<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail-top-anchor"></div>
<div id="gmail-toolbar" class="gmail-toolbar-container">
</div><div class="gmail-container" lang="en" dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail-header gmail-reader-header gmail-reader-show-element">
<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/un-report-launders-israels-fraudulent-mass-rape-propaganda/45021">electronicintifada.net</a>
<div class="gmail-domain-border"></div>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">UN report launders Israel's fraudulent "mass rape" propaganda</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits"></div>
<div class="gmail-meta-data">
<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">
<p class="gmail-node__submitted">
<span class="gmail-field"><span class="gmail-field-author"><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/asa-winstanley">Asa Winstanley</a> and </span><span class="gmail-field-author"><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/ali-abunimah">Ali Abunimah</a></span></span>
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-publisher"><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/electronic-intifada">The Electronic Intifada</a></span>
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-publication-date"><span class="gmail-date-display-single">7 March 2024</span></span> </p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="gmail-content">
<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div>
<span>
<img src="https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2024-03/erdan-pattern-.jpeg?itok=c9VZ42wk×tamp=1709830672" width="395" height="297" alt="Three people pose in front of a photo collage" title="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;">
</span>
<p>UN official Pramila Patten posing for photos with Israeli politician Gilad Erdan. (<a href="https://twitter.com/IsraelMFA/status/1754899518296887454">Israel MFA</a>)</p>
<p>Just as Israel’s long running <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/mass-rape-accusation">propaganda campaign alleging</a> a strategy of “mass rape” by Palestinians on 7 October was <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/ny-times-found-no-7-october-rape-victims-reporter-admits">unraveling at high speed</a>, a United Nations official stepped in this week to try to stick it back together.</p>
<p>The Israeli government is grateful to the official, Pramila Patten,
who released a high-profile report on alleged sexual violence at a press
conference in New York on Tuesday.</p>
<p>It came after a two-week visit to Israel between January and February by Patten and her team.</p>
<p>This is key timing for Israel. Since December, the most important proponent of the propaganda narrative has been <em>The New York Times</em>.</p>
<p>But as The Electronic Intifada has been reporting, the <em>Times</em> is embroiled in a <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/ny-times-found-no-7-october-rape-victims-reporter-admits">growing scandal</a> over the veracity of its reporting on the issue.</p>
<p>A now infamous article – “‘<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/28/world/middleeast/oct-7-attacks-hamas-israel-sexual-violence.html">Screams Without Words’: How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7</a>” – has been completely debunked by a small group of independent journalists: <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/watch-debunking-israels-mass-rape-propaganda">The Electronic Intifada</a>, <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2024/01/10/questions-nyt-hamas-rape-report/"><em>The Grayzone</em></a> and <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2024/01/family-of-key-case-in-new-york-times-october-7-sexual-violence-report-renounces-story-says-reporters-manipulated-them/"><em>Mondoweiss</em></a> and the Twitter user <a href="https://twitter.com/zei_squirrel">@zei_squirrel</a>.</p>
<p>And despite several of its writers <a href="https://twitter.com/aaronjmate/status/1764419992018108607">giving</a> <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/12/24/feminism-sexual-violence-hamas-israel/">credence</a> to the false claims of mass rape, <em>The Intercept</em> has done additional reporting further discrediting the Israeli claims.
</p><div id="gmail-file-153156">
<p>
</p>
</div>
<a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/03/04/nyt-october-7-sexual-violence-kibbutz-beeri/">In their latest piece on Monday</a>, <em>The Intercept’s</em>
Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim identified and talked to family members
related to two of the three alleged victims of sexual violence singled
out in the <em>Times</em> piece.
