On Sde Teiman - Shay Fogelman in Haaretz:

‘In the days after the surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7, a total of some 120 Hamas militants, members of the movement's Nukhba military wing and Palestinian civilians from the Gaza Strip were taken into custody in Israel. They were sent to a detention facility specially created on a military police base at the Sde Teiman camp, between the town of Ofakim and Be'er Sheva in the Negev. In the months that followed, more than 4,500 additional inhabitants of the Strip, among them terrorists from various organizations, and civilians, were incarcerated there.
Not long after the facility began to operate, testimonies were published in both Israeli and foreign media to the effect that detainees there were being starved, beaten and tortured. It was also alleged that the conditions of detention did not conform to international law.’

(…)

‘Two months ago, it was learned that the Israel Defense Forces was conducting a criminal investigation against soldiers allegedly involved in the death of 36 detainees in the camp. Last month, 10 reservists were arrested there on suspicion of brutal sexual abuse of an inmate. Regular or reservist soldiers assigned to Sde Teiman are subordinate to the military police, which has ultimate authority over the goings-on there.
In the wake of the many testimonies that surfaced, five human rights organizations petitioned the High Court of Justice, calling for the site to be shut down. In early June, the state announced in response that it intended to transfer most of the detainees to facilities run by the Israel Prison Service and to restore the camp to its original mission "as a facility for temporary, short-term [incarceration] for purposes of interrogation and classification only." In another response to the High Court of Justice earlier this month, the state declared that there were now only 28 detainees in the facility.’

(…)

T., 37, a reservist from the north:

‘"Wake-up is at about 5 A.M., when the military police officers would arrive for their shifts. They use megaphones and get everyone to stand up. Immediately afterward, there's a head count. The duty officer arrives and reads out the names. Everyone who hears their name answers 'Yes, captain' [in Hebrew] and then sits down. Then they have prayers. Each person prays to himself, then they bring in a crate with food that the shawish distributes; it's usually four or five slices of bread and something to spread on them. In the morning it's cheese, at lunch tuna, and in the evening jam or something like that. And also a fruit or vegetable."
Who does the spreading on the bread? "They do it themselves."
Blindfolded? "Yes. They can even do it with a blindfold. It's not totally hermetic; they probably see what's close by and under them. They also walk to the toilet like that and don't run into the walls. So I assume they see something."
And they have disposable utensils? "I don't think I saw anything like that."
So they spread the cheese or the tuna with their fingers? "Yes."
And where is the toilet? "In the pen. There are two or three chemical toilets there. But they have to ask permission to go. If they want to drink water, they raise hands and the shawish [a derogatory term with many connotations in Arabic, but used to describe an inmate put in charge of other inmates here] goes over and gets it. Sometimes the police officer might give them two minutes to stand up and stretch. I didn't completely understand the rules or when that happens. Sometimes it was once a day, sometimes three times a week.’

(…)

‘What opportunities were there, for beating him? "Because of the searches, I think his legs were broken, so every time he had to stand for the head count, for example, and he couldn't stand up. So that was an excuse to take him out and beat him some more."
But did he get beaten during every head count? "Not in every head count, but quite a lot. Quite a lot."
Did he say anything? "No, he looked exhausted. Sometimes he begged them to stop."
And among yourselves, among the soldiers, did anyone have questions about what was going on there? "There were soldiers, mainly female soldiers, who went into a kind of panic attack when they saw a search. But there were plenty who were enthusiastic about doing those shifts, who wanted to be there. Even the officers from my company looked for an excuse to show up. It fills you with adrenaline… like, when I was in the situation, too… it's not some ordinary sort of situation. It causes stress. The rest of the time it's boring in the tent of the rest area, and there's not much interaction between the soldiers. There's a few tables, you sit, pass the time, and suddenly it happens. There's action.
"Most of the guys were just fine with what was happening. There were some who were a little bothered by it, and there were others who were bothered by it at the start and then they toed the line with the system. The excuses were that 'it's wartime,' 'they are terrible' and 'there's no other way to impose discipline on them.'

(…)

‘"The dehumanization frightened me. I couldn't understand how a group of young people who were around me every day underwent such a dangerous process in such a short time. Of course I understand the pain and the fear, which have also accompanied me since October, but I didn't believe to what extent they'd succeeded to distort the concept of reality of the people living around me. I felt an obligation to document what I heard. I took out my phone and began transcribing everything I heard [following is an excerpt from her transcript, which she titled]: '2 June 2024 testimony: reserve call-up of female squad commanders to military police. Conversations around: "We'll beat them with clubs." "I will just spit on them." "How do you plan to beat terrorists?" "I think this is a mission, the task." "Why do they even deserve conditions like these?" "The truth is that I'm between jobs and a tenner actually suited me." "Do you really want to do this?" – "Yes, I want money," with a wink.' "So, we sat down for the briefing. An amiable military police officer entered and started talking: 'You are probably asking what you're doing here. We are the military police. Our task in [this] emergency is enemy detainees.' He elaborated on how many had been taken into custody and which facilities they had been taken to, and then he emphasized: 'It's important for you to understand, for the return of the hostages we need to return prisoners, so we're holding them for the deals. At the moment, they are a strategic asset of the IDF.' "When the questions and objections started, he got tough. 'You're all here under an emergency order. You have to serve in the job. I'm here to mediate [reality] for you. Until a month ago there was no slushy or popcorn here. People were called up, of course, and they were told: Shalom, you are going to serve as a prison guard for an indefinite time.' "Someone asked, 'How can you call up girls for a task like that?' [Meaning,] because of the harassment and all. The officer replied that they are handcuffed, with flannelette over their eyes, in a cage with bars. 'In other words, you have no direct contact with them.' One of the participants said: 'What bothers me is that morally, I don't see myself bringing them food. I can't imagine myself seeing to their needs.' "The officer replied: 'Under international law we are obligated to bring them a certain amount of food. After all, the army could simply kill them. But the army needs them. And don't worry, it's not like they're being pampered there.' "He went on 'reassuring' us that we would not be in any situation of danger. 'If, say, the inmates want to quarrel among themselves, as far as we're concerned they can hit each other and kill one another. We will not intervene and we will not endanger any of our people.' "In the end he said, 'Remember that this is a moral mission, and an important one, and the army needs you. And also, because it's an emergency order, you will be paid and anyone who wants to continue after this month will receive no few grants and benefits. It really pays.' "I returned home scared. The kind of talk I heard in informal conversations was being given an official military platform. It scared me that the officer didn't respond clearly to the dehumanizing talk. The encounter with such dangerous concepts, which had become normal in our society, was traumatic for me. It was clear to me that I would not be able to take part in it, and I got out of reserve duty with the help of a psychiatrist."’

Read the article here.

The dehumanization, the disregard for international law, or any basic morality, the idea that in times of war this kind of behavior is ns necessary, is something Omer Bartov described in his article in The Guardian. See here.

He referred to the Wehrmacht, stories like this are known about the US army in Vietnam, also think of Abu Ghraib, to a certain extent Guantánamo Bay, the secret detention facilities run by the CIA after 9/11. But compared to the war on terror the situation in Israel and the disastrous war in Gaza, the consequences appear to be more profound for Israeli society.

And as many argued, the deterioration started long before, after the war in 1967, maybe even before that time.

Testimonies like these are not only necessary, but offer a glimpse of hope, that the rottenness is not yet total.