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Rape Deniers: Evidence of Hamas Sexual Assault Ignored Despite Proof (Part Two)
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
Where there are anti-Jewish atrocities, there are deniers. And on Oct 7, there were atrocities, including countless acts of murder and mutilation, as well as brutal acts of sexual violence by the Palestinian attackers.
In this three part series, CAMERA will expose some of these deniers, and offer irrefutable proof of the sexual abuse of Israeli women by the Palestinian attackers both during and after the October 7 atrocities.
Part One of this story laid out the facts about Hamas’ sexual violence, proof it happened, and some information about the critics who are disputing these facts. Part Two follows below.
Denial
As with the broader Hamas apologia, the forms of denial of sexual violence range from heavy-handed to more refined. Mondoweiss, for example, contends that the most well-known testimonies are “nothing more than a repetition of fake news and government propaganda.” Another writer who is a college professor describes a compendium of sexual assault charges as “a manipulative betrayal of actual victims” (emphasis added). Arun Gupta in Yes! magazine insists that “alternative explanations applies [sic] to nearly every sexual violence claim in the media.”
Others cast doubt with a bit more subtlety, arguing there is no evidence of “mass” or “systematic” rape while ignoring or dismissing all evidence of rape. Perhaps the most “generous” — and rarest — subcategory accepts that rape “may have occurred” but brushes it off as par for the course: “The question has never been whether individual acts of sexual assault may have occurred on October 7. Rape is not uncommon in war,” shrugs The Intercept. (Their point of contention, they continue, is whether there was a “pattern of gender-based violence on Oct. 7.”)
Which brings us to some of the specific arguments by the deniers.
Argument: Rape Crisis Centers Didn’t Confirm Rapes. (They did.)
The Intercept, in its attempt to both discredit a New York Times article on sexual violence and suggest an absence of evidence of sexual violence, cite silence from Israeli rape crisis centers. Co-authors Jeremy Scahill, Ryan Grim, and Daniel Boguslaw point to an interview with one of the New York Times reporters, Anat Schwartz, that was recorded after the publication of her piece. They write:
In the podcast interview, Schwartz details her extensive efforts to get confirmation from Israeli hospitals, rape crisis centers, trauma recovery facilities, and sex assault hotlines in Israel, as well as her inability to get a single confirmation from any of them. [emphasis added]
The Intercept authors never revisit this, leaving readers to believe the relevant professionals are unaware of any sexual assaults.
But just a week before the Intercept piece was published, the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel released a report concluding that “Hamas’s attack on October 7 included brutal sexual assaults.” The report assessed open-source information as well as “information that arrived at the ARCCI from professionals and confidential calls.” It was very much a “confirmation” from rape crisis centers.
The Intercept piece, which speaks only of silence by those centers, does not mention the existence of the report.
If there’s doubt that the omission might be calculated, we should consider how the authors also cover up Schwartz’s reference to learning of a sexual assault survivor at the start of her investigation. They write:
After seeing [media] interviews [with a unit 669 paramedic who shared unfounded accounts], Schwartz started calling people at Kibbutz Be’eri and other kibbutzim that were targeted on October 7 in an effort to track down the story. “Nothing. There was nothing,” she said. “No one saw or heard anything.” She then reached the unit 669 paramedic who relayed to Schwartz the same story he had told other media outlets…
If readers were to cross-check with the podcast itself, though, they would notice a glaring elision from this summary. (Or more likely, they wouldn’t notice — the interview is in Hebrew, leaving most Intercept readers unable to check for themselves.) Just after Schwartz’s reference to calling people at kibbutzim and just before her description of reaching out to the paramedic, she tells the interviewer:
Then there started to be some drips [of information], and suddenly a psychologist who worked, volunteered, with survivors of the Nova [music festival]– so she says, “Actually a woman wrote on our site that she endured sexual assault. But I’m not qualified at all to care for victims of sexual assault, so I passed her to a colleague.” [emphasis added]
It would have been impossible for The Intercept, which says it fully translated the interview, to miss Schwartz’s comment. The relevant section lasts just over a minute. Schwartz speaks of the kibbutzim for six seconds; then about the assault victim for thirty seconds; and finally then about the paramedic for roughly 20 seconds.
