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Sheryl Sandberg joins Jewish women in calling out lack of concern about sexual assault of Israelis

(JTA) — In a world divided over the Israel-Hamas war, Sheryl Sandberg — the former Meta COO and author of “Lean In,” the bestselling book about women’s equity in the workforce — offered up an idea that she thought could bring everyone together.

“No matter which marches you are attending — or if you are attending none at all; no matter which flag you are flying — or if you are flying none at all; no matter what religion you practice — or if you practice none at all, there is one opinion that everyone can agree on: Rape should never be used as an act of war,” she wrote on Monday in a graphic and emotional op-ed for CNN. Sandberg posted a video to Instagram on Monday with a similar message.

That Sandberg felt the need to make the argument reflects the simmering resentment felt by many Israeli and Jewish advocates over widespread skepticism or even rejection of claims that Hamas terrorists raped Israeli women during their assault on Israel on Oct. 7. The response she got on social media — including on the platforms she helped create — underscored their anxiety.

“[A]nd so where’s the evidence?” reads the most-liked reply on Instagram which, alongside Facebook, is part of Meta. (Sandberg left the company last year after 14 years.)

Whether women were raped during the Hamas assault has been debated since the attack occurred, when video emerged of Hamas terrorists bundling an Israeli woman with what appeared to be blood on her pants into a vehicle in Gaza. Since then, Israeli police, military investigators and emergency responders have gathered testimony from people who witnessed sexual assault on Oct. 7 and documented evidence of assaults on the bodies of some who died.

Israeli police said they have “multiple witnesses for several cases” of sexual abuse, but did not disclose the number of witness testimonies or active sexual assault cases being investigated, the Times of Israel reported. Police also have video evidence, testimony from interrogations, and photographs of victims’ bodies that suggest sexual assault took place on Oct. 7, according to the report.

Yet six years after the #MeToo movement aimed to change the global conversation about believing women, some say the silence — or worse, open disbelief — about what happened to Israeli women suggests that progress has been uneven.

“It was not called out to the extent it should have been,” Sheila Katz, CEO of the National Council for Jewish Women, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “And organizations that have long spoken out against sexual assault and against war crimes seem to have been comfortable being silent as this happened to Israeli women.”

The Me Too International movement in its initial statement on the war on Nov. 13 said that the organization “recognizes that sexual violence often functions as a weapon of war and imperialism” and called for a ceasefire in Gaza, without mentioning the sexual violence that had occurred in Israel. A clarifying statement sent out two days later specifically mentioned the sexual violence experienced by Israeli women in October.

“We received some feedback from survivors asking for clarity about our statement,” the updated MeToo statement said. “We stand unequivocally with ALL survivors of sexual violence in this moment, including Israeli women who have given horrific accounts of gender-based violence in the last month.”

Some are reserving particular outrage for UN Women, the United Nations’ women’s organization that has issued multiple statements and reports about the state of Palestinian women and children in Gaza since Oct. 7, but has not issued any reports about sexual violence against Israeli women during that time.

“In their silence, these organizations have rendered themselves irrelevant,” Rotem Izak, an Israeli journalist at Yediot Ahronot and Ynet, wrote in an essay condemning UN Women for staying silent on sexual violence perpetrated against Israelis.

“Not because they shouted the cry of the Gazan women who pay with their bodies and lives for the deeds of Hamas. This is a fact; a painful fact,” Izak said. “However, ignoring the crimes of October 7 that led to this terrible war is an additional form of violence.”

Late last month, NCJW and more than 140 other women’s groups also called on UN Women to condemn the Hamas attack and “do everything in their power to expose and recognize these atrocious and horrific acts of violence against women and girls and to bring the release of all hostages immediately.”

Katz said it had been painful just to make the ask.

“We shouldn’t have to convince people who claim to be our friends and allies that raping Israelis is wrong,” she added. “Using rape as a tool of war is something that we should all agree is bad. The end, full stop. The fact that the United Nations and UN Women haven’t been able to say that is egregious.”

