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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/white-house-screen-palestinian-torture-confessions-push-mass-rape-lie">electronicintifada.net</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">White House to screen Palestinian torture "confessions" to push mass rape lie</h1>
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<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-author"><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/ali-abunimah">Ali Abunimah</a></span>
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-blog"><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blog/rights-and-accountability">Rights and Accountability</a></span>
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-publication-date"><span class="gmail-date-display-single">17 June 2024</span></span> </p>
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Vice President Kamala Harris is to <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/live/">host</a> a White House screening of Sheryl Sandberg’s <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/debunking-screams-silence-sheryl-sandbergs-7-oct-mass-rape-film"><em>Screams Before Silence</em></a>
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.
<p>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.</p>
<p>The screening is the result of a collaboration between the White House Gender Policy Council and several Israel lobby groups, <a href="https://jewishinsider.com/2024/06/daily-kickoff-white-house-to-screen-sandbergs-oct-7-doc-today/">according</a> to <em>Jewish Insider.</em></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><em>Jewish Insider</em> says that “keeping an eye on the audience of the event will be revealing.”</p>
<h2>Proven liars</h2>
<p>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.</p>
<p>In an <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-806346">article</a> promoting the White House screening, <em>The Jerusalem Post</em>
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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>You can watch that segment in the tweet below or <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/debunking-screams-silence-sheryl-sandbergs-7-oct-mass-rape-film">at this link</a>:
</p>
As we noted, human rights defenders have rejected the use of confession
videos released by Israel because they almost certainly have been the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/05/israel-un-expert-calls-probe-allegations-torture-and-mistreatment-against">fruit of torture</a> in a situation where detainees are afforded no due process rights.
<p>Amnesty International is one rights group that noted a <a href="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/">dramatic increase</a> of Israel’s use of “horrifying” torture in the weeks following 7 October.</p>
<p>Despite the 7 October rape claims being <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/mass-rape-accusation">thoroughly and repeatedly debunked</a>,
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.
</p>
In The Electronic Intifada’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZTTBuWgn0o">latest livestream</a>, we looked at how a recent article in <em>The Times of London</em> has become the first mainstream outlet to admit that there is no evidence for the mass rape claim.
<p>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.</p>
<p>You can watch that latest segment – which also addresses the Sandberg film – in the video at the top of this article.</p>
<h2>Democratic Congresswoman lies about rape video</h2>
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.
<p>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.”</p>
<p>“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 <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/us-lawmakers-officials-attend-capitol-hill-event-on-hamass-oct-7-sexual-violence/">claimed</a> after the February event, which included a closed briefing.</p>
<p>But she did not claim at the time that she had seen videos of anyone “engaging” in sexual violence.</p>
<p>That is because no such videos exist.</p>
<p>In recent weeks Germany’s chancellor and foreign minister have both <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/germany-smears-journalist-challenging-baerbocks-7-oct-rape-video-lie">publicly</a> <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/german-leader-olaf-scholz-repeats-lie-about-nonexistent-hamas-rape-videos">claimed</a> that Hamas filmed rapes taking place.</p>
<p>However, Israeli security agencies and UN examiners have <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/german-foreign-minister-says-she-saw-nonexistent-7-oct-rape-video">determined</a> that no videos or photos exist of sexual assaults in progress on 7 October.</p>
<p>This was confirmed in an <a href="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">article in <em>Haaretz</em></a> in April.</p>
<p>“From inquiries put to three bodies in the defense establishment by <em>Haaretz</em>,
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.</p>
<p>The UN team headed by Pramila Patten also reviewed thousands of photos and videos provided by the Israeli government and <a href="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">concluded</a>
in its report published in March that “in the medicolegal assessment of
available photos and videos, no tangible indications of rape could be
identified.”</p>
<p>Despite the UN report’s <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/un-report-launders-israels-fraudulent-mass-rape-propaganda/45021">pro-Israel biases</a>, it also confirms that “no digital evidence specifically depicting acts of sexual violence was found in open sources.”</p>
<h2>UN Commission finds no evidence for rape claims</h2>
<p>The UN independent Commission of Inquiry <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session56/a-hrc-56-crp-3.pdf">reports</a>
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.”</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>Like other investigations, the Commission notes “the absence of forensic evidence of sexual crimes committed on 7 October.”</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>The Commission states emphatically that it “was also unable to verify reports of sexualized torture and genital mutilation.”</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>But it reports that it was “unable to obtain copies of these documents and was unable to verify their authenticity.”</p>
<p>And just like the <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/un-report-launders-israels-fraudulent-mass-rape-propaganda/45021">report issued</a>
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.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/icc-has-no-evidence-7-october-rapes-documents-indicate">indicated by court documents</a>.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>That only deepens their complicity in Israel’s genocide.</p><br>
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