How Israel weaponizes Palestinian masculinity

“Sexual humiliation and harassment has been used as a deliberate policy in torture chambers within Israel for a long time,” academic Abdaljawad Omar told us on the day 69 livestream. He was responding to the mass arrest campaigns and the images that have been circulating of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, who have been stripped, blindfolded and paraded around by Israeli soldiers in front of cameras. “There has been this Israeli yearning, if we want to position it as such, to shame Palestinian manhood and masculinity through this parading of men being semi-naked or mostly naked in front of cameras in a show of Israeli dominance, power over Palestinian masculinity and manhood,” Abdaljawad said. But, he explained, Israel’s propaganda efforts are backfiring. “Most people see this as a desperate attempt by Israel to showcase some sort of success, so they actually see it as Israeli weakness and not an Israeli strength.“ You can watch the entire broadcast here: