The Propagandists' Dictionary: Sexual Violence on October 7th

On Wednesday, journalist Mary Kostakidis posted that she had been approached by a reporter from the Age who was doing a story on .. wait, you guessed it, mass rape on Oct 7, and rape deniers - of whom I am one apparently because I have highlighted fraudulent claims, have highlighted reports there was no systemic rape and am a critic of Israeli government policies.

Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of sexual violence and violence.

It is clear that Kostakidis is discussing systematic rape and is not denying that sexual violence occurred. The ‘rape denier’ label is, like the ‘antisemite’ label, an easy cheap shot. Hamas has denied that sexual violence took place on October 7th, calling it an ‘Israeli attempt to dehumanise the Palestinian people’. But there were an estimated 3000 militants present, including from groups other than Hamas, and the fact is that men rape. They rape in war, and both male and female soldiers have used sexual abuse and rape as torture, or ‘conflict related sexual violence’ (CRSV). It is utterly naive and to claim that no sexual violence and no rapes took place during this conflict. But it is clear that Israel is weaponising sexual violence to dehumanise the Palestinian people.

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Israel has alleged that Hamas used tactical mass sexual violence, genital mutilation, and gang rape on October 7th. CRSV has not been reported in any previous Palestinian resistance against Israeli occupation.There have been no firsthand accounts of sexual violence on October 7th, yet. Israel, in fact, forbade doctors from speaking to the United Nations mission group, doctors who could have given valuable evidence. I have already made my position clear, sexual violence must have occurred. That it occurred in the ways imagined by some witnesses is arguable.

One of the more lurid witness testimonies by a survivor claimed that she saw a woman being raped while her breast was cut off and ‘played with in the street’. This testimony was filmed by Israeli police and shown to journalists in an official capacity. We know that young Jewish people raised in Zionism are coached by their parents and by their elders on college campuses to defend Israel. A Zaka (first responders) volunteer gave an account to the BBC in which he described a pregnant woman whose womb had been ripped open before she was killed, and her foetus stabbed while it was inside her. The BBC noted they had not independently verified the account. The Daily Mail reported the same incident in an account from a woman who claimed that ‘A baby was cut out of a pregnant woman and beheaded and then the mother was beheaded’, evoking anti-Muslim stereotypes. The pregnant woman story included the distribution of a false video that had been shot at a different time. Unsurprisingly, the UN report deemed this event to be unfounded.

(Warning: The testimonies above are from articles that contain descriptions of graphic violence and sexual violence. The sources are the BBC and the Daily Mail. The video is mentioned in an investigative report by Haaretz).

In ‘The Rape Denialists’ for The Atlantic, Michael A. Cohen writes that “Believe women” and “Silence is violence” have been rallying cries of progressive feminist organisations for decades. But the same empathy and support have not been shown for Israeli victims.’ Cohen criticises feminists who penned and signed an Open Letter which states that the ‘Israeli government has chosen to weaponise the issue of sexual violence for political outcome’. Perhaps, as a man, it is difficult for Cohen to imagine how confronting and exhausting it is for women to be placed in the position of questioning other women because Israel is a relentless propaganda machine. Cohen clearly lacks the foresight to understand what damage propagandising sexual violence will do to victims of CRSV.

Israel has a habit of disinformation and mirror propaganda. Israel has released other disinformation about the October 7th attacks, such as the beheaded babies myth, that has been debunked. Even the number of Israeli victims killed has been revised twice, from 1400, ‘mostly civilians’, to 1200, then to 1139, 695 of those civilians. Further mirror propaganda against Hamas, claiming that it is Hamas who is committing genocide, is disseminated by Zionists internationally.

In October last year, just two or three days into hostilities, Israel refused a full civilian hostage return in exchange for the IDF not entering Gaza. South Africa found 500 public statements that demonstrate Israel’s intention to commit genocide and which constitute incitement. Since October 7th, Israel has been utilising atrocity propaganda against Hamas to justify their intent to commit genocide, their incitement to genocide, and their acts of genocide. This is what underpins the question of whether systematic sexual violence was used during the attacks from October 7th-10th.

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The United Nations released a Mission Report February. The mission team was unable to meet with any survivor/victim of sexual violence from October 7th ‘despite concerted efforts encouraging them to come forward’. Despite the difficulties and lack of forensic evidence, the mission team found ‘reasonable grounds to believe that CRSV occurred, including rape and gang rape, in at least three locations. The mission team found that several fully naked or partially naked bodies from the waist down were recovered – mostly women – with hands tied and shot multiple times, often in the head. Although circumstantial, the pattern of undressing and restraining of victims may be indicative of some forms of sexual violence.’

The mission team were also able to determine that at least two allegations of sexual violence widely repeated in the media, including the pregnant woman story, were unfounded. Other allegations from a military base, including rape, genital mutilation and objects intentionally inserted into female genital organs, could also not be verified.

The report also details CRSV against Palestinians in detention in the West Bank, which may be why it proved so disappointing to the mainstream media, who gave the mission report cursory coverage. The report details accounts of ‘the deterioration of the human rights situation following the 7 October attacks, with the launch of law enforcement operations by the Israeli government being accompanied by mass arrests and a spike in settler violence’.

‘the detention of Palestinian men and women has been compounded by alleged instances of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, including increased instances of various forms of sexual violence in the form of invasive body searches of detainees which include unwanted touching of intimate areas and forced unveiling of women wearing Hijab; beatings, including in the genital areas; threats of rape against women and threats of rape against female family members (wives, sisters, daughters) in the case of men; and inappropriate strip search and prolonged forced nudity of detainees, including during interrogation and during transfer to other detention facilities. Other concerns raised included the taking and circulating of pictures of women detainees on personal phones of soldiers and investigators and depriving women of menstruation products. These interlocutors also reported sexual harassment and threats of rape, during house raids – including at night – and at checkpoints. They also highlighted intimidation, including threats of rape, if conditions of detention were reported or publicly disclosed after liberation. While no instances of rape werereported, Palestinian women’s organizations consistently stressed that in addition to intimidation and insecurity, the high level of stigmatization, conservative cultural norms and the power imbalance in the context of occupation impedes reporting of sexual violence.

Liza Rozovsky, for Haaretz, notes that there are disparities between the UN Mission Report and the Israeli report from the Association of Rape Crisis Centers. The ARCC states that the sexual violence was ‘brutal, systematic and deliberate’. The report is ‘based both on direct testimonies that were collected by the association, but also on media reports that were not verified independently. The report sets forth a broad spectrum of testimonies which are not necessarily corroborated by a second source.’ Rozovsky also notes that ‘from inquiries put to three bodies in the defence establishment by Haaretz, it emerges that the intelligence material collected by the police and the intelligence bodies, including footage from terrorists' body cameras, does not contain visual documentation of any acts of rape themselves.’

It is a probability some sexual violence must have occurred during the three days of conflict October 7th. There is still no evidence of premeditated, tactical, systematic mass rapes or Hamas leaders directing soldiers to rape victims as claimed Israel, and as widely reported by the mainstream media. The ‘poor photo quality’ in the UN report is telling. Israel has indeed weaponised sexual violence as part of their atrocity propaganda to justify the launch of a genocide against the Palestinian people, and they are being aided in it by their Western allies.