Yossi Schwartz ISL (RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine), 09.03.2024
As the readers of my daily report know from the first day, I have been writing that like the untrue story that Hamas cut of heads of babies so is a lie the claim that Hamas raped Israeli women. That this is a lie invented by the Zionist state to Justify the genocide of the Palestinians. That Israel does not have forensic evidence nor live testimonies of Israeli women. The UN special team led by Pramila Patten, UN special representative of the secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict, finding of crucible evidence that Israeli women were raped and at the same time no evidence that Palestinian women were raped in Gaza and in Israeli jails is a service for Israel and not true.
First of all, and in this case is relevant, Pramila Patten is from the Islamic Republic of Mauritania in North East Africa. Modern-day slavery still exists in different forms in Mauritania. According to some estimates, thousands of Mauritanians are still enslaved. A 2012 CNN report, “Slavery’s Last Stronghold”, documents the ongoing slave-owning reality of the black moors. Mauritania, along with Morocco, annexed the territory of Western Sahara in 1976 In November 2014, Mauritania was invited as a non-member guest nation to the G20 summit in Brisbane.
“In October last year a delegation led by a special envoy from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office (PMO) met with Mauritanian officials in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to the Lebanon-based Al-Khanadeq news site.
The website claimed that David Meidan, a former Mossad official that currently serves in the PMO, met with an advisor to Mauritania’s chief intelligence officer. According to the report, the meeting was held at UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed’s official residence in order to maintain plausible deniability that the secret meeting had ever taken place. Furthermore, the meeting was arranged by Muhammad Dahlan, a former senior Fatah official who lives in exile in Abu Dhabi [1]. Despite his long absence from the Palestinian Territories, Dahlan is still thought of as a potential leader in Gaza – if Hamas were removed from power [2]”
Today the Jerusalem post a very reactionary daily in Israel had to admit that there are no proofs but still claims that Israeli women were raped by Hamas. Here is what Tamar Uriel-Beeri in Jerusalem post admits:
UN report on the Oct. 7 sexual violence is a two-sided coin.
A team on a mission to Israel, led by the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, uncovered substantial evidence confirming that individuals, including fatalities, hostages, and survivors from October 7, were the victims of sexual abuse and rape perpetrated by terrorists .The team found “clear and convincing information that sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, has been committed against hostages.”
The release of this report marked the first occasion on which an international organization has substantiated Israel’s claims following October 7.
The team found “clear and convincing information that sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, has been committed against hostages.”
They bore witness to a “pattern” that “may be indicative of some forms of… sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment” in which “victims, mostly women, [were] found fully or partially naked, bound, and shot across multiple locations.”
The report, however, is missing the most crucial form of evidence: firsthand survivor testimonies. While Patten and her team spoke to friends, family, and witnesses and were presented with mountains of video and photographic evidence, they were not able to interview survivors. Their testimonies – which these women are still emotionally unequipped to give – are sorely missing from the report” [3]
FM Katz said that Guterres was “working to diminish the serious report he himself commissioned on Hamas’s sexual crimes.”
“First of all, and most obviously, when exactly did Katz expect Guterres to respond? Does a report not need to be publicly released before one publicly responds to it?
Secondly, and more importantly, the report was not strong enough for any organization to responsibly take further action in consequence, and that is because of the missing testimonies and the crucial forensic evidence that was reduced to ashes when the victims were set aflame.
We cannot change this lack of testimony in the coming days, weeks, months, and possibly years…
Nevertheless, since this is evidence, we cannot provide at present or assumedly even in the immediate future, despite the report presenting evidence that Israelis were indeed brutalized on October 7, it ultimately looks worse for Israel.
This is because, without the solidified first-person evidence that Patten and her team came to witness, the anti-Israel crowd now has more fuel than ever to claim that Israel is inventing these allegations. After all, what have they been telling us this whole time? “Give us proof.”
That, of course, is a disgusting statement unto itself. There is no other conflict in which you would ever imagine that the world would look at victims of rape, gang rape, and necrophilia and demand to see evidence. It is the lowest form of disrespect to sexual assault victims worldwide.” [4]
No Jerusalem post, what is disgusting is to make up such a racist story to justify genocide It is a shame to produce such conclusion without any evidence.
“Journalists at a Monday press conference at which a UN report accusing Hamas of rape was presented accused the organization’s special representative on sexual violence in conflict of enabling Israeli attacks in Gaza.
Pass Blue reporter Dwan Clancy asked the UN’s Pramila Patten if she was concerned that the report “is being weaponized as a way to continue violence in Gaza.”
Al-Quds Al-Arabi UN Bureau Chief Abdelhamid Abdeljaber said the report “is only a validation of the Israeli narrative.”
Nabil Abi Saad from Al Araby TV asked if Patten had seen the bodies of the Israeli victims, and whether she had talked to released Israeli hostages who, according to Abi Saad, had praised Hamas” [5]
In addition, Pramila Patten did not have one word to say about Israelis raping Palestinian women.
“Hamas on Tuesday rejected a UN report claiming Palestinian militants committed “sexual violence” during their attack on Israel on October 7, saying the findings were simply “false claims. The report by the UN special representative on sexual violence in conflict, Pramila Patten, “did not document any testimony from what she calls the victims of these cases,” Hamas said in a statement. “She relied on Israeli institutions, soldiers and witnesses, who were chosen by the occupation authorities to push towards an attempt to prove this false accusation, which was refuted by all investigations.” [6]
The solution will not come from the UN but from the Arab revolution that will form a socialist federation of the Middle East. This federation will include Palestine from the river to the sea. A state ruled by the workers in alliance with the Fellahin. A state that the Palestinian refugees will return and the Israeli minority will have equal social and civil rights
Enough with the justifications for a genocide!
Block all weapons to Israel!
End the war now!
For a united front in Israel and the world against the Zionist war and its supporters.
For Palestine red and free from the river to the sea!
Endnotes:
[1] https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/middle-east/north-africa/1696311249-israel-held-secret-talks-with-mauritanian-officials-in-uae-arab-report
[2] https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20231112-could-exiled-former-palestinian-leader-mohammed-dahlan-lead-gaza-after-the-israel-hamas-war
[3] https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-790891
[4] Ibid
[5] https://www.timesofisrael.com/journalists-accuse-un-sexual-violence-envoy-of-enabling-israeli-attacks/
[6] https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2024/03/05/Hamas-rejects-UN-report-on-sexual-violence-in-October-7-attacks