Talk:Sde Teiman detention camp
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Request for pronunciation
editIn American English the name is wholly ambiguous. I would like to be able to say it outloud. Anyone can help?? 50.39.167.230 (talk) 01:14, 2 August 2024 (UTC)
Are these people prisoners of war though? RodRabelo7 (talk) 00:47, 14 August 2025 (UTC)
NEW SECTION: Released bodies
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Description of suggested change:
At least 135 mutilated bodies of Palestinians returned by Israel to Gaza had been held in Sde Teiman, The Guardian reported in October 2025. Some of the dead were blindfolded, their hands tied behind their backs, photos showed. In one, a rope was tied around a man’s neck.[1]
The body of Mahmoud Ismail Shabat, 34, showed marks on his neck of hanging, with indications he was injured or killed in Gaza and later taken to Sde Teiman. His brother Rami said: “What hurt us the most was that his hands were tied, and his body was covered with clear signs of torture.” “Where is the world?” said Shabat’s mother. “All our hostages returned tortured and broken.”[1]
A detainee’s hand had been amputated “because the wrists had become gangrenous due to handcuffing wounds," a whistleblower said.[1]
Shadi Abu Seido, a Palestinian journalist from Gaza, told Türkiye's TRT: “They stripped me completely naked for 10 hours in the cold. I was then transferred to Sde Teiman and held there for 100 days, during which I remained handcuffed and blindfolded. Many died in detention, others lost their minds. Some had limbs amputated. They suffered sexual and physical abuse. They brought dogs that urinated on us. When I asked why I had been arrested, they answered: ‘We have killed all the journalists. They died once. But we brought you here and you will die hundreds of times.’”[2]
[2] https://www.instagram.com/reel/DP7YiTODfty/
Not done: Your proposed addition paraphrases the source material too closely. If you would like this material to be added, please summarize it in your own words, using inline citations to reliable sources. See WP:PARAPHRASE. Day Creature (talk) 21:39, 20 October 2025 (UTC)- Not done: This still paraphrases the source too closely. Please review WP:FIXCLOSEPARA. Yerlo (talk) 14:46, 25 October 2025 (UTC)
Note: Please rewrite the proposed edit(s) as to not match close to the text of the source you've provided. x2step (lets talk 💌) 02:58, 29 October 2025 (UTC)
Put translation of name?
editThe camp's name means in Hebrew, "field (as in agriculture) of Yemen". Might be interesting to add onto the article. אתמולתיים (talk) 11:49, 4 December 2025 (UTC)
- Correction: I was wrong. It means "Southern Field", as per the Arabic word يامن and biblical word "תימנה", "to go right" and "rightwards" respectively (with your face Eastwards), per . אתמולתיים (talk) 12:06, 4 December 2025 (UTC)
Proposed Move: "Sde Teiman detention camp" → "Sde Teiman torture camp"
editPer WP:TITLE, titles must be neutral but also accurate. Sde Teman was originally a housing area for incoming Yemeni Jews (citation https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1655960). It then became a military camp, then was notable as a prison or a "detention camp". While "detention camp" implies a facility for holding individuals, the evidence provided by multiple human rights organizations and medical journals suggests that the primary character of the site, as experienced by those within it, is now defined by systemic torture and abuse. Using a euphemistic title when the scholarly and journalistic consensus points to a specific function (torture) violates the accuracy principle.
- The B’Tselem Report ("Welcome to Hell"): B’Tselem has explicitly categorized the facility not merely as a place of incarceration but as part of a "network of torture camps". The report argues that the scale and consistency of the abuse transition the facility’s definition from a legal detention center to a "torture camp" (citation: B’Tselem). Referred to in https://www.dw.com/en/rights-group-warns-on-israeli-abuse-of-palestinian-prisoners/a-75568097
- The BMJ and Medical Ethics: The British Medical Journal (BMJ) highlights the participation of medical staff in what is explicitly termed "torture" at the facility. When a prestigious medical journal documents the site through the lens of torture, the descriptive title of the article should reflect this reality (citation: BMJ https://www.bmj.com/content/386/bmj.q1524).
