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The main suspect in the Sde Teiman gang rape case is now a media star in Israel

August 25, 2024

Meir Ben-Shitrit, right, appearing on Channel 14’s “Fathi and Shai” show on August 26, 2024. (Photo: Screenshot)

Three weeks ago, the Israeli right-leaning Channel 14 aired a 10-minute interview with one of the suspects in the Sde Teiman gang rape case. He was masked, in uniform, and had a gun slung across his shoulder. He received a number of standing ovations from the studio audience as he told his story of being the unfairly treated victim of the Sde Teiman affair. 

Just two days later, he went public and revealed his identity in a video. The suspect, now known to be Meir Ben-Shitrit, started by taking his mask off and saying, “Shabbat shalom to all the people of Israel, this is Meir from Force 100.” He then proceeded to read the bible episode of the week, from Deuteronomy 1, 16-18:  

“And I charged your judges at that time, ‘Hear the disputes between your people and judge fairly, whether the case is between two Israelites or between an Israelite and a foreigner residing among you. Do not show partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be afraid of anyone, for judgment belongs to God. Bring me any case too hard for you, and I will hear it.’  And at that time I told you everything you were to do.”

Ben-Shitrit ended with a call for people to unite “for the truth,” and to demonstrate for the release of all the gang rape suspects. 

The following Monday, he was interviewed again by Channel 14, this time he was revealing his identity to the country on mainstream television. 

Ben-Shitrit said the charges against him are baseless, insinuating a conspiracy against him (“They have nothing and it’s all invented. I know the mood of such invented cases, I know it very well”) and said an encounter with a woman in Tel Aviv convinced him to reveal his identity: 

“That reality was very humiliating. To see a woman in Tel Aviv approach me and say: ‘You raped a terrorist’. That caused me to go bananas, to take off the gloves, to remove the mask, and to fight for my innocence.”

A media star is born

On August 26, Ben-Shitrit was hosted for his longest interview yet on Channel 14. It went for 11 minutes on the “Fathi and Shai” show, which also usually features upbeat satire. They promoted him on the channel throughout the day like a star and did a serious interview with him in the evening. It opened with a recap of his ‘mask off’ video. 

Ben-Shitrit was asked about his interrogation two days earlier. Without going into details, he said the interrogation was “nice, respectful.” He gave credit to the interrogators saying they were professional. Then, when the interviewers asked “what happened there,” in Sde Teiman, Ben-Shitrit mocked Channel 12 news reporter Guy Peleg, who originally aired the security camera video footage showing the rape, by calling him “Guy Hamefaleg” – “Hamefaleg” meaning “he who sows discord.” The interviewers were impressed by the nickname, “nice one” they commented. “He split the nation”, Ben-Shitrit said of Peleg, and repeated his claims that the soldiers followed standard procedure and that the accusations against him and his comrades were simply attempts to tarnish the soldiers and maybe even “an attempt to stop the war.” 

At some point, host Noam Fathi promotes Ben-Shitrit’s claim, that hiding the prisoner behind the shields, as shown in the Channel 12 video, is “standard procedure”: 

“It’s logical, because it’s also against the other Nukhbas.” 

“They peek,” Ben-Shitrit adds.

Fathi elaborates: “It’s also logical, because you don’t show 100 prisoners who look, how a search is conducted, and you need to do it on location.” 

Ben-Shitrit is asked about the specific “Nukhba,” the term used to denote a Palestinian fighter directly involved in the October 7 attack. They disregard the verified fact that the victim wasn’t involved in the attack at all, he was simply a police civil servant in a drug control unit in Jabalia. 

Ben-Shitrit says he doesn’t know anything about him in particular, but he knows “how they boast,” about raping and murdering Israelis. He says that his unit, Force 100, is not there to be nice to the prisoners. The hosts follow his lead: “One of them could murder! . . . Those are crazy murderers!”

Now host Shai Goldshtein is really gearing up emotionally: 

“I put myself in your place, in your situation. You stand in front of these people, really, the most despicable people one can imagine, who did the most horrible things to our people, our brothers and sisters – I think that if I was there and I had the chance, I would go all out on these people.” 

Ben-Shitrit responds by saying that the military prosecutor and the whole nation should “kiss our hands”, since the force behaves so ethically, doing “holy work.” He continues: 

“We could have just cocked our weapons and killed them all on the floor, from the nature of things because you want to kill that person with a machete… I’m ready until my hand gets tired.”

But then he restrains himself: “But we are a state of law, and it’s the IDF, and there is international law.”¹

This was not the first time Ben-Shitrit had shared his murderous fantasies. These comments echoed an earlier video he did in June 2023 when he was an army reservist in the West Bank, where he wondered: 

“Why can’t we go in with Negev machine guns? Why can’t we go in with MAG machine guns? And why can’t we go in with the holding force of a grenade launcher, to such a place full of terrorists? Two days ago, all these terrorists were standing there, 150-200 armed terrorists. Why don’t we get 3-4 attack helicopters up in the sky and spray everyone?”

Ben-Shitrit says that “the whole nation of Israel, right, left, religious, secular” has these “wishes.” “This is what needs to be done to these…” Ben-Shitrit trails off but the hosts finish his sentence and provide the pejoratives: “monsters, scum.” 

In the end, despite his desires, Ben-Shitrit claims to have controlled himself: “We kept a very, very high level of morality”. 

“Did the state betray you?” he is asked. 

“Very much so, it’s very offensive,” he says. 

He claims that the interrogators from the Military Police are “embarrassed” to have to even deal with this case. He says he revealed his identity so as to “take one for the team”. 

Fathi is now furious about the coverage that he feels has been unfair. But he is “thinking about one thing: the kidnapped in Gaza, who could be undergoing the same things?!” He means rape. “What do you mean could?” Shai interjects. “They’ve paid [with their body], and we don’t know who, or what, or how much!”

Ben-Shitrit is asked about his experience since revealing himself, and how people in the street are reacting. 

“A lot of love and warmth,” he says. “Many hugs. In Tel Aviv I got two comments of ‘rape’, but the majority of the people of Israel, also in Tel Aviv, they give many hugs, a lot of love, we get many gifts, I got a holiday package…”

But as if this is not enough, Fathi wants to help more. 

“Tell me,” Fathi says, “our audience wants to know: Do you need anything? Are you economically hurt? Do you need financing for lawyers?”

“Of course, of course”, Ben-Shitrit answers. He promotes the link of Force 100 for fundraising, which is featured on screen by the network. They say he is currently out of work, but he’s a construction entrepreneur, so Fathi jokes:

“If anyone needs a contractor who knows how to disassemble a Nukhba well…”

They crack up. 

But seriously, Shai says, “If anyone needs something”… “They will reach you,” Fathi assures. 

Ben-Shitrit ends by saying he wants unity, “peace, between us” (meaning between Israelis, not with the Palestinians). It ends with handshakes: “Meir Ben-Shitrit, a hero! A hero of Force 100! Success to you!” 

Mask Off

Ben-Shitrit and his companions may not win this case in the court. After all, this one case is based upon about 100 separate testimonies, as reported by Ha’aretz. But they are trying very hard to win it in the court of public opinion. And here, Channel 14, which has repeatedly aired snuff videos of the systemic torture in these camps, has been instrumental in promoting the narrative that these gang rape suspects are actually victims. 

This story is just one story from inside a network of torture camps, where Sde Teiman is only “the tip of the iceberg”, according to the Israeli human rights NGO B’tselem, which documented how Palestinians are “subjected to harsh arbitrary violence on a frequent basis, sexual assault, humiliation and degradation, deliberate starvation, forced lack of hygiene, sleep deprivation, restriction and punishment of religious worship, confiscation of all group and personal belongings, and denial of adequate medical care.”

It’s not only Ben-Shitrit who has gone mask off. It is Israel in general. 

Notes

1. It should be noted that according to the same Israeli Institute for National Security Studies poll that showed that 65% of Jewish Israelis oppose criminal prosecution for the gang rape suspects, 47% of Jewish Israelis answered that “Israel does not need to abide by international law and maintain moral values in the war.”