Entrepreneurs Danielle Ofek and Nataly Livski launched a petition last week that has so far collected a quarter-million signatures criticizing UN Women. Called “#MeToo_UNless_UR_A_Jew,” the campaign seeks to provide a voice for the women still held hostage or missing in Gaza. The associated hashtag has also trended on X, formerly known as Twitter.

While the UN group has not addressed the rape allegations, others have gone further and openly cast doubt on them. In Canada, a letter calling on a political leaders to stop broadcasting “the repeated and unverified accusation that Palestinians were guilty of sexual violence” drew thousands of signatories. One of them was the head of a campus sexual assault center who was subsequently fired.

Sandberg, who is Jewish and had previously expressed pain over Oct. 7 and its aftermath, said her decision to make the video statement on Instagram was fueled by understanding just how widespread such dismissal had become.

“We have come so far in believing survivors of rape and assault in so many situations, yet this time, many are ignoring the stories that these bodies tell us about how these women spent the last moments of their lives,” Sandberg wrote in the CNN op-ed. “Not loudly condemning the rapes of October 7 — or any rapes — is a massive step backward for the women — and men — of the world. The ground gained was hard-fought and must not be lost.”


The post Sheryl Sandberg joins Jewish women in calling out lack of concern about sexual assault of Israelis appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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Germany Presses Main Mosque Network to Distance Itself From Erdogan Ally Over Antisemitism

Ali Erbas, president of Diyanet, speaks at a press conference following an August 2025 gathering in Istanbul, where 150 Islamic scholars called for armed resistance and a boycott against Israel. Photo: Screenshot

Amid a rising wave of anti-Jewish hate crimes, the German government is pressing the country’s main mosque association over its close ties to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, urging it to publicly distance itself from his antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric.

According to local reports, German authorities have told the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB) — the country’s largest mosque network — to formally break with Erdogan’s hateful statements or risk losing government support and cooperation.

“We expect the federal government’s cooperation partners to clearly distance themselves from organizations and individuals who spread antisemitic messages or promote Islamist agendas,” a spokesperson for Germany’s Federal Ministry of Interior said in a statement to German media.

For years, the German government has supported DITIB in training imams, as well as helping to foster community programs and religious initiatives.

In 2023, then-Interior Minister Nancy Faeser signed an agreement with the Turkish government’s Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) and DITIB for a new imam training program.

By sending imams from Turkey and paying their salaries, the Diyanet oversees DITIB and its hundreds of communities across Germany, shaping the ideological direction of more than 900 mosques and influencing the training of their imams.

Under a new program, however, the Diyanet no longer sends imams directly from Turkey. Instead, Turkish students are trained in Germany in cooperation with the German Islam Conference (IKD).

Since March 1 of this year, the Interior Ministry has designated €465,000 in support for the program, according to the German newspaper Die Welt.

With this new agreement, imams live permanently in German communities and have no formal ties to the Turkish government. Still, experts doubt that this alone would curb the Diyanet’s political influence.

In the past, DITIB has faced multiple controversies, with some members making antisemitic remarks and spreading hateful messages.

“The continuation of measures adopted for this purpose, such as the training initiative, will largely depend on DITIB’s conduct and the success of the process,” a spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior said in a statement.

The German government’s latest warning came after a conference in Istanbul last month, where 150 Islamic scholars called for armed resistance against Israel, a boycott against the country, and “global jihad.”

Among those attending was Ali Erbas, president of Diyanet, with whom the German government signed the new agreement in 2023.

Erbas has repeatedly made public antisemitic statements, defended the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct.7, 2023, and called for the mobilization of “all forms of jihad.”

“The Zionist regime is committing outright genocide in Gaza. We believe it is haram, or forbidden, to remain silent in the face of oppression. Therefore, everyone can take action. The boycott of Zionist occupiers’ goods must continue,” Erbas reportedly said during the conference.

“We firmly affirm that the Palestinian people have all legitimate forms of resistance against the Zionist occupation, including armed resistance. We also consider it necessary to mobilize the Ummah [Islamic community] for all forms of jihad in the way of Allah,” he continued.

