[News] White House to screen Palestinian torture "confessions" to push mass rape lie

[Anti-Imperialist News]

electronicintifada.net
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/white-house-screen-palestinian-torture-confessions-push-mass-rape-lie>
White House to screen Palestinian torture "confessions" to push mass rape
lie

Ali Abunimah <https://electronicintifada.net/people/ali-abunimah> Rights
and Accountability
<https://electronicintifada.net/blog/rights-and-accountability> 17 June 2024
------------------------------

Vice President Kamala Harris is to host <https://www.whitehouse.gov/live/>
a White House screening of Sheryl Sandberg’s *Screams Before Silence*
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/debunking-screams-silence-sheryl-sandbergs-7-oct-mass-rape-film>
on Monday, a film which includes “confession” footage of Palestinians who
were almost certainly tortured by Israel, to support Tel Aviv’s 7 October
mass rapes lie.

In promoting the event, Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz
lied in a CNN interview that she had personally watched videos of a rape in
progress, footage that Israeli and international investigators have
determined does not exist.

The screening is the result of a collaboration between the White House
Gender Policy Council and several Israel lobby groups, according
<https://jewishinsider.com/2024/06/daily-kickoff-white-house-to-screen-sandbergs-oct-7-doc-today/>
to *Jewish Insider.*

Invitations have been sent “to all the major feminist and women’s rights
organizations,” the publication says. The Israel lobby appears to be using
the event as a litmus test to see which of these groups is falling into
line behind Israel’s propaganda narrative.

*Jewish Insider* says that “keeping an eye on the audience of the event
will be revealing.”
Proven liars

The Sandberg film released in late April disseminates Israeli atrocity
propaganda claiming without any credible evidence, and based on proven
lies, that Hamas ordered its fighters to use rape as a weapon of war on a
wide scale on 7 October 2023.

In an article <https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-806346>
promoting the White House screening, *The Jerusalem Post* asserts that:
“The silence of most women’s and human rights organization about the sexual
assaults committed by Hamas on October 7, which included mass rape and
genital mutilation, prompted former Meta COO and author Sandberg to make
this documentary, which was directed by Anat Stalinsky.”

The Electronic Intifada’s livestream examined the Sandberg film in
meticulous detail last month and demonstrated using Israeli and UN sources
how the so-called witnesses interviewed by Sandberg were lying.

You can watch that segment in the tweet below or at this link
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/debunking-screams-silence-sheryl-sandbergs-7-oct-mass-rape-film>:

As we noted, human rights defenders have rejected the use of confession
videos released by Israel because they almost certainly have been the fruit
of torture
<https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/05/israel-un-expert-calls-probe-allegations-torture-and-mistreatment-against>
in a situation where detainees are afforded no due process rights.

Amnesty International is one rights group that noted a dramatic increase
<https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/11/israel-opt-horrifying-cases-of-torture-and-degrading-treatment-of-palestinian-detainees-amid-spike-in-arbitrary-arrests/>
of Israel’s use of “horrifying” torture in the weeks following 7 October.

Despite the 7 October rape claims being thoroughly and repeatedly debunked
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/mass-rape-accusation>, Israel and its
lobby keep attempting to revive them, and are now receiving the high-level
support of the Biden White House to do so.
In The Electronic Intifada’s latest livestream
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZTTBuWgn0o>, we looked at how a recent
article in *The Times of London* has become the first mainstream outlet to
admit that there is no evidence for the mass rape claim.

We also discuss the findings of the UN’s independent Commission of Inquiry,
which also says it could not verify any of the rape claims.

You can watch that latest segment – which also addresses the Sandberg film
– in the video at the top of this article.
Democratic Congresswoman lies about rape video In promoting Monday’s White
House event, Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz falsely
claimed to have seen video of a 7 October rape in progress.

Speaking to CNN on Monday, she asserted, “I hosted a forum with the second
gentleman on Capitol Hill a few months ago and the Israeli police came and
showed us videos that were taken by Hamas terrorists themselves engaging in
the kind of sexual violence that Sheryl’s film shows, cutting off the
breasts while raping their victims.”

