Top Israeli rabbi blesses soldier accused of Gaza rape

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Footage circulating on social media shows Israeli Rabbi, Meir Mazuz, a prominent Israeli religious figure with close ties to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet, blessing a soldier standing trial for allegedly raping Palestinian prisoners from Gaza.

The video depicts Rabbi Mazuz telling the accused soldier that he would be found “completely innocent”. When informed by the soldier’s lawyer, Attorney Demari, that they had evidence the victim was lying, the rabbi reportedly responded, “So what?’ adding “but what if it were true? Don’t we have the right to act like this?”

This controversy is linked to a broader case that came to light in July, known as the Sde Teiman rape case. According to Israeli public broadcaster, KAN, ten Israeli soldiers were arrested for allegedly raping a Palestinian detainee from the Gaza Strip at the notorious Sde Teiman Prison in the Negev desert.

The case took a further dramatic turn when Israeli protesters stormed the Sde Teiman detention facility and military courts in Beit Lid. This action was reportedly an attempt to prevent an investigation into the ten soldiers accused of raping the Palestinian prisoner.

The apparent blessing of the Israeli rapist by the Netanyahu allied Rabbi is the latest footage to expose the depth of the dehumanisation of Palestinians in Israeli society. Last week, footage emerged of Israeli podcasters laughing about “erasing Gaza”.

Israel is under investigation by the International Court of Justice for genocide.  Dehumanisation is a crucial stage in the process of genocide, where one group is systematically stripped of its humanity by another. This stage creates the conditions for atrocities by portraying the targeted group as less than human, often comparing them to animals, pests or diseases. More than 40,000 Palestinian have been killed in Gaza by Israeli forces in a campaign that is widely believed to be genocidal. Israeli leaders have described Palestinians as human animals.

Through the use of derogatory language and dehumanisation, perpetrators condition society to see the targeted group as disposable or as a threat to the wider community. By doing so, it becomes primed for perpetrators and bystanders to accept acts of violence, as the moral boundaries against harming or killing fellow human beings are deliberately obscured.

Dehumanisation enables the justification of discrimination to mass violence and genocide. Once a group has been dehumanised, perpetrators and even ordinary citizens feel less empathy or moral obligation to intervene or protect them. This has been evident in genocides throughout history, where dehumanising language is often used to pave the way for ethnic cleansing, mass killings and other forms of collective violence.

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