Let me get this straight. A blindfolded man, handcuffed, can’t see, can’t move, can’t fight back. Five soldiers kick him, stomp him, beat him with clubs, drag him across the ground, taser him over and over, including on his head, for 15 straight minutes. One of them stabs him near his anus with a sharp object and tears his rectum. Seven broken ribs. A punctured lung. Internal injuries so bad he needs surgery on his large intestine and a stoma bag.
This happened. It’s on camera. The whole world saw it.
And now three of those soldiers want $6 million because they feel *slandered*.
Bless their hearts.
These are reservists from Israel’s “Force 100” unit, guards at the Sde Teiman military prison. They were indicted in February 2025 for the July 2024 assault. The footage leaked to Channel 12 and aired in August 2024. The UN human rights office called it “shocking,” which is diplomatic-speak for “what is wrong with you people.”
IDF Spokesperson's Unit photographer (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Wikimedia CommonsBut then Israel’s military advocate general, a man named Itay Offir, dropped every single charge. His reason? “Lack of key evidence.” The detainee had been returned to Gaza, you see, so he wasn’t available to testify. Funny how that works. You beat a man within an inch of his life, send him back to a war zone, and then shrug and say, “Well, he’s not here to press charges, so I guess we’ll just call it a day.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the decision. He said Israel “must pursue its enemies, not its heroic fighters.” Heroic. I have questions. What exactly is heroic about five armed men working over a blindfolded, handcuffed prisoner with clubs and a stun gun? Because from where I sit, that’s not heroism. That’s the opposite of heroism. That’s cowardice with a uniform on.
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel called the dropped charges a “whitewash” that handed soldiers “a license to rape.” Amnesty International said it was “yet another unconscionable chapter” in a pattern of impunity. Those are strong words from organizations that don’t throw them around lightly.
And now the cherry on top. Three of the reservists, through a right-wing legal aid group called Honenu, have filed suit against 17 defendants, including the Israeli state, the army, the military police, the attorney general, the former military advocate general, and the Channel 12 journalist who first broadcast the footage. They want 1.5 million shekels for “false suspicion of a sexual offence.” They want $150,000 for 15 days of what they call “wrongful detention.” They want $1 million for defamation. They want another $330,000 for a “wrongful indictment.”
Let me pause here. The indictment described a man getting stabbed in his rectum with a sharp object. The surveillance camera caught it. The detainee’s injuries are documented in medical records. Seven broken ribs. Punctured lung. Surgery. A stoma. But the soldiers want half a million dollars because they were “falsely suspected” of a sexual offense.
Maia Fotografia / PexelsYou can see the footage with your own eyes. The whole planet saw it. But these men looked at that tape, looked at the dropped charges, and thought, “You know what? We’re the real victims here.”
That’s not how it works, hon.
I don’t care what flag you fly or what uniform you wear. If you beat a helpless, blindfolded man until his ribs snap and his lung collapses, you are not the victim. You are not heroic. And you do not deserve a check for $6 million. You deserve to face what you did in a courtroom with the lights on and the doors open.
The fact that nobody in power over there seems to agree with that tells you everything you need to know about the system. And the fact that they think nobody’s paying attention tells you everything about what they think of the rest of us.
We’re paying attention.