A new Al-Araby TV investigative report details systematic sexual violence by Israeli prison authorities against Palestinian detainees. Filmed inside the Prisoners’ Club archive in Ramallah, the report reveals documented testimonies from men who describe being raped by Israeli prison guards — in some cases with sticks, and in others by police dogs.

One survivor, identified as “Ahmad,” recounts being stripped, bound, and raped “in a barbaric way” by Israeli guards, before being forced to witness other prisoners subjected to the same torture — acts he said were meant to “destroy us as human beings.” Other testimonies describe guards who took pleasure in the assaults — sometimes conducting them publicly before other prisoners as a method of domination and humiliation.

A Palestinian psychiatrist who treats these men tells the channel that even medical workers live in fear from retaliation and don’t speak out about the documented patterns of degradation and physical and psychological torture employed by Israel. He said victims were assaulted using animals as a form of psychological terror meant to deter Palestinians from resistance.

Researchers cited in the report asset that the Palestinian body itself has been turned into a “theater of colonial power” — used to display Israel’s authority through physical and sexual violence, and inflict pain as a demonstration of control.

The archive has documented 10 confirmed rape cases, but its director warns that the real number is far higher, since most survivors remain silent to avoid further retaliation. As they enter the Prisoners’ Club archive, before giving their testimony, former prisoners are confronted with the words on the door:

“Walk as if you did not hear. Be silent as if you did not understand. Ignore as if you did not see. Forget as if you did not remember.”

The video opens with that haunting refrain, which the report describes as a reflection on how survivors are urged to suppress their trauma – as the rest of the world looks away.

Source: Al-Araby TV, October 15, 2025.