<p>The family insisted: “It’s not true. They were not sexually abused.”</p>
<p>The family of the third supposed rape victim – Gal Abdush – had <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/watch-ny-times-investigation-mass-rape-hamas-falls-apart">already disowned</a> the <em>Times</em> article back in January.</p>
<p>The <em>Times</em> is facing a growing internal rebellion among its staff over the article.</p>
<p>An episode of <em>The Daily</em>, the widely heard podcast produced by the newspaper, was <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/ny-times-tries-cover-its-7-october-mass-rapes-fraud">canceled in January</a> after failing a fact check. <em>Times</em> whistleblowers – as well as staff of Arab and Muslim heritage – are facing a <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/nyt-under-fire-leaks-israel-coverage">witch hunt</a> by the paper’s management, who are desperate to stem the leaks about the internal turmoil.</p>
<p>Pramila Patten’s report, then, seems almost as if it was timed to save the <em>Times</em> and, by extension, the Israeli government and its US government accomplices.</p>
<p>But contrary to media spin, the Patten report further exposes the claims of systematic sexual violence as a fraud.</p>
<h2>“Solidarity” with Israel</h2>
<p>Whatever motive she has, Patten is not the unbiased UN official
seeking to combat sexual violence during conflict that she claims to be.</p>
<p>Israeli newspaper <em>Yedioth Ahronoth</em> <a href="https://www.ynetnews.com/article/h1sajwrqa">reported</a>
last month that during her visit to Israeli settlements near the Gaza
boundary, “In each meeting she attended, Patten consistently expressed
her solidarity, empathy and sympathy towards Israel.”</p>
<p>Patten’s visit was not a formal UN investigation, and the resulting
report presents no new evidence. It is conspicuously vague on specifics
and admits to being based almost entirely on Israeli government and
military sources.</p>
<p>A key conclusion buried in the report concedes that the UN team “was
unable to establish the prevalence of sexual violence and concludes that
the overall magnitude, scope, and specific attribution of these
violations would require a fully-fledged investigation.”</p>
<p>As Patten’s report itself notes, Israel has consistently refused to cooperate with independent UN investigators.</p>
<p>Crucially, Patten and her team were unable to locate a single victim
and did not speak to any alleged survivors of sexual violence or rape –
despite making a public appeal for such survivors to come forward and
speak confidentially and with assurances of safety and privacy.</p>
<p>Notwithstanding all these limitations, Patten’s report claims that
there are “reasonable grounds” to believe rape took place during the 7
October events. She bases this conclusion on “circumstantial”
information which she claims “may be indicative of some forms of sexual
violence.”</p>
<p>The report alleges that Patten’s team saw “clear and convincing
information that some hostages taken to Gaza have been subjected to
various forms of conflict-related sexual violence.”</p>
<h2>Smearing ceasefire campaigners</h2>
<p>It also asserts that there is “reasonable grounds to believe” that
sexual violence against Israeli prisoners in Palestinian custody “may be
ongoing.”</p>
<p>Again, the report does not explain what these “reasonable grounds” are.</p>
<p>Nor does it explain what this “convincing information” is or where it comes from.</p>
<p>Patten’s report does say her team spoke to returned “hostages” – the
Israeli prisoners released by Palestinian armed groups since 7 October –
but, crucially, <em>does not</em> say that any of them claimed to have been sexually assaulted.</p>
<p>The claim that Israeli captives are being raped does serve a key
Israeli narrative about the need to continue the genocidal war against
Gaza.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://twitter.com/giladerdan1/status/1764749418417238155">statement</a>
on Tuesday Israel’s UN ambassador Gilad Erdan made clear one of the
motives for Israel’s intense misinformation campaign seeking to portray
Palestinians as rapists: “The meaning of a ceasefire is to lengthen the
suffering of the hostages. Any call for a ceasefire is blatant support
for Hamas to continue their sexual violence!”</p>
<p>In other words, Israel is trying to smear those calling for an end to its genocide in Gaza as rape apologists.</p>
