Left-wing commentator Owen Jones has shared claims that IDF soldiers are training dogs to rape Palestinian detainees.
The allegation has gained significant traction on social media in recent days after it was promulgated by Israeli-American activist Shaiel Ben-Ephraim, who claimed to have been informed of the practice by guards at the Sde Teiman detention facility.
Following up on the claims, Guardian columnist Jones published an article on his own website titled: “Israel is raping Palestinians with dogs.”
The piece includes a testimony from a 35-year-old Palestinian, named as Amir, who was reportedly an ex-inmate at Sde Teiman
"I was detained in Sde Teiman. They took a group of detainees and me to a corridor between the sections and forced us to strip completely naked,” he said.
“The soldiers brought in several dogs. One of them urinated on me. One of the dogs then raped me, penetrated my anus in a trained manner while I was being beaten. This continued for several minutes. I felt profoundly humiliated and violated.”
Jones' article also includes several other testimonies.
He posted the article on his X account to his one million followers and as of Friday (April 24), it had been viewed over 100,000 times.
However, the Israeli embassy in London has denied the allegations, calling them “rubbish”.
Alex Gandler, the spokesman for the embassy, posted on X: “This ‘influence’ agent is considered a pundit by some papers.
"He is no more than a grifter with a stage, a snake oil salesman of the 21st century. To the dustbin he should go. And no, it's all rubbish.”
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