A petition of 300 Jewish leaders and women’s rights advocates has called for the removal of the UN Rappaport on Sexual Violence after she engaged in October 7th rape denial on social media.
By Rachel Avraham
A couple of weeks ago, Reem Alsalem, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, sparked controversy on social media when she stated: “No Palestinian cheered for rape in Gaza. No independent investigation has found that rape occurred on October 7.” A few weeks later, over 300 women’s rights advocates and Jewish communal leaders have called for the United Nations to remove her from her position.
According to Arutz Sheva, the signatories include the former U.S. Ambassador for Combating Antisemitism, Prof. Deborah E. Lipstadt; the past chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Rabbi Dr. Irving (Yitz) Greenberg; Dr. Judith Rosenbaum, head of the Jewish Women’s Archives; Rabbi Dr. Deborah Waxman, president of Reconstructing Judaism; Hebrew College president Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld; two past presidents of the Association for Jewish Studies, Prof. Jonathan Sarna and Prof. David Berger; and Prof. Deborah Dash Moore, multiple National Jewish Book Award laureate. According to the report, the petition was organized by Prof. R. Amy Elman of Kalamazoo College, in Michigan, and Dr. Rafael Medoff, historian and author of the new book, The Road to October 7.
Prof. Elman told Arutz Sheva: “The targeted sexual abuse of Israelis by Hamas and its supporters is one weapon in the arsenal of those seeking Israel’s obliteration. It’s outrageous that deniers such as Reem Alsalem are aiding and abetting the sexual violence by claiming it never happened. These apologists should be ashamed of themselves.”
According to Arutz Sheva, Dr. Medoff commented: “If a UN official made such a remark concerning rape victims from any other ethnic or religious group, there would be an international uproar. The same standard should apply to Israeli Jewish women who were sexually assaulted by Hamas terrorists.”
According to I24 News, Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, called the statement “a moral disgrace” and accused Alsalem of insulting the victims and their families. “Any UN representative who denies rape by Hamas must be removed from her position. Period. This is a stain on the UN’s reputation,” Danon said.
I24 News reported that he further condemned Alsalem for what he described as a violation of “every basic international standard.” According to the report, Danon emphasized that Israel would not tolerate any attempt to downplay or cover up the atrocities committed by Hamas, saying, “This is an insult to the victims and their families, and a violation of every basic international standard. Israel will not allow the covering up of Hamas’s horrific crimes.”
Danon also directly addressed UN Secretary-General António Guterres, urging him to respond to what he characterized as a dangerous and misleading statement. “António Guterres, your silence is complicity,” he wrote, signaling that Israel expects the UN leadership to publicly reject Alsalem’s remarks, I24 reported.
Already, previous UN reports have concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe that sexual violence including rape and gang rape took place in multiple locations on October 7th. They also found that there are reasonable grounds to belief that some of the hostages suffered from sexual violence during their time in Hamas captivity. These findings have been confirmed by the Association for Rape Crisis Centers in Israel and the Dinah Project, both of which did independent investigations into the sexual violence that took place on October 7th. A professional team from the New York Times also did their own investigation and came to the same conclusions. Alsalem’s post constitutes rape denial and is a crime against humanity. She should be removed from her sensitive UN post as soon as possible.
Photo from – Global Trends in Ending Violence against Women and Girls at 4:21, cropped, brightened: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reem_Alsalem#/media/File:Reem_Alsalem_on_IIEA_Ireland.jpg