<p>Notably, the Patten report repeatedly speaks of “clear and convincing <em>information</em>,” as opposed to <em>evidence</em>.</p>
<span>
<img src="https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2024-03/patten-landau-kibbutz.jpeg?itok=K2ErRU5X×tamp=1709829816" width="395" height="270" alt="A group of people talk outdoors" title="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;">
</span>
<p>Pramila Patten accompanied by Israeli fabricator and Jewish
extremist Yossi Landau. The UN official reportedly expressed
“solidarity” with Israel during her visit to the settlements. (<a href="https://twitter.com/IsraelMFA/status/1754899518296887454">Israel MFA</a>)</p>
<p>Considering Patten’s apparently preconceived “solidarity” with
Israel, it is perhaps not surprising that she seems determined to
launder the debunked “mass rape” atrocity propaganda through the UN
system.</p>
<p>During Patten’s visit to the Israeli frontier settlements and army
bases that were the target of the Hamas-led military assault on 7
October, she was accompanied by controversial Israeli figures.</p>
<p>Photos released by Israel’s foreign ministry show that Patten was
accompanied by Yossi Landau, the regional head of ZAKA, a Jewish
extremist group which has been responsible for <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2023/12/zaka-is-not-a-trustworthy-source-for-allegations-of-sexual-violence-on-october-7/">fabricating</a> some of Israel’s most lurid debunked atrocity stories since 7 October.</p>
<p>These have included the disproven claim that 40 babies were beheaded by Hamas.</p>
<p>As <em>The Grayzone</em> <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2023/12/06/scandal-israeli-october-7-fabrications/">has revealed</a>,
Landau was also personally responsible for fabricating the claim that
an Israeli baby was killed after being ripped out of its mother’s womb.</p>
<p>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu <a href="https://www.gov.il/en/departments/news/event-zaka231123">met with ZAKA members</a> in November and emphasized their important role in Israeli propaganda.</p>
<p>“We need to buy time, which we also buy by turning to world leaders
and to public opinion,” he told the group. “You have an important role
in influencing public opinion, which also influences leaders. We are at
war; it will continue.”</p>
<p>Landau has described his work as a “holy mission.”</p>
<h2>Anti-UN campaign</h2>
<p>According to a second <em>Yedioth Ahronoth</em> article <a href="https://www.ynetnews.com/magazine/article/ryuruob6t">on Wednesday</a>, ambassador Erdan is quite pleased with the Patten report.</p>
<p>“Finally, there is someone within the UN who is willing to listen to
Israel and take these concerns seriously, rather than brushing them off
and focusing almost exclusively on the situation in Gaza,” the paper’s
diplomatic correspondent Itamar Eichner, summarized.</p>
<p>He wrote that “Israeli officials are cautious about openly embracing
and praising Patten for her report,” however “behind closed doors there
is great admiration for her professionalism, advocacy and attentiveness
to the Israeli perspective.”</p>
<p>Patten’s report even admits that it was based on information that was
“in a large part sourced from Israeli national institutions.”</p>
<p>These “institutions,” the report explains, included the Israeli
military, the internal intelligence agency Shin Bet and the Israeli
national police.</p>
<p>In other words, the UN is taking the word of the same Israeli armed
forces and spies carrying out the genocide in Gaza, even while Israel
uses provably false allegations about “mass rape” to justify its
actions.</p>
<p>These are the same state forces shown to have lied repeatedly, that have killed <a href="https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2024-01-15/secretary-generals-statement-the-press-the-middle-east">more than 150 UN personnel</a>
– the largest number of the world body’s staff to be killed in any
conflict – and that have leveled accusations of “terrorism” against UN
workers <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/01/unrwa-funding-pause-employees-october-7-hamas-attack-claims-no-evidence-un">without producing a shred of evidence</a>.</p>
<h2>“No tangible indications of rape”</h2>
<p>Although widely reported in the corporate press as bolstering
Israel’s claims about a Hamas campaign of sexual violence, the Patten
report is a deeply flawed document that makes very vague accusations and
recycles already debunked Israeli propaganda talking points.</p>