- Al Jazeera / Investigative Journalism: Media analysis, such as that by Al Jazeera’s Listening Post, documents the "Sde Teiman Affair" as a saga defined by leaked footage of systemic abuse, arguing that the term "detention" obscures the nature of the events occurring there (citation: Al Jazeera https://www.aljazeera.com/video/the-listening-post/2025/11/8/torture-leak-outrage-the-sde-teiman-affair).
- 58 of 59 journalists released from Sde Teiman since Oct 2023 report that they were tortured https://cpj.org/special-reports/we-returned-from-hell-palestinian-journalists-recount-torture-in-israeli-prisons/.
- "I know we have a torture facility" https://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/testimonies/database/861426 - this is another human rights report that calls the place a torture facility.
- The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/12/israeli-military-top-lawyer-drops-charges-soldiers-palestinian-detainee-abuse-gaza "... which has become notorious for torture."
- UN expert warns torture has become ‘state doctrine’ in Israel, making prisons instruments of genocide and torture https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/03/un-expert-warns-torture-has-become-state-doctrine-israel-making-prisons
- One soldier who served there referred to it as a “sadistic torture camp”. https://theconversation.com/israeli-doctors-reveal-their-conflicted-stories-of-treating-palestinian-prisoners-held-in-notorious-black-site-sde-teiman-264091 Merav Amir, Reader of Human Geography, Queen's University Belfast; Hagar Kotef, Professor of Political Theory, Department of Politics and International Studies, SOAS, University of London
The UN OHCHR has described the treatment at Sde Teiman as "preventable crimes against humanity" and "escalating use of torture." When the United Nations uses specific legal terminology to describe a site’s function, Wikipedia should lean toward that formal designation over a generic military descriptor. If the site’s defining historical characteristic is the commission of torture, "torture camp" becomes the more precise and encyclopedic title (citation: OHCHR https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/08/israels-escalating-use-torture-against-palestinians-custody-preventable).
Consistency
Descriptive titles for sites of historical atrocities are often used when the neutral "official" name is considered a sanitization of the events (e.g., using "Extermination camp" rather than "Internment camp" for certain historical sites). Given the severity of the allegations and the corroboration by whistleblowers and international bodies, "torture camp" is the most descriptive and least "sanitized" title available.
Russian torture chambers in Ukraine
Conclusion
editThe current title, "Sde Teiman detention camp fails to reflect the core findings of the OHCHR, B’Tselem, and medical experts. Moving the page to Sde Teiman torture camp aligns the article with the weight of reliable, secondary sources that identify the facility by its primary function and the nature of the treatment documented therein.
Dualpendel (talk) 17:02, 2 April 2026 (UTC)
- The purpose of the camp is not "torture", but detention. Comparisons with places like Chełmno are wild. אקעגן (talk) 19:49, 22 April 2026 (UTC)
- The Consistency section is not a comparison with the listed articles, but shows that the title is descriptive in other articles. Dualpendel (talk) 10:23, 25 April 2026 (UTC)
- According to WP:TITLE we are supposed to use the common name for the topic but can use a descriptive title if there is no common name. “Sde Teiman” or “Sde Teiman detention camp” is much more commonly used. None of the sources you cited actually use the title “Sde Teiman torture camp”. Rainsage (talk) 21:26, 22 April 2026 (UTC)
- All of the sources describe Sde Teiman as a place where torture takes place, and is now torture central to its purpose whereas previously it was mainly a place of detention. The descriptive title should therefore include 'torture' Dualpendel (talk) 18:31, 24 April 2026 (UTC)
- there's no need for a descriptive title when there is a common name. Rainsage (talk) 18:42, 24 April 2026 (UTC)
- All of the sources describe Sde Teiman as a place where torture takes place, and is now torture central to its purpose whereas previously it was mainly a place of detention. The descriptive title should therefore include 'torture' Dualpendel (talk) 18:31, 24 April 2026 (UTC)