Israel: scandal after sexual relations between soldiers and Palestinian convict

This is a new case that is causing a stir in Israel. Soldiers performing their military service as prison guards had sexual relations with a Palestinian inmate convicted of "terrorist attack". It was immediately decided to stop the service of soldiers in detention centres. It remains to replace them, which, it seems, is not an easy task.

(Illustrative images) The prison is Ayalon Prison located in central Israel. © CC BY-SA 2.5 / Wikimedias commons

By: RFI Follow

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With our correspondent in Jerusalem, Michel Paul

They are five soldiers and perform their military service as "prison guards". They are suspected of having intimate relations with a Palestinian security detainee who is a member of Fatah, a nationalist political party, and convicted of an attack that killed several Israelis. One of the young women allegedly had a consensual relationship with the prisoner. The others allegedly acted under threat, their lawyers say.

A similar case last year

The Israeli prison administration and the minister in charge, Itamar Ben Gvir, the leader of the racist and homophobic Jewish Force party, announced that from now on, it will no longer be possible for these soldiers to serve in a prison during their military service. To replace the recruits of the contingent, they are looking for 1,000 jailers with, they claim, zero tolerance for this kind of business.

The media in Israel, however, recall that last year an investigation was opened into similar facts. It was linked to sexual assaults on contingent soldiers in the Palestinian Security Detainees Division. Some of them had even claimed to have been prostituted by their colleagues to maintain calm among the prisoners.

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• Israel
• Palestinian Territories