<p>But at the same time, it contains multiple admissions about how weak
Israel’s claims are and how some of them are demonstrably false.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that – despite months of intense Israeli
propaganda parroted by a compliant Western press – the report admits
that “in the medicolegal assessment of available photos and videos,”
undertaken by the UN team, “no tangible indications of rape could be
identified.”</p>
<p>It also concedes that the UN team saw “no digital evidence
specifically depicting acts of sexual violence” in their own “open
source” investigation, despite reviewing “extensive digital material.”</p>
<p>Not a single specific victim of sexual assault has been positively identified, living or dead.</p>
<p>In other words, although the common refrain when it comes to
allegations of rape is to “believe women,” in this case, there are still
no women to believe.</p>
<p>The report decries that Patten’s team had a “lack of access to
first-hand testimonies of survivors/victims of sexual violence.” It says
that “despite concerted efforts to encourage them to come forward, the
mission team was not able to interview any of these survivors/victims.”</p>
<p>It asserts – without evidence or details – that “a small number of
those [victims] who are undergoing treatment are reportedly experiencing
severe mental distress and trauma” but does not explain how UN
officials know that such victims really exist.</p>
<p>These vague claims that a handful of victims exist, hidden away, are reminiscent of those <a href="https://youtu.be/0VvGF9vYnlw?si=Aee2qp-RG4AFJIhq&t=2363">contained in the debunked <em>New York Times</em> article</a>, based on Israeli government sources.
</p><div id="gmail-file-153401">
<p>
</p>
</div>
The Patten report concedes that the number of such alleged survivors “remains unknown.”
<p>Rather than “evidence,” which Patten’s team did not have the mandate
to collect, the report makes the distinction that they “received
information.” It does refer to “circumstantial evidence,” including the
claim that Patten’s team found that there were “naked or partially naked
bodies.”</p>
<p>But the report does concede that “at least two allegations of sexual violence widely repeated in the media, were unfounded.”</p>
<p>It disturbingly ignores how atrocity propaganda has been weaponized
by Israeli officials, instead treating their claims with unwarranted
credulity.</p>
<p>For example, the report recounts that “claims were made in the public
domain” that Hamas had issued pamphlets to its fighters “with
instructions on pronouncing phrases in Hebrew such as ‘Open your legs’
or ‘Take off your pants.’”</p>
<p>The report concludes that “the mission team was not able to
substantiate” these claims, but ignores the role of the Israeli army in <a href="https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/1724076950967210304">disseminating this atrocity propaganda</a>.</p>
<h2>Israel’s threats to the UN</h2>
<p>Patten’s visit to the Gaza-area settlements came after an
unprecedented Israeli government assault on the UN, accusing the body of
not taking the claims of sexual violence seriously.</p>
<p>But if sending Patten to Israel was Secretary-General António
Guterres’ effort to appease Tel Aviv, it predictably has not worked.</p>
<p>Unsatiated by Patten’s report, this week Israeli ambassador Erdan escalated his country’s threats against the UN.
</p>
Speaking on Israel’s Channel 12 he threatened “severe action” against
the UN, including closing its Jerusalem headquarters and deporting UN
officials, if the secretary-general does not now invoke Article 99 of
the UN Charter.
Guterres <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/7/israels-war-on-gaza-can-guterress-use-of-uns-article-99-bring-peace">invoked the article in December</a> – a rare move aimed at formally warning the Security Council of the global threat from Israel’s war on Gaza.
<p>Israel clearly now wants Guterres to invoke the same measure <em>against</em> the Palestinians.</p>
<p>Pramila Patten’s report has done nothing to uncover any evidence to
back up Israel’s claims. It has only handed Israel more deceitful
propaganda to further its genocide against Palestinians and its attack
on the UN.</p>
<p><em>Ali Abunimah is executive director, and Asa Winstanley is associate editor of The Electronic Intifada.</em></p><br>
</div></div></div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div></div>
</div>
</div>