The German government strongly condemned Erbas’s comments, questioning DITIB’s relationship with a public figure whose statements and antisemitic ideology contradict their cooperation agreement.

“These events underscore, once again, the problematic structural and personal links between DITIB and the Turkish religious authority,” a spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior said in a statement.

“Cooperation with DITIB requires a clear commitment to the values of the Basic Law, to international understanding, to Israel’s right to exist, and to a firm opposition to both Islamism and antisemitism,” the statement read.

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EU Targets Israel With Sanctions and Partial Trade Suspension, Von der Leyen Calls for Ceasefire Amid Gaza War

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivers the State of the European Union address to the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, France, Sept. 10, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yves Herman

The executive body of the European Union will propose sanctions against certain Israeli ministers and partially suspend the EU’s association agreement with Israel, in one of its latest efforts to pressure Jerusalem over the war in Gaza.

On Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled new measures targeting the 25-year-old pact governing the EU’s political and economic ties with Israel, in one of the latest attempts to curb the Jewish state’s defensive campaign against Hamas.

“What is happening in Gaza has shaken the conscience of the world,” von der Leyen said in a State of the Union speech to the European Parliament in France.

“People killed while begging for food. Mothers holding lifeless babies,” she continued. “Man-made famine can never be a weapon of war. For the sake of the children, for the sake of humanity. This must stop.”

This latest move is part of an increasingly hostile campaign by some European countries against the Jewish state, building on previous efforts to undermine Israel internationally.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar denounced von der Leyen’s comments as “regrettable,” adding that some of her remarks were “tainted by echoing the false propaganda of Hamas and its partners.”

“Israel, the world’s only Jewish state and the only democracy in the Middle East, is fighting a war of existence against extremist enemies working to eliminate it. The international community must back Israel in this struggle,” the top Israeli diplomat wrote in a post on X.

“Once again, Europe conveys the wrong message that strengthens Hamas and the radical axis in the Middle East,” he continued. “Anyone who seeks an end to the war knows very well how to end it: the release of the hostages, the disarmament of Hamas, a new future for Gaza.”

Saar added, “Hurting Israel will not bring this about; on the contrary, it entrenches Hamas and Israel’s enemies in their refusal.”

Von der Leyen’s announcement came just a day after Jerusalem carried out strikes against Hamas’s political leadership in Qatar, which has supported the Palestinian terrorist group for years.

In her speech, von der Leyen denounced Israel’s actions, accusing the country of causing starvation in the war-torn enclave of Gaza and undermining ceasefire negotiations.

She also condemned the expansion of settlements in parts of the West Bank and denounced comments from some government ministers that she said incite violence.

“All of this points to a clear attempt to undermine the two-state solution, to undermine the vision of a viable Palestinian state. And we must not let this happen,” von der Leyen said.

Israel has vehemently denied any accusations of causing starvation in Gaza, noting that it has provided and facilitated significant humanitarian aid into the enclave throughout much of the war.

Israeli officials have also said much of the aid that flows into Gaza is stolen by Hamas, which uses it for terrorist operations and sells the rest at high prices to Gazan civilians. According to UN data, the vast majority of humanitarian aid entering Gaza is intercepted before reaching its intended civilian recipients.

Jerusalem has also argued it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, despite Hamas’s widely acknowledged military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.

Under the new proposed measures, the EU would partially suspend its trade pact with Israel, removing preferential treatment for Israeli goods that make up nearly a third of the country’s total international trade.

Von der Leyen also announced that the EU will suspend its bilateral support for Israel, while maintaining engagement with Israeli civil society and Yad Vashem, the country’s main Holocaust memorial center.

In addition, the European Commission “will propose sanctions on the extremist ministers and on violent settlers” and plans to set up a “Palestine donor group” next month, with a dedicated mechanism to support Gaza’s reconstruction following the war.

At the end of her speech, von der Leyen called for the release of the Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas, the “unrestrained” entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and “an immediate ceasefire.”

“There can never be any place for Hamas, neither now nor in future because they are terrorists who want to destroy Israel,” the European Commission head said.

