a Twitter thread from @ramman\_erin

1.

Sexual violence is a cornerstone of Israel's founding and continued existence. Rape was frequent enough during the Nakba that David Ben-Gurion kept a running sub-section in his diary called “Rape Cases” which he updated every few days.

2.

Quote from Benny Morris interviewed for Haaretz, 2004

3.

The prevalence of this sexual violence was a major factor in the Zionists' expulsion of Palestinians. Think logically: you hear news the Zionist militia has raped and killed Palestinians a few towns over. What do you do? Grab your family and run.

4.

Fatma Kassem contends in her book, Palestinian Women, that "the rapes at Deir Yassin compelled many Palestinian families to seek temporary refuge and escape the threat of rape." This is backed up by the testimonies of Nakba survivors.

5.

We know that Zionist "feminism" is a crock [see the Purplewashing section by Decolonize Palestine], but it's imperative to point out that the army which calls itself the "most moral" has used sexual violence as a weapon of war since its founding.

6.

Regarding the massacre at Deir Yassin, Jacques De Reynier of the International Red Cross, who treated some of the survivors, wrote:

7.

This is a quote from former Mapam party member S. Kaplan regarding the Israeli military's atrocities at the villages of Dawaymeh and Qubayba in the Hebron district in October of 1948:

8.

Regarding the ethnic cleansing of Safsaf, Haganah Chief of Staff Yisrael Galili recalls: "Women pleaded for mercy. [There were] 3 cases of rape... a girl aged 14 was raped. Another 4 were killed." Witnesses say a pregnant Palestinian woman was bayonetted and killed.

9.

A quote from Ilan Pappé's The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine regarding horrific sexual violence against a 12-year-old Palestinian girl perpetrated by at least TWENTY-TWO Israeli soldiers:

10.

Israeli soldier Amon Kenan wrote they would rape imprisoned Palestinian women: "At night, those of us who couldn't restrain ourselves would go into the prison compounds to fuck Arab women... The rapist...was simply not accused, because there was no one who would dare accuse him."

11.

This abuse continues. A 14-year-old Palestinian detainee told B'Tselem in 2009, "[The Israeli interrogator] threatened to rape me or perform sexual acts on me... I remembered what I'd seen on the news, when British and American soldiers raped and took photos of naked Iraqis."

12.

15-year-old Palestinian boy in 2010: "[The interrogator] attached two clamps [of jumper cables] to my hands and put a third clamp between my legs, near my genitals. He threatened to turn on the electricity unless I confessed."

13.

Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu of Safed has twisted Jewish texts to defend wartime rape committed against Palestinians, saying in 2002, "The Torah said: in this case, if you're so enflamed—take the Comely Woman!"

14.

In 2014, Israeli professor Mordechai Kedar of Bar-Ilan University advocated raping the female family members of Hamas militants, stating, "The only thing that could deter a suicide bomber is knowing that if caught, his sister or his mother would be raped."

15.

Israeli journalist Ben Caspit wrote of Ahed Tamimi, "We should exact a price at some other opportunity, in the dark, without witnesses and cameras. The Tamimi family has to learn, the hard way, that such systemic provocations [come at great cost]."

16.

I know these quotes and testimonies are very distressing to read, and I am sorry if they find anyone in a state of particular vulnerability there. But this is the reality of the Nakba and ongoing violence against Palestinians, and we cannot ignore that it is happening.

17.

As in many societies, sexual violence in Palestine is under-reported. The quotes I have shared here are only a handful of those I've found researching sexual violence and the Nakba.

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