The Grace Tame affair

1. Tame's fall from Grace

On the evening of Monday, 9 February 2026, during an illegal Free Palestine rally at the Town Hall, Sydney, former 2021 Australian of the Year Grace Tame violently led the following chant before a crowd of thousands of protestors:

"From Gadigal to Gaza, globalize the intifada"

The chant was calling for the carrying out of violent action against Jewish people around the world - from Sydney to Gaza - and with it the destruction of the Sate of Israel.

Was Tame fully aware of the implications of the chant? It does not matter, because the venom with which she delivered the chant reveals that, at that specific moment in time, she was full of hatred toward the Jewish people, the State of Israel, and the then current visit to Australia of Israeli President Herzog. Her words therefore stand as she was not simply parroting a slogan. The full text of her speech (reproduced below) revealed the depth of her feeling in regard to this issue.

"But that hatred was only the result of the genocidal action taken by the State of Israel against the people of Gaza!" you say.

Israel has not undertaken any genocidal action towards the people of Gaza. Of the 70,000 deaths stated to have occurred in Gaza since the HAMAS - Israel war began following the HAMAS invasion of 7 October 2025, the following is a recent (February 2026) breakdown of death statistics:

* 50,000 deaths - According to HAMAS, this is the number of their combatants killed to this. This figure was released by HAMAS, not by Israel.

* 14,000 deaths - for the population of 2 million Gaza residents, it is calculated that the normal death toll due to age, illness, etc., is approximately this amount.

* 14-17,000 deaths - this is the estimate by Israel of civilians killed by them as part of the war with HAMAS. These deaths are not genocidal, but the victims of war.

The death of a large number of people in Gaza due to the war between HAMAS and Israel is not evidence of a genocide on the part of Israel. In fact, the genocide is on the part of HAMAS, as an agent of the Muslim Brotherhood which has, since 1928, been carrying on the Islamic genocide of Jews around the world.

"But, in regard to what Grace said, this was a humanitarian cry for peace and compassion!" you say.

Was it? Well ..... no.

If Grace Tame had of sought the latter (i.e., peace and compassion) she should have, and most likely would have, said as such. Instead, she chose to use those specific words of hatred and death - Globalize the intifada - and must be held accountable for that. Why? Because that statement is a part of the international Free Palestine movement and, as such, is recognised around the world for the power of what it means, and the brutality and violence applied therein and as outlined above. There is therefore no excuse for Ms. Tame's action. Of course, there are two sides to every story and the following videos reveal some of that. The first is a copy of the complete speech Grace Tame delivered at the Town Hall protest rally.

* Grace Tame's fierce and beautiful speech in full, Mer Ja Media, 10 February 2026, YouTube, duration: 5.57 minutes.

The full text of the speech is as follows:

Good evening. Just like Auntie Lizzy, I didn't come here to be polite. But I will start by thanking Auntie Lizzy and Sister Ness for welcoming us here to this beautiful Gadigal country. I pay respect to elders past and present, to all Mob here from other communities, far and wide. Sovereignty was never ceded here. And there are still so many stories and so much work to be done in the ongoing fight against injustice. Speaking of which, what a backwards world is it when a so-called democracy [Australia] silences and surveils academic research, art, music, and sport. And yet it profits off. it funds genocide. A so-called democracy that punishes peaceful protesters like us, but welcomes a war criminal [Israel President Herzog] with open arms. Yes. Isaac Herzog. I don't even want to say his name. Probably he doesn't deserve it. A man who signed his name on bombs that were used to kill women. A man who also said, and I quote, "There are no innocent civilians in Gaza." That is incitement to genocide. It is advocating collective punishment and most of all it is a fucking lie. But that is all the right-wing fascist state of Israel has left now: lies, bombs, and bloodlust. So why are we [Australia] still supporting them? Because we are a spineless colony of the United States and we depend on their military might. That is it. That is the only reason our political classes across the spectrum have made it clear that they only care about two things: (1) Getting elected and (2) people with money who can engineer that outcome. Hey, the Israel Bobby has been working overtime to cement themselves as one of the most influential political donors. Well, I say let them because you can buy bombs and you can buy politicians, but you cannot buy the truth. You cannot buy our compassion and you cannot buy our love. That is what we have. Those are our weapons, our collective communal weapons. And we will keep fighting with those until the very end. But I need not remind you here of any of this. We don't need convincing. I'm preaching to the choir. There are still so many people, good people, who are scared to speak and scared to act. So what I want you to do after you leave here today is look around you amongst your colleagues, amongst your friends and your families, and find as many people as you can who have not come to a protest and bring them along next time. Wherever we need them. We need everybody. We have to continue to mobilize and we have to continue to globalize. Say it with me: From Gadigal to Gaza - Globalize the Intifada; From Gadigal to Gaza – Globalize the Intifada.

Tame received a lot of criticism for her speech from media, supporters of Israel, and sections of the Right. This included calls to remove her Australian of the Year 2021 award. As a result, she responded as follows on her Instagram account, the day after the rally:

Grace Tame, Instagram, 10 February 2026.

Politicians and the press can deflect all they like, but I'm not the story. The story is that Israel stands accused by the International Criminal Court of committing genocide in Gaza, and so far - after over two years of innocent men, women and children being slaughtered - the only parties who've faced punishment are the victims themselves and critics of the state. Yesterday at a peaceful protest against the arrival of Israeli president Isaac Herzog on our shores, nonviolent attendees acting well within their rights were met with unprovoked police brutality. This should terrify us all. Democracy is eroding before our very eyes.

Tame also made a video statement the following day. This is linked in below. Note, however, that the following video is from Sky News Australia and is the only source the present writer could locate for the original three minute presentation by Tame:

Grace Tame defends intifada response, Sky News Australia, 12 February 2026, YouTube, duration: 10.00 minutes.

Grace Tame reflects the hatred within the Free Palestine movement towards the Jews and the State of Israel. The degree of hatred is unwarranted. This is not to deny the fact that innocent people of Gaza have been killed, injured and dispossessed as a result of the war - a war in which both parties are active participants and therefore responsible in varying degrees to the collateral damage and death of innocent people. It is telling that the Free Palestine movement is basically mute in regards to the actions and responsibilities of HAMAS and Islam in general for the ideology that is the primary driver of the war and the need for Israel to defend itself and seek to defend Jews around the world. As the posters and slogans above show, Palestinians and Muslims are present as victim and heroes in defence of their homeland - Palestine. The fact that Palestine is the traditional homeland of the Jewish people, going back thousands of years, is ignored. Also ignored is the fact that Islam demands the death of the Jews and the destruction of the State of Israel. Islam will never give up on this horrific and barbaric ideology, which it casts as a Holy War.

In a Sky News Australia report of 18 March 2026, reference was made to Grace Tame, her Gadigal statement, and also a recent denial of the events of 7 October 2023.

'Spot on': Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister slashes Grace Tame over 'denial of atrocities', Sky News Australia, 17 March 2026