U.S. Vice President's remarks come amid allegations from Israel's critics that claims of sexual and gender-based violence were either fabricated or exaggerated in order to provide justification for its military response in Gaza
Speaking at an event dedicated to raising awareness on conflict-related sexual violence, including the airing of Sheryl Sandberg's "Screams Before Silence" documentary, "On October 7, Hamas committed horrific acts of sexual violence," Harris said.
Her remarks come amid steady criticism from Israel's critics on the left that claims of sexual and gender-based violence were either fabricated or exaggerated in order to provide justification for its military response in Gaza following October 7.
"In the days after October 7, I saw images of bloodied Israeli women abducted," she continued. "Hamas committed rape and gang rape at the Nova music festival, and women's bodies were found naked from the waist down, hands tied behind their back and shot in the head."
2 wrongs don't make a right. Even if Hamas committed such acts, it doesn't justify genocide or killing children or civilians at all. Israel is at least 3 steps up from completely unacceptable.
I can’t read the paywalled, story, but is that her point? Or is it just raising awareness For conflict related sexual violence?
I know many would use that logic to justify genocide, which is not right, but there’s many that will pretend like the sexual violence never happened or sweep it under the table.
Weird that she's very vocal about the acts supposedly committed by Hamas, but is staying completely silent about all the sexual assault being committed by the IDF against Palestinian women. Almost like she's a massive fucking hypocrite.
Lol ikr? Looking at her track record of mass incarceration(while attorney general), which disproportionately affected other POC like her, and yet she never batt an eye because it was more about career than actually helping her community.
I don't think it's fair to define her actions by her blackness, but, at the same time, the Dems very clearly want this bitch for 2028 (or earlier...) no matter what anyone says.
TL;DR Although it doesn't in any way excuse the currently occurring genocide, and honestly I also wish she was as upset about 100 things from Israel's side that we are supporting instead of 1 thing from the Palestinian side that no one is supporting, she's not wrong.
"War crimes are wrong no matter who does them" shouldn't be a difficult moral dilemma
This is the Pramilla Patten report not the legal investigative UN report which found no evidence for these claims.
As the Patten report claims itself to hold no legal weight it is astounding you keep linking it especially since it has since been surpassed by the investigative report.
I just looked around a little bit for some kind of indication of how the Patten report relates to the report that has the screenshots you're sending, and I honestly couldn't find anything.
What report are you even linking here, that you're calling the legal investigative UN report? I was able to find a draft version which I linked to down below, but I'm not even sure what you are referencing here, when it was created, or how it relates to the Patten report. It looks from reading the first bit, though, like it was gathered from open sources, remote interviews, and asking Israel's government for information which obviously wasn't very productive. I.e. a lot less thorough than what they did for the Patten report.
Why are you saying the Patten report has been surpassed by the report you're sending screenshots of?
The Sheryl Sandberg "documentary" is a propaganda campaign to dehumanize Palestinians.
It is as factually grounded as an Alex Jones documentary. It contains completely debunked and already admitted proven lies. No evidence of rape on Oct7 has been found since as stated in the recent UN investigation.
Even the IDF has confirmed there are no photos or videos of Hamas raping anyone on October 7.
I wondered why you linked to screenshots instead of the actual report, so I found what I think is what you're linking to. Here's the context of your screenshot:
The Commission found indications that members of the military wing of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups committed gender-based violence (GBV) in several locations in southern Israel on 7 October. These were not isolated incidents but perpetrated in similar ways in several locations and by multiple Palestinian perpetrators. The acts documented by the Commission reflected clear abuse of power by male perpetrators and a disregard for the special considerations and protection of women’s integrity and autonomy granted by international law.
Hamas military wing rejected all accusations that its forces committed sexual violence against Israeli women. However, the Commission documented cases indicative of sexual violence perpetrated against women and men in and around the Nova festival site, as well as the Nahal Oz military outpost and several kibbutzim, including Kfar Aza, Re’im and Nir Oz. It collected and preserved digital evidence, including images of victims’ bodies displaying indications of sexual violence, a pattern corroborated by independent testimonies from witnesses. Reliable witness accounts obtained by the Commission describe bodies that had been undressed, in some incidents with exposed genitals. The Commission received reports and verified digital evidence concerning the restraining of women, including hands and sometimes feet of women being bound, often behind the victims’ backs, prior to their abduction or killing. Additionally, the Commission made assessments based on the position of the body, for example images displaying legs spread or bent over, and signs of struggle or violence on the body, such as stab wounds, burns, lacerations and abrasions.
The Commission has reviewed testimonies obtained by journalists and the Israeli police concerning rape but has not been able to independently verify such allegations, due to a lack of access to victims, witnesses and crime sites and the obstruction of its investigations by the Israeli authorities. The Commission was unable to review the unedited version of such testimonies. For the same reasons, the Commission was also unable to verify reports of sexualized torture and genital mutilation. Additionally, the Commission found some specific allegations to be false, inaccurate or contradictory with other evidence or statements and discounted these from its assessment.
I also linked to a much more complete UN report elsewhere in this thread. I don't know how the two reports relate to each other though.
Because some people such as Sheryl Sandberg appear to not be able to make it to the relevant pages of the report and feel the need to spread the lie that Hamas raped people on October 7. I figured that you would also have appreciated the part with the red border around it as it might have been difficult to find as you previously suggested that Hamas raped women which the UN report very disproves.
Your other report is not relevant as it is not investigative. I am unsure why you keep linking it.
Hamas tying up women becomes a lot less relevant when looking at the fact that they have also tied up males. In fact you'd almost think they were tying up people to take them hostage.
Is there something in the first report that you didn't show us?
the Commission documented cases indicative of sexual violence perpetrated against women and men in and around the Nova festival site, as well as the Nahal Oz military outpost and several kibbutzim, including Kfar Aza, Re’im and Nir Oz. It collected and preserved digital evidence, including images of victims’ bodies displaying indications of sexual violence, a pattern corroborated by independent testimonies from witnesses.
Huh.
Is there anything more in the second report?
Based on the information gathered by the mission team from multiple and independent sources, there are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence occurred during the 7 October attacks
There is no second report there is only one legal UN investigation.
Please cite which examples of "sexual violence" occurred as you leave out the context of having a hostages hands tied is classified as "sexual violence".