Claim: There is no “testimony.” (There is.)
A November headline on Haaretz reads, “The Scope of Hamas’ Campaign of Rape Against Israeli Women Is Revealed, Testimony After Testimony.”
According to Ali Abunimah and Electronic Intifada, the article itself disproves the headline, as it notes that a newly formed Israeli commission has “thus far … not taken testimony directly.” This, Abunimah insists, is a “giveaway” of foul play.
Anyone bothering to read the piece would learn that the headline is unremarkable and appropriate. The story speaks of “testimony collected by the police,” testimony “from volunteers at the forensic medicine institute,” and “testimony from Hamas terrorists.”
Argument: Shari Mendes Didn’t Mention Rape Before November. (She did.)
Shari Mendes, who worked at a makeshift morgue used to process and identify bodies from Hamas’ massacre, described evidence of sexual assault: corpses of many young women bloodied “particularly round their underwear,” others shot in the breasts, some with broken pelvises.
So Mondoweiss works to discredit her. First, the publication charges that, in her Nov. 18 interview with CNN, she appeared under a pseudonym. (She appeared under the name Shari.)
The larger attempt to discredit her focuses on a supposed inconsistency in Shari’s CNN interview: “In [a] written report in Ynet, published on October 31, 2023, she did not mention any claims of sexual violence.”
In other words, Mondoweiss casts her CNN testimony about rape as a new embellishment, because 18 days earlier she said nothing of the sort.
The “written report” cited by Mondoweiss is a news story that cites five workers at the morgue. Here, from that Hebrew article, is the entirely of the section that quotes Mendes:
“In my civilian life, I’m actually an architect,” [Shari] says, “but on October 7, the world changed, and from my routine life we went over to rooms for identification and purification of the bodies, some of which were in terrible condition, and yet, I cleaned them all with love, dedication and respect.”
As time passed, she tries to come to her senses, and it is not easy for her. “We are still shocked by the amount of evil we saw in the bodies and the condition of some of them. We still have nightmares from the smell. It will take some time before we manage to forget it.”
She says that until this interview she did not allow herself to cry. “I’m afraid that if I cry, I’ll fall apart. I’m a woman who runs away from crying and holds a passion. I also don’t let myself feel. What I want most is for every mother to know with what love and tenderness we purified her daughter,” she says.
Then she bursts into tears.
This is meant to be proof that Mendes’ dishonestly lied to CNN.
At any rate, contrary to Mondoweiss’ insinuation, Mendes did discuss evidence sexual violence before her CNN appearance, and even before the publication of the cited Ynet article.
On Oct. 20, she was quoted in the Daily Mail referring to “evidence of mass rape so brutal that they broke their victims’ pelvis — women, grandmothers, children.” In a video posted on Oct. 24, she notes that those at the morgue saw “genitals cut off” and stated that “woman have been raped.” Ynet itself had previously quoted a video clip in which Mendes says that morgue workers have “seen women who had been raped.” She is similarly quoted in an Oct. 30 piece on a Fox News.
Mondoweiss’ argument, then, relies not only on weak argumentation, but also egregious cherry picking.
And Rami Shmuel …
Mondoweiss pulls a similar stunt with another of CNN’s interviewees, a recovery volunteer named Rami Shmuel. Shmuel told CNN that “There is not a doubt about what our girls went through with terrorists. We found naked women stripped out without any clothes, their legs were spread out.”
Mondoweiss counters:
CNN fails to mention the fact that Rami Shmuel was not present at the festival location during the attack. According to Shmuel’s Facebook post, published on the afternoon of October 7, he was “safe” in a villa in Netivot settlement.
Shmuel claims the next day that he joined efforts to search for bodies and survivors in the area in a personal, unofficial capacity. What Shmuel told his followers on the evening of October 8 did not have any hint of sexual violence: “An hour ago, I left the area, and the scenes are very, very difficult and (…) A war zone in every sense of the word. Hundreds of abandoned bullet-riddled cars, fires still burning in some open areas.” (ellipsis in original)
No hint, they say.
The fact that Shmuel was not at the festival is irrelevant — a red herring with no value beyond throwing off readers. His discussion on CNN is about recovery efforts after the massacre.
