A crowd of Israeli protesters, joined by members of the Knesset (Israel’s parliament), stormed into the Sde Teiman detention center in southern Israel last week after military police arrested several IDF soldiers on suspicion of abusing imprisoned terrorists.
Hours later, another group of protesters stormed onto the IDF’s Beit Lid base in central Israel where the detained soldiers were being held.
Let’s unpack what happened and why these protests at Sde Teiman and Beit Lid erupted in the first place.
Why were the soldiers arrested?
Nine soldiers were arrested from Sde Teiman Monday on suspicion of committing sodomy under the circumstances of rape, aggravated assault in a group, aggravated abuse in a group, and improper behavior against a Hamas terrorist being held at the detention center.
Sde Teiman has been used to house most of the captured Hamas terrorists and Gazan suspects arrested for taking part in the Oct. 7th attack and the ensuing war.
Sources in the IDF told Israeli media that military police have evidence and medical records indicating that the detainee underwent severe physical violence and sodomy, and required hospitalization because of this.
A doctor who saw the terrorist in question told Israel’s national broadcaster KAN that he reported the incident after he and his team found signs of “man-made injuries,” which were so serious that the prisoner needed to be transferred to the hospital.
The doctor stressed that he’s obligated to report injuries like this to the authorities and that it’s not his right to judge the terrorist himself. He added that this was the only such incident he saw while working at the base and that reports of abusive medical treatment at the site were false.
Hundreds of protesters led by MKs and ministers from the Likud and Otzma Yehudit parties arrived at Sde Teiman to protest against the arrests, eventually breaking open the gates and flooding into the military base. After several hours, the protesters were removed from the base.
Later that day, protesters arrived at the Beit Lid base where the arrested soldiers were being detained. After protesting outside the base, they broke open the gates there too, attacking soldiers and flooding into the facility.
Protesters at Beit Lid could be heard in videos from the scene shouting “Just as the military police arrested them by force, we will release them by force.” The protesters were eventually removed from the base after negotiations with police.
As of a week after the riots, no one who took part had been arrested.
Reports of abuse at Sde Teiman
This isn’t the first case being investigated at Sde Teiman. The detention facility has been under scrutiny in recent months due to allegations of abuse and mistreatment against detainees being held at the site.
Reports by both the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and CNN, citing anonymous Israeli whistleblowers who worked at or visited Sde Teiman, include allegations of severe injuries leading to amputations, random punishments, medical procedures conducted by underqualified medics, and wounds left to rot, among other claims.
According to Israeli media, 80 investigations have been opened against soldiers for actions outside of battle throughout the war, including about 40 just in Sde Teiman. Most of the inquiries at Sde Teiman concern incidents in which deaths occurred, although investigations are often automatically opened when deaths occur, even when there’s no sign of foul play.
In a separate case last week, an indictment was issued against a soldier suspected of using severe violence against detained Hamas terrorists on several occasions between February and June. The terrorists were handcuffed and blindfolded at the time and did not pose a threat to the soldier, who was entrusted with guarding them. According to the indictment, the soldier beat the detainees with a club and his personal firearm and documented all of his actions on video.
Why are many Israelis up in arms about the arrests?
MKs and activists expressed outrage both at the very fact IDF soldiers were being arrested and at the fact that Military Police arrived at the scene with their faces covered in a way that some felt portrayed the soldiers as “common criminals.”
One reservist soldier who joined the protesters compared the arrests to Jews who acted as “informants” during the Holocaust, warning that it would demotivate reservists from going into Gaza.
The IDF told Israeli media that the arresting officers wore masks to protect themselves from pepper spray, but added that the decision to conduct the arrests in the manner they were done was a mistake.
Members of the governing coalition argued that people condemning the storming of the bases were hypocritical for not equally condemning protests against the government in recent years during which roads were blocked.
MK Limor Son-Har Melech threatened officials in the judicial system after the arrests, saying, “Whoever dares lay a hand on our soldiers will be charged and prosecuted as the lowest of traitors.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed the statements by members of his coalition, saying, “you can’t break into IDF bases, but you also can’t carry out selective enforcement and allow the blocking of Kaplan (a street in Tel Aviv where anti-government protests often take place).”
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich demanded that the IDF’s Military Advocate General, Maj.-Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, “take her hands off the IDF soldiers.”
In a video statement, MK Benny Gantz stressed that “in order to let the IDF focus on dismantling Hezbollah, we cannot tear apart the IDF.” Gantz additionally criticized Netanyahu for largely staying silent amid the violence saying “silence in moments of crisis is not leadership.”
Opposition support for the arrests for rioters at Sde Teiman and Beit Lid, IDF soldiers
Members of the opposition and activists argued that the storming of IDF bases wasn’t comparable to blocking roads and that the law needed to be respected, even in cases where IDF soldiers were being questioned.
Critics of the riots also warned that the protests were disrupting the war effort. Some pointed out that at anti-government protests where roads were blocked, several arrests were made at every demonstration, alongside the use of force, while at the bases, no arrests were made and no widespread use of force was seen.
One exception among members of the government majority was Interior Minister Moshe Arbel who called the riots “anarchy” and stressed that “the IDF cannot be endangered like this.”
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also harshly condemned the riots, calling on Netanyahu to check if National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir held back the police from stopping the violence.
Ben-Gvir responded by asking Netanyahu to check if Gallant received alerts about the Oct. 7th attack and didn’t update the prime minister. He also insisted that he did not intervene in the handling of the protests.
The national security minister additionally called for the arrested soldiers to receive the “full support” of the government and referred to the arrests as “moral confusion.”
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi arrived at Beit Lid himself due to the violence, warning that “The arrival of rioters and attempts to break into bases are serious, unlawful behaviors bordering on anarchy, harming the IDF, the security of the state, and the war effort.”
Sources in the IDF told Israeli media that they believed the police took too long to show up and had been held back by either their commanders or Ben-Gvir, who has authority over the police.
The police rejected the claims, saying they got to the scene quickly after being alerted.
