The arrests of 9 Israeli soldiers at the Sde Teiman prison in Israel on July 29, for investigation into allegations of the brutal torture of a Palestinian prisoner there, came one day after the Daily Telegraph reported that Hamas had sent a video to Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir warning that the fate of the Israeli hostages in Gaza depends on the easing of the treatment of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
“The British newspaper asserted that Hamas had sent a warning to National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir that the Israeli hostages held in Gaza would be harmed if the abuse of Palestinian prisoners did not stop and provided a video showing them being abused,” Haaretz commentator Amos Harel wrote hours after right-wing gangs broke into Sde Teiman and another IDF base in protest of the arrests. “The defense establishment denies such a video exists,” but “Haaretz reported last week that Shin Bet security service head Ronen Bar had warned that the continued abuse of Palestinian prisoners could lead to harm to the hostages.”
The Telegraph notes that Ben-Gvir has made it a priority to worsen conditions for Palestinian prisoners since taking office in December 2022, causing him to clash repeatedly with the Shin Bet intelligence agency who feared it would ignite another violent conflict with Hamas. The video, it adds, is understood to have intensified the rift, with Ben-Gvir said to have doubled down after viewing it.
“It should be said without hesitation that these people”—Ben-Gvir, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and the other politicians who joined the rioters—"are irresponsible populists,” Harel writes. “Not only have they failed to show an ounce of empathy toward the families of the hostages and have repeatedly blocked a deal for their return by politically blackmailing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but now they are seeking immunity for those suspected of acts of violence, which could lead to the hostages being harmed.”
“This is not a case of emotional identification with soldiers who got into trouble. The extreme right is trying to force a different set of values on the IDF, values that would allow unrestrained vigilantism in the West Bank while preventing any internal or external supervision of the soldiers’ and settlers’ actions,” Harel writes.