More strikingly, although Mondoweiss holds up the Oct. 8 Facebook post as if it is the extent of Shmuel’s testimony, it only represents a sliver of the picture. Shmuel was in the field for 10 days, during which his posts went well beyond references to abandoned cars.
On Oct. 9, he wrote that with every hour that passes and every bit of territory wrested from Hamas, “the magnitude of the disaster, the cruelty of the human animals, and the severe horrors are revealed.” Like in his Oct. 8 post, he shares no specifics about the human impact. Are we meant to conclude from this that he saw no victims?
On Oct. 10, he described a “difficult night” during which the “reality of the great horrors and the disaster” hit him and, for a brief moment, he “cried like a child broken to pieces.” And later that day: “The sights and stories I was exposed to in the last days are something I will never forget until the day I die.”
On Oct. 11, he wrote of “another day of being exposed to horrors” that aren’t shared in the media. It is the front line of hell, he says.
On Oct. 17, he wrote: “Come see how cruelly everyone was murdered here. There is almost no corpse that hasn’t been abused.”
For Mondoweiss to point to Shmuel’s Oct. 8 post as evidence he did not see atrocities — bodies, burned bodies, naked and splayed bodies, or anything else — is plainly dishonest.
Part Three of this series will appear tomorrow.
Gilead Ini is a Senior Research Analyst at CAMERA, the foremost media watchdog organization focused on coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict, where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Rape Deniers: Evidence of Hamas Sexual Assault Ignored Despite Proof (Part Two) first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Russia, China Maintain Cautious Diplomacy Amid Israel-Iran Conflict, Despite Deepening Ties With Tehran
Smoke billows following missile attack from Iran on Israel, at Tel Aviv, Israel, June 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Gideon Markowicz ISRAEL
Despite deepening their ties with Iran, Russia and China have held back from concrete action amid Israel’s recent attacks, choosing cautious diplomacy over direct support for their supposed partner.
Last week, Israel launched a broad preemptive attack on Iran, targeting military installations and nuclear sites across the country in what officials described as an effort to neutralize an imminent nuclear threat, as nuclear negotiations between the United States and Tehran appear on the brink of collapse.
The Israeli strike killed several of Iran’s top military commanders and dealt a major blow to the country’s retaliatory capabilities by destroying not only much of its ballistic missile stockpiles but also crippling its launch platforms.
According to Janatan Sayeh, a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington, DC-based think tank, Israel’s air superiority, combined with the element of surprise and Iran’s weakened air defenses, has left the Islamic regime incapable of sustaining its nightly missile attacks.
Tehran’s “only path to narrowing the battlefield gap lies in external military support,” Sayeh told The Algemeiner. “Yet Moscow, having previously depended on Iranian drones and missiles for its war in Ukraine, is unlikely to offer more than diplomatic backing.”
“That leaves China — a longtime economic lifeline for Tehran through illicit oil purchases — as the regime’s only potential partner in rebuilding its military infrastructure,” he continued.
So far, as the conflict between Israel and Iran continues to escalate, Beijing and Moscow have offered their so-called ally little more than public condemnation of the Israeli military campaign and formal offers to mediate the conflict.
“China is highly concerned about Israel’s attacks on Iran and deeply worried about the potential serious consequences of these actions,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said in a statement.
“China opposes any violation of Iran’s sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity, and opposes actions that escalate tensions and expand the conflict,” he continued.
The Chinese diplomat also urged both Middle Eastern adversaries to take greater action in promoting regional peace and stability and to avoid further escalating hostilities.
“China is willing to play a constructive role in helping to de-escalate the situation,” Jian said.
According to Jack Burnham, a research analyst at FDD, China’s capacity to offer Tehran support beyond diplomatic channels is limited by the country’s inability to effectively manage rapidly evolving crises.
“Having built the foundations of Iran’s missile program, Beijing can now only watch as it goes up in flames — incapable of projecting power on a scale that could tip the balance of power and wary of committing resources during a period of heightened tensions in its own region,” Burnham told The Algemeiner.
As China seeks to establish itself as a key power in the Middle East and counter Western influence, Beijing sees this conflict as an opportunity to position itself as a peace broker and leverage its partnership with Iran.
