive reasons for leaving their homes.

“In response, families adopt gendered protective strategies, including the partial transfer of women and children and recourse to early marriage, in an effort to reduce exposure to harm,” the text explains.

Surveillance of intimate spaces

Interviewees reported incidents of sexual harassment, including sexualised insults, indecent exposure, threats of sexual violence and surveillance of intimate spaces – including bedrooms.

Other participants described how Palestinians were forced to strip, beaten and urinated on, with attackers sharing images of the abuse.

The report states that Israeli soldiers who were present during these incidents, did not prevent or stop the attacks, and failed to properly investigate them.

Last week, the Israeli military authorised five soldiers accused of sexually assaulting a Palestinian inmate in the notorious Sde Teiman detention camp to return to reserve service, after charges against them were dropped.

The soldiers, all from the Force 100 unit assigned to guard military prisons, are being reinstated despite an ongoing, internal military inquiry into their conduct.

Rights groups condemned the decision as a legal injustice, with Amnesty International calling it “yet another unconscionable chapter in the Israeli legal system’s long-standing history of granting impunity to perpetrators of grave crimes against Palestinians”.