Denial of Hamas's October 7 Sexual Atrocities Must STOP!

 Full article at https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-895834

For over two years, the screams of the victims of October 7 have been met with a chilling and selective silence from much of the international community. Today, that silence is shattered by the weight of an unprecedented evidentiary archive. The release of the landmark report titled “Silenced No More: Sexual Terror Unveiled: The Untold Atrocities of October 7 and Against Hostages in Captivity” marks a definitive turning point in the struggle for truth.

Commissioned by the Civil Commission on October 7th Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children, this document is the result of a rigorous independent investigation led by Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, the 2024 Israel Prize laureate.

Supported by a team of legal giants, including former Canadian minister of justice and attorney-general Irwin Cotler and former UN chief prosecutor David Crane, the Commission has synthesized a staggering volume of evidence. The archive contains over 430 testimonies, 1,800 hours of visual analysis, and 10,000 photographs.

The report identifies 13 distinct patterns of abuse, establishing that sexual and gender-based violence was not incidental. Instead, it was a systematic and deliberate component of the Hamas assault, used to amplify terror through digital dissemination and the horrific practice of kinocide, which is the weaponization of family members to witness the degradation of their loved ones.

As we digest these findings, we must recognize two competing truths. First, we still do not and may never understand the full extent of these horrors.

We must take the time to really ponder and remember the individual suffering of the victims. This is not a matter of policy but of profound human agony that demands our undistracted collective memory. Irrefutable proof must stop denialism

With the release of this irrefutable proof, let this be the final day of October 7 denialism. For months, the world has watched as high-profile figures used their massive platforms to cast doubt on the suffering of Israeli women. Former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters, just one of many, has been among the most vocal, publicly claiming there is “no evidence” of Hamas rapes and dismissing the testimonies of survivors and first responders as “filthy, disgusting lies.”

When global feminist organizations and UN bodies waited months to even acknowledge these atrocities, they provided a shield for Hamas and signaled worldwide that the slogan “Believe Women” has a geographic and political limit.

This report removes that shield once and for all. It demands that the world stop asking for “more evidence” when the archives are already overflowing with it.

There is, however, a profound note of hope within these harrowing pages. The report’s extensive legal analysis provides a clear evidentiary basis for the investigation and prosecution of these acts as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocidal acts under international law.

The perpetrators of this mass-scale sexual violence must be brought to justice. Now, armed with the truth, we must ensure they are heard in the halls of justice. The era of denial must end, replaced by an era of accountability and a deep international commitment to honoring the memory of those who suffered the unthinkable.