Excerpt:
Exploiting ‘Isqat Siyasi’
The Israeli gender violence targeting Palestinian women’s bodies and sexuality is not a new phenomenon in the history of Zionist settler-colonialism. Palestinian women have endured a heavy burden as they have been subject to daily attacks against their lives, sexuality, and bodily rights.
Historically, the intelligence apparatus has exploited the orientalist patriarchal notion of honor and used the threat of sexual violence against Palestinian women to blackmail and recruit them as collaborators in what is commonly known as ‘Isqat Siyasi’ (Arabic for political downfall). In this sense, Huda chose victims in troubling marriages or facing domestic violence to make her argument: “It is easier to oppress a society that’s already oppressing itself” referring to the misogyny within the Palestinian society.
The practice of ‘Isqat’ does not only attempt to break the Palestinian resistance but also to fragment the fabric of the Palestinian families. This argument is supported by a statement signed by 34 reserve soldiers who served in Unit 8200, Israel’s most secretive military intelligence, which revealed that the Israeli intelligence is designed to control the Palestinian life, and to create divisions within the Palestinian society by recruiting collaborators.
In detailed interviews by The Guardian newspaper, soldiers in Unit 8200 asserted that Palestinians’ sexuality is a target for the unit to blackmail people and turn him/her into a collaborator. “Any information that might enable extortion of an individual is considered relevant information. Whether said individual is of a certain sexual orientation, cheating on his wife, or in need of treatment in Israel or the West Bank – he is a target for blackmail” one of the interviewed soldiers said.
Source:
https://mondoweiss.net/2022/04/the-decolonization-of-palestine-demands-d...