UN Experts Accused Of Downplaying Hamas Sexual Violence (Worthy News Investigation) (VIDEO)

by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Chief International Correspondent

NIJKERK/JERUSALEM/GENEVA (Worthy News) – New details have emerged about allegations that some United Nations human rights experts were pressured by colleagues not to publish evidence of sexual violence committed by Hamas against Israeli and Jewish women and girls, following a dramatic appeal by freed hostage Ilana Gritzewsky nearly 1,000 days after the October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.

Appearing before the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva last week, Gritzewsky recounted being sexually abused, beaten, and mutilated after Hamas terrorists stormed her kibbutz during the October 7 attacks.

She recalled regaining consciousness half-naked with seven terrorists standing over her, saying she did not know what had happened during the moments she had blacked out.

Gritzewsky told delegates she returned from captivity with a broken hip, a broken jaw, and what she called “a scarred soul,” adding that the trauma continues to haunt her despite her release.

“Please look at me,” she pleaded, addressing U.N. Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls Reem Alsalem, who has denied there is sufficient evidence that Hamas committed sexual violence during the October 7 attacks.

UN FINDINGS

“Ms. Alsalem, you said there was no evidence of sexual violence on October 7,” Gritzewsky said. “I am the living proof of sexual violence by Hamas. When I and other Israeli women begged not to be raped, why were you silent?”

She concluded by asking Alsalem, “Do you believe us now? Will you apologize?”

Video footage of the hearing, reviewed by Worthy News, appeared to show a lengthy silence afterward as Alsalem looked at Gritzewsky without responding or showing any visible emotion.

Her testimony followed Alsalem’s public comments questioning reports that Hamas committed rape during the October 7 attacks.

In social media posts, Alsalem wrote that no independent investigation had found rape occurred during the assault and argued allegations of Hamas sexual violence had been “weaponized” to justify what she described as genocide in Gaza.

PATTEN REPORT

However, a U.N. fact-finding mission led by Pramila Patten, the U.N. special representative on sexual violence in conflict, concluded after a 2024 mission that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe conflict-related sexual violence, including rape and gang rape, occurred at several locations during the Hamas-led attacks.

The controversy deepened after Alice Edwards, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture, disclosed that she faced internal pressure while documenting alleged Hamas atrocities.

“There was a campaign to prevent that letter going out,” Edwards said in remarks reported by The Forward, one of the oldest and most established Jewish news organizations in the United States.

Edwards said colleagues spent weeks trying to persuade her not to publish a January 2024 letter detailing allegations of torture, rape, gang rape, burning people alive, and other abuses committed during the Hamas-led assault, arguing that the information was false.

She added that the letter was significantly shortened after internal discussions and that, despite initial interest, only one fellow U.N. expert ultimately agreed to co-sign it because others were allegedly pressured not to do so.

NEW EVIDENCE

The controversy resurfaced this week following Gritzewsky’s dramatic appeal, when Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, chair of the Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children, presented what she described as the most comprehensive body of evidence to date documenting sexual violence committed during the October 7 attacks and against hostages held in Gaza.

She said the commission documented 13 recurring patterns of abuse, including rape and gang rape, as well as accounts of women being sexually assaulted in front of relatives and hostages subjected to sexual abuse in captivity.

The findings were based on witness testimony, accounts from former hostages, and analysis of more than 10,000 photographs and videos, including footage recorded by the perpetrators themselves.

Investigators also cited testimony and forensic evidence they said indicated some women and girls were sexually assaulted while being killed, while in other cases, bodies showed signs of post-mortem sexual abuse. They said the findings underscored what they described as the extreme brutality of the October 7 attacks in which some 1,200 Jews were murdered.

Israeli investigators and the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel have also published reports concluding that Hamas used sexual violence as a weapon of war. Hamas has denied the allegations.

DUTCH CONCERNS

Israeli officials have long accused parts of the U.N. human rights system of applying a double standard toward Israel and failing to adequately acknowledge the suffering of Israeli victims.

The U.N. office supporting the independent rapporteurs said participation in joint communications remains at the discretion of each expert and did not directly address Edwards’ allegations of internal pressure.

The controversy has also resonated in the Netherlands, where former leading criminal lawyer and current commentator Bram Moszkowicz, whose father survived the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, has warned that public debate about Israel has become increasingly polarized since the October 7 attacks.

Speaking in an interview with the Dutch Christian organization Christenen voor Israël (Christians for Israel), Moszkowicz said many Dutch Jews are increasingly reluctant to speak publicly because of growing antisemitism, which he linked in part to what he called selective media coverage of Israel.

He also criticized Dutch government plans to ban imports of products from Judea and Samaria, internationally known as the West Bank, arguing the measure would primarily hurt Palestinians employed by Israeli companies rather than the Israeli government.

“If it goes on like this,” Moszkowicz said of the climate facing Dutch Jews, “I fear the worst.” The European Jewish Association says about 40,000 Jews have left Europe in recent years, including from the Netherlands, citing mounting antisemitism and growing insecurity.

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