China, a key diplomatic and economic backer of Tehran, has moved to deepen ties in recent years — signing a 25-year cooperation agreement, holding joint naval drills, and continuing to purchase Iranian oil despite US sanctions.
Amid US-Iran nuclear talks, Chinese officials have consistently opposed Washington’s sanctions on Tehran and defended the country’s right to enrich uranium.
For its part, Russia also proposed on Monday to mediate the conflict between Israel and Iran, while reiterating that its earlier offer to store Iranian uranium on Russian soil still stands.
According to the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to discuss the ongoing conflict.
During the conversations, he emphasized “the importance of resuming the negotiations and resolving any issues pertaining to Iran’s nuclear program exclusively via political and diplomatic means.”
After US President Donald Trump suggested that Putin could play a role in mediating efforts between Iran and Israel, the European Union rejected the idea, saying that Russia has “zero credibility” as a potential mediator between the two adversaries.
“There has been a recent Russia-Iran partnership agreement, which signals deepening cooperation across multiple areas, including foreign policy and defense. In light of such, Russia cannot be an objective mediator,” EU spokesman Anouar El Anouni said in a statement.
Similar to China, Russia has expanded its ties with Iran to counter Western influence in the Middle East and mitigate the impact of US sanctions. For example, Russia pledged earlier this year to fund the construction of new nuclear power plants in Iran as part of a broader energy partnership that also includes a major gas deal between the two countries.
The post Russia, China Maintain Cautious Diplomacy Amid Israel-Iran Conflict, Despite Deepening Ties With Tehran first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel to Launch Rescue Flights for Nationals Stranded Abroad Amid Iran War, Over 60,000 Register Immediately
El Al planes are seen on the tarmac at Ben-Gurion International airport, near Tel Aviv, Israel, March 10, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Ronen Zvulun.
Israel will begin by Thursday operating a limited number of one-way flights to Tel Aviv to bring home the tens of thousands of Israelis stranded abroad since the outbreak of the conflict with Iran last week.
Israel’s national airline El Al opened an online registration for flights for the more than 100,000 citizens who have been stuck abroad since the Jewish state closed its airspace to civilian traffic early Friday morning, when hostilities erupted. Within less than two hours of opening the online form, more than 60,000 stranded passengers registered on the airline’s site despite the ongoing conflict, according to El Al.
“At this time, El Al is formulating the list of destinations and the scope of flights that will be allowed to operate under this plan,” the airline said. “The purpose of the registration is to map the location of our customers in the world, and accordingly build a flight schedule.”
On Friday morning around 3 am, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched Operation Rising Lion, a multifaceted campaign involving airstrikes, covert sabotage by Mossad, and other operations targeting Iran’s missile infrastructure, nuclear facilities, and military officials. Israel launched the operation with the goal of dismantling Iran’s nuclear capabilities, which Israeli officials have declared an existential crisis.
Israel has continued its military campaign since then, striking nuclear and military targets.
Iran has responded each night with barrages of ballistic missiles, largely targeting large civilian centers. Most of the projectiles have been intercepted by Israel’s missile defense system.
Despite enduring continuous barrages of Iranian strikes, the effort of tens of thousands of Israelis to return home suggests an effort to stand in solidarity with their families and homeland amid growing national uncertainty but a deepening sense of collective resolve. In highly populated areas like Tel Aviv and Haifa, residents have been observed resuming regular outdoor activities during the day, seemingly trying to maintain a sense of normalcy.
Conversely, Iran has seen a mass exodus of civilians from Tehran following Israeli strikes on key military and nuclear sites. Faced with widespread panic, power outages, and fears of further attacks, over 100,000 Iranians have reportedly fled the capital. The government’s attempt to downplay the situation with censorship and public reassurances has appeared to do little to stem the public’s anxiety.
Observers have noted that Tehran, the Iranian capital, is not equipped with modern bomb shelters, leaving residents to shelter in existing infrastructure such as underground tunnels, building basements, and metro tunnels.
The post Israel to Launch Rescue Flights for Nationals Stranded Abroad Amid Iran War, Over 60,000 Register Immediately first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jewish West Virginia Student Targeted by Dining Hall Employee Over Pro-Israel Views
Illustrative: Pro-Hamas activists gather in Washington Square Park for a rally following a protest march held in response to an NYPD sweep of an anti-Israel encampment at New York University in Manhattan, May 3, 2024. Photo: Matthew Rodier/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) on Monday implored West Virginia University (WVU) to lift a no-contact order imposed on a Jewish pro-Israel student following a bizarre series of events in which he was reported for promoting pro-Israel speech on campus, The Algemeiner has learned.