“They are also inflicting terror on their own people, keeping their future hostage.”

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Australian Police Arrest Alleged Perpetrator Behind 4 Antisemitic Attacks, Including Child-Care Center Torching

Southern Sydney Synagogue in the suburb of Allawah, Australia, was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti on Jan. 10, 2024. Photo: Screenshot

Australian authorities have charged a 27-year-old man who they say directed multiple acts of vandalism and antisemitic arson attacks against Sydney’s Jewish population.

Police on Wednesday named the suspect as Tarek Zahabe, who was arrested in July but only publicly revealed this week as the alleged organizer of four crimes in January. Investigators say he orchestrated the attacks and instructed Kye Pickering, his alleged 26-year-old accomplice.

The alleged crimes occurred in less than a month. On Jan. 10, swastikas were sprayed across the Allawah Synagogue in southern Sydney. A week later, on Jan. 17, vandals attacked the former home of Alex Ryvchin, co-executive chief officer of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. They splashed red paint and torched four cars on the street, scrawling “f**k Jews” on one of the vehicles. On Jan. 21, a child-care center near the Maroubra Synagogue was set on fire and vandalized with antisemitic graffiti. Finally, on Jan. 30, a Jewish school in Maroubra was also targeted with spray-painted slurs.

Police allege Zahabe directed and coordinated each of these actions, while Pickering executed much of the damage.

Zahabe faces two counts of participating in a criminal group and one count of knowingly or recklessly directing such a group. Pickering has been charged with destroying property, participating in the conspiracy, and displaying Nazi symbols in public. Both are scheduled to appear before the Downing Centre Local Court on Oct. 30.

In Australia, the public display of swastikas and other Nazi iconography carries penalties as high as 12 months’ imprisonment or a fine of $11,000.

Some Australian states enforce stiffer penalties for those intent on promoting the Third Reich, such as Victoria with fines reaching $23,000 and 12 months in jail. In Western Australia, Nazi advocates face fines of $24,000 with as much as five years behind bars.

The arrests resulted from the efforts of Strike Force Pearl, a counterterrorism investigation launched after a wave of incidents targeting Sydney’s Jewish community. Authorities have linked Zahabe’s alleged actions to a broader set of more than a dozen attacks across the summer, including one case in which a caravan filled with explosives was discovered on the city’s outskirts.

“We thank the NSW [New South Wales] Police for their efforts and determination in bringing these alleged offenders to justice,” David Ossip, president of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, said in a statement. “Many in the community will sleep more soundly in the knowledge that at least some of these attackers are no longer a threat but big questions remain about the role of Iran in these events.”

At the time of the January attacks, political leaders condemned the criminals with Chris Minns, the New South Wales premier, calling the attackers “bastards … with hate in their hearts.” He would later describe the spate of firebombings and graffiti as Sydney’s “summer of racism.” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also denounced the attacks targeting Jewish sites and leaders.

Authorities have so far chosen to prosecute Zahabe as a domestic criminal conspiracy. However, Australian leaders have recently announced the involvement of Iran in other antisemitic crimes in the country, charges prompting diplomatic divisions resulting in the mutual expulsion of ambassadors.

In August, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) said it had credible evidence that Iran directed two crimes — a firebombing of Lewis’s Continental Kitchen, a kosher deli in Bondi, and an arson attack on Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue.

Albanese described the incidents as “extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil.” His government responded by expelling Iran’s ambassador, suspending operations at Australia’s embassy in Tehran, and pledging to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei denied the allegations, calling them “ridiculous and baseless” while accusing Australia of manufacturing claims to justify an anti-Iran policy. Tehran responded by downgrading relations, sending the Australian ambassador home, and insisting that antisemitism was a “Western and European” problem with no place in Iran’s own cultural history.

“If you look at history, persecution of Jews because of their religion is rooted in Europe, and it is they who must be held accountable for their past,” Baghaei said.

The Guardian reported that police have not linked Zahabe’s case directly to Iran or to the organized crime networks mentioned earlier in the investigation.

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