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Hamas Raped and Massacred Israeli Women; Is There a Way to Hold Them Legally Accountable?
An aerial view shows the bodies of victims of an attack following a mass infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip lying on the ground in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, in southern Israel, Oct. 10, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ilan Rosenberg
As a former Special Victims Prosecutor, the plight of victims of sexual violence is one that I am both familiar with and sensitive to. The trauma suffered by these victims is some of the worst that a human being can endure.
The phrase “believe women” became a rallying cry during the #MeToo movement, and on the left. So the deafening silence from those quarters about the sexually violent crimes committed by Hamas on October 7, 2023, has been particularly disappointing.
The Geneva Convention specifies that “women shall be especially protected against any attack on their honor, in particular against rape or any form of indecent assault.”
The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court states that “rape, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy, or any other form of sexual violence” is a crime against humanity.
Yet, ironically, November 25 is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, when UN Women launches an annual UN-wide campaign — and there is not a whisper of condemnation emanating from the hallowed halls of the UN about the hideous sexual violence committed by Hamas against Israeli women. This, despite mounting evidence that rape was systematically used against Israeli women as a tool of terror on October 7.
A glossary of translated phrases from Arabic to Hebrew was recovered from Hamas terrorists that included instructions such as “Take your pants off.” There is a disturbing video from October 7 of a young Israeli girl being dragged by her hair with her hands bound behind her back in Gaza. Her crotch area is visibly stained with blood. A harrowing account was just released by Israeli police of a witness who watched as Hamas terrorists gang raped a woman before shooting her in the head. There are numerous accounts of Israeli girls and women being found murdered, with their pants and undergarments completely removed.
In implementing rape as a tool for terror, Hamas committed war crimes.
What recourse exists to prosecute Hamas for these crimes? I spoke with George P. Fletcher, the Cardozo Professor of Jurisprudence at Columbia Law School and preeminent expert in international criminal law about this prospect.
“There is little doubt that Hamas has committed innumerable war crimes,” Professor Fletcher said. “Rape is considered a crime against humanity in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and it violates the Geneva Conventions. It is related to genocide because it changes the population by producing offspring.”
Aside from the rape abuses, Hamas’ “charter would be Exhibit A in a prosecution for genocide” Professor Fletcher said, referencing Article 7 of Hamas’ 1988 charter, which calls for the killing of Jews.
Given its anti-Israel bias, and that the ICC has tried to haul Israelis into court under trumped up charges, going to the ICC for justice seems like a horrible mistake. Israel says it will try Hamas war criminals; but what can be done elsewhere?
Professor Fletcher offered a creative and promising alternative to the ICC: the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA). While it doesn’t have the geopolitical gravitas of the ICC, “the ATCA allows foreign nationals the ability to sue in US Federal courts for violations of international law, particularly human rights violations,” Fletcher said. I pressed Professor Fletcher on the risks involved in a potential counter-suit for Israeli violations of international law. He responded that, “The concern about a counter-suit is litigious harassment, not the merits. Let them bring their case. A full hearing of the evidence is good for Israel.”
There are a number of logistical issues such a case raises. For example, how would Hamas be served with the complaint? If a judgment for violation of international law were reached, what kind of penalties could be levied and how would it be enforced? If Hamas has assets in the US, then they could be frozen as a result of a judgment against it. But it is unclear whether Hamas has any such assets or US bank accounts.
Professor Fletcher suggested that victims of Hamas’ war crimes sue Iran as well, since there is ample evidence that “Hamas are agents of Iran.” Iran is the biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world, and pairing Hamas and Iran as co-defendants would highlight this fact. Moreover, it would be easier to enforce a judgment against Iran than it would an amorphous terrorist group in Hamas.
Given the inordinate frequency with which it condemns Israel, the United Nations may not be a hospitable environment for Israeli victims of Hamas war crimes to get justice. US Federal courts might provide a better forum for them to do so. In whichever way the victims of October 7 seek justice, it is clear that they will need to be creative in their approach.
Kenneth Blake is a former Special Victims Prosecutor at the Kings County District Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn, NY. He is a Government and Critical Thinking teacher at St. Vincent de Paul High School in Petaluma, CA.