According to a letter sent by the nonprofit organization, WVU freshmen Eliyahu Itkowitz was distributing copies of attorney Alan Dershowitz’s book The Ten Big Anti-Israel Lies: And How to Refute Them With Truth during the final weeks of fall semester when he was approached by dining hall employee Hannah Harper — who, as uncovered by an Algemeiner investigation, is a white female who recently converted to Islam. Itkowitz offered Harper a copy of the book. She accepted it.
However, Harper, who had been made aware of Itkowitz’s Jewish identity and support for Zionism through her dealings with the campus’ Muslim Students Association (MSA), apparently had ulterior motives for accepting the book. Following the interaction, she delivered the copy of Dershowitz’s book to the university’s Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DDEI) and with it a complaint alleging that the student had handed her an “anti-Muslim book” as a discriminatory act. Itkowitz has denied that he meant Harper any harm.
Harper continued her pursuit of Itkowitz weeks later in the main dining hall after he had returned to school for spring term. Having caught sight of him, she falsely told her manager, Brad Dobson, that the student had been banned from eating there due to the complaint she had filed. The unsuspecting manager accosted the student and demanded that he take lunch somewhere else. Itkowitz refused, choosing instead to record the incident with this smartphone while Harper escalated the situation by calling the police.
“The university launched an investigation, despite the fact that even if all of her allegations against Eli were true, and there is evidence to suggest that they aren’t, all of the described actions constitute protected speech under the First Amendment,” Jessie Appleby, FIRE program counsel for campus advocacy, told The Algemeiner on Monday during an interview. She added that school officials ultimately determined that Harper’s allegations did not merit punishing Itkowitz. However, they did so after an invasive investigation and handing down a no-contact directive, which carries inculpatory implications, ordering Itkowitz to avoid all contact with Harper
The measure should be lifted, Appleby said.
“Because the investigation itself threatened discipline, it chilled free speech. It lasted five months, exhaustive interviews, and the no-contact order even though it never found him guilty of misconduct. Eli should not feel threatened that exercising free speech will incur disciplinary sanctions,” she continued. “One issue with schools investigating complaints investigating protected speech is that it allows students to use the complaint process to cudgel those with whom they disagree into silence, and we’ve seen a lot of that at West Virginia University.”
The case of Itkowitz is not the first time FIRE discovered that a university allegedly incriminated pro-Israel students for expressing their support for Zionism.
In 2023, it partnered with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to publicize a Princeton University incident in which Alexandra Orbuch, a writer for conservative publication The Princeton Tory, was assaulted by a male member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) while filming a protest the group held on campus. The man allegedly followed Orbuch to obstruct her efforts, eventually stepping on her foot and pushing her. When Orbuch complained to a nearby public safety officer, the officer told her that she, not her attacker, had “incited something.”
Despite the gendered nature of the assault — an issue Princeton has dedicated an entire office to dealing with — the university granted the male student a no-contact order against Orbuch, explaining that any reporting she published which alluded to him would be considered a violation of the order and result in disciplinary charges. A similar incident occurred in 2022, when Tory reporter Danielle Shapiro attempted to report on the Princeton Committee on Palestine. After being notified of the order, Shapiro was told refer to a “Sexual Misconduct & Title IX” webpage, according to a guest column she wrote in the Wall Street Journal.
Princeton University later banned the practice of placing no-contact orders on conservative and pro-Israel students. In Monday’s letter, FIRE called on West Virginia University to do the same.
“WVU has a responsibility to prevent discriminatory harassment, but in doing so it must not sacrifice its constitutional obligation to protect free speech,” the group said. “An investigation and no-contact order based on protected expression is likely to chill student speech — even when, like here, the process ultimately concludes in favor of the speaker — because such a process implicitly threatens punishment for that speech.”
The Algemeiner has reached out to WVU for comment.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Jewish West Virginia Student Targeted by Dining Hall Employee Over Pro-Israel Views first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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