NEWS
"I thought they only raped Palestinians" — rape jokes on the Tribeca red carpet
6 June 2026 — Tribeca Film Festival, New York
The facts
At the première of The Wedding Entertainer, filmed in Israel, actor Elon Gold and pro-Israel influencer Lizzy Savetsky publicly laughed while referencing documented testimonies of rape and sexual abuse with trained military dogs against Palestinian detainees at Sde Teiman prison. Testimonies — gathered by Middle East Eye, B'Tselem, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, and reported by the New York Times in a column by Nicholas Kristof — include first-hand accounts from detainees: men and women chained to metal beds, raped by soldiers and trained dogs. The Tribeca Film Festival unequivocally condemned the remarks: "Sexual violence and human suffering should never be mocked or minimized."
Legal comment
The practices described in the testimonies — rape, torture, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees — constitute serious violations of the UN Convention Against Torture (CAT, 1984), Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, and war crimes under Article 8 of the Rome Statute. The public mockery of such acts by public figures at a high-profile international event is not an isolated episode: it is part of a culture of impunity that international law has a duty to name.
Implications
Laughing at the rape of prisoners of war is not freedom of expression: it is the public manifestation of a dehumanisation so deep that the suffering of the other becomes material for comedy. This is the same dehumanisation that Peled-Elhanan documented in Israeli schools, that Ben Gvir exercises from government, that soldiers apply in prisons. These are not separate episodes. They are rungs on the same ladder. The Tribeca Festival's condemnation — welcome — is not enough: the international community must recognise that the culture producing these comments is the same culture producing the documented crimes.
Sources: Middle East Eye · Deadline · Variety · B'Tselem "Living Hell" Report, January 2026 · Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur Report
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