The post Hamas Raped and Massacred Israeli Women; Is There a Way to Hold Them Legally Accountable? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Says Eight Arrested for Suspected Links to Israel’s Mossad Spy Agency
The Mossad recruitment ad. Photo: Screenshot.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday they had arrested eight people suspected of trying to transmit the coordinates of sensitive sites and details about senior military figures to Israel’s Mossad, Iranian state media reported.
They are accused of having provided the information to the Mossad spy agency during Israel’s air war on Iran in June, when it attacked Iranian nuclear facilities and killed top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
A Guards statement alleged that the suspects had received specialized training from Mossad via online platforms. It said they were apprehended in northeastern Iran before carrying out their plans, and that materials for making launchers, bombs, explosives and booby traps had been seized.
State media reported earlier this month that Iranian police had arrested as many as 21,000 “suspects” during the 12-day war with Israel, though they did not say what these people had been suspected of doing.
Security forces conducted a campaign of widespread arrests and also stepped up their street presence during the brief war that ended in a US-brokered ceasefire.
Iran has executed at least eight people in recent months, including nuclear scientist Rouzbeh Vadi, hanged on August 9 for passing information to Israel about another scientist killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Human rights groups say Iran uses espionage charges and fast-tracked executions as tools for broader political repression.
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Body of Idan Shtivi, Murdered on Oct. 7, Retrieved from Gaza in Special IDF Operation
Idan Shtivi. Photo: Courtesy of the family
i24 News – The body of Idan Shtivi, a 28-year-old murdered by Palestinian jihadists at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, was recovered in a joint operation by the IDF and Shin Bet in central Gaza, it was cleared for publication on Saturday.
Shtivi’s remains were returned to Israel alongside the body of Ilan Weiss, another hostage killed during the October 7 massacre.
“Idan Shtivi was abducted from the Tel Gama area and brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists after acting to rescue and evacuate others from the Nova music festival on October 7th, 2023. He was 28 years old at the time of his death,” read an IDF press release.
“Following an identification process conducted at the National Center for Forensic Medicine, along with the Israel Police and the Military Rabbinate, the Hostages and Missing Persons Headquarters notified his family.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Shviti “was a gifted student of sustainability and governance, and a courageous individual” who acted heroically on October 7, helping others flee.
“He was killed in the process and his body was abducted to Gaza by Hamas. My wife and I send our heartfelt condolences to the Shtivi family. So far, 207 hostages have been returned, 148 of them alive. We will continue to act tirelessly and decisively to bring back all our hostages—living and deceased.”
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Woman Stabbed at Ottawa Grocery Store in Latest Antisemitic Attack
A social media post by the alleged attacker, Joseph Rooke of Cornwall, Ontario. Photo: Screenshot via i24
i24 News – The stabbing of a Jewish woman at an Ottawa grocery by a man with a long history of antisemitic posts on social media, the latest antisemitic hate crime in Canada, sparked outrage and prompted condemnation from officials including the prime minister.
Both the victim and the attacker are in their 70s. The woman is reportedly in serious condition.
The suspect was identified as Joseph Rooke, who has authored a series of lengthy rambling screeds on social media, ranting against Israel and Jews.
“Judaism is the world’s oldest cult,” he writes in one post, going on to say “over time jews have become insidious in governments, businesses, media conglomerates, and educational institutions in order to do what they do better than anyone else. Jews are the world’s masters of propaganda, gaslighting, demonization, demagoguery, and outright lying. Using their collective wealth they have become masters of reprisal.”
“I am under no obligation whatsoever, legal, moral, or otherwise, to like jews and I do not. If that means I meet the jewish definition of an anti-semite, so be it.”
Canada has seen a steep spike in antisemitic attacks over the past two years, including a recent incident in Montreal where a Hasidic Jew was beaten in front on his children.
After Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned the incident, many, including former Israel’s ambassador the US Michael Oren, pointed out that Carney’s rhetoric and policies contribute to the increasing insecurity of Canada’s Jewish community through uncritical embrace of outrageous and easily disprovable allegations that Israel and its supporters were guilty of the worst crimes against humanity.