“Through survivors coming forward, witnesses, video footage and independent
analysis, we know that Hamas’ use of sexual violence including rape,
mutilation, and brutality was not an anomaly,” Wasserman Schultz had claimed
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/us-lawmakers-officials-attend-capitol-hill-event-on-hamass-oct-7-sexual-violence/>
after the February event, which included a closed briefing.

But she did not claim at the time that she had seen videos of anyone
“engaging” in sexual violence.

That is because no such videos exist.

In recent weeks Germany’s chancellor and foreign minister have both publicly
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/germany-smears-journalist-challenging-baerbocks-7-oct-rape-video-lie>
claimed
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/german-leader-olaf-scholz-repeats-lie-about-nonexistent-hamas-rape-videos>
that Hamas filmed rapes taking place.

However, Israeli security agencies and UN examiners have determined
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/german-foreign-minister-says-she-saw-nonexistent-7-oct-rape-video>
that no videos or photos exist of sexual assaults in progress on 7 October.

This was confirmed in an article in *Haaretz*
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-04-18/ty-article-magazine/witnesses-confessions-naked-dead-bodies-all-the-evidence-of-hamas-rape-on-oct-7/0000018e-f114-d92e-abfe-f77f7e3f0000>
in April.

“From inquiries put to three bodies in the defense establishment by
*Haaretz*, it emerges that the intelligence material collected by the
police and the intelligence bodies, including footage from terrorists’ body
cameras, does not contain visual documentation of any acts of rape
themselves,” the Tel Aviv newspaper stated.

The UN team headed by Pramila Patten also reviewed thousands of photos and
videos provided by the Israeli government and concluded
<https://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/report/mission-report-official-visit-of-the-office-of-the-srsg-svc-to-israel-and-the-occupied-west-bank-29-january-14-february-2024/20240304-Israel-oWB-CRSV-report.pdf>
in its report published in March that “in the medicolegal assessment of
available photos and videos, no tangible indications of rape could be
identified.”

Despite the UN report’s pro-Israel biases
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/un-report-launders-israels-fraudulent-mass-rape-propaganda/45021>,
it also confirms that “no digital evidence specifically depicting acts of
sexual violence was found in open sources.”
UN Commission finds no evidence for rape claims

The UN independent Commission of Inquiry reports
<https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session56/a-hrc-56-crp-3.pdf>
that it sent a request for information to Israel seeking “additional
information in relation to rape and other forms of sexual violence,
including evidence of any instructions provided to the perpetrators
responsible for the attack on 7 October 2023 to carry out such acts, or
information on specific cases of gender-based crimes on 7 October 2023,
including cases of rape and other forms of sexual violence.”

Not only did Israel not respond, but according to the report, investigators
face “active attempts by Israeli authorities to obstruct the Commission’s
access to information related to sexual violence. Such measures include
instructing medical professionals not to cooperate with the Commission.”

Like other investigations, the Commission notes “the absence of forensic
evidence of sexual crimes committed on 7 October.”

It also reports that it “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 states emphatically that it “was also unable to verify
reports of sexualized torture and genital mutilation.”

The Commission says it “viewed reports asserting that documents found on
militants who were killed or arrested contain alleged instructions to
undress civilians and/or commit rape or other forms of sexual violence
during the attack on 7 October.”

But it reports that it was “unable to obtain copies of these documents and
was unable to verify their authenticity.”

And just like the report issued
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/un-report-launders-israels-fraudulent-mass-rape-propaganda/45021>
in early March by Pramila Patten, the UN secretary-general’s special
representative on sexual violence in conflict, the Commission of Inquiry
debunks some of Israel’s most lurid claims.

It reports that it “found some specific allegations to be false, inaccurate
or contradictory with other evidence or statements and discounted these
from its assessment.”

The International Criminal Court chief prosecutor, who is seeking arrest
warrants for Israeli and Palestinian leaders, accusing them of various war
crimes and crimes against humanity, also found no evidence to support the
mass rape narrative, as indicated by court documents
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/icc-has-no-evidence-7-october-rapes-documents-indicate>
.

By ignoring these and other similar findings debunking the Israeli claims,
Kamala Harris in particular and the Biden administration in general are
choosing to disseminate atrocity propaganda they know to be false.

That only deepens their complicity in Israel’s genocide.
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