“NO! to sexual violence as a weapon of war in the Gaza genocide

Sexual violence is an integral part and systematic method of the genocide in Gaza and extermination of any resistance of Palestinian people. We’ve seen war played out on femmes’ bodies time and again from Bosnia to the DRC, from Haiti to Rwanda, from Sinjar to Rojava, from Korea to the Philippines, from Afghanistan to Iraq and Sudan. More recent examples include Tigray, Syria, Kashmir, and Myanmar – to name but a few. Colonial powers have always used imperialist feminist discourse and unsupported accusations of sexual violence in order to invade and break down anti-colonial resistance, while they themselves structurally use sexual violence as a weapon of war in all possible ways. Palestinian femme bodies have endured decades of denial of bodily autonomy and integrity as well as sexual violence during the occupation.
In the recent invasion of Gaza, the israeli apartheid regime doesn’t even try anymore to wrap its crimes with lies. It has repeatedly attacked hospitals, schools, refugee camps, targeting journalists and health workers in order to break the resistance. One of the last was the massacre in Al Shifa hospital – a war crime that comes on top of another war crime, namely the sexual violence that Palestinian survivors revealed later in their testimonies: stripping, sexually assaulting, raping women in front of their families.
IOF soldiers have not only committed blunt and well-documented acts of sexual violations against Palestinian captives, but they have also been shamelessly recording and publishing their sexualized criminal intentions and celebrating their invasion with sexualized performances.
All this has been normalized as a common practice of the Israeli apartheid regime throughout all the past 75 years – in prisons, on occupied land, at the checkpoints, and right now during the genocide in Gaza.
An immediate and permanent ceasefire is a basic first step against ongoing sexual violence and genocide and toward Palestinian self-determination over the land and bodies. We call on everybody to take a stance against the Israeli killing machine and occupation in Gaza and the whole historic Palestine. Join us on the street to shout loud and clear:
Hands off Palestinian land and bodies!
Power to the people! Power to the resistance!
Where: Rio-Reiser-Platz, Kreuzberg
When: Tuesday 02.04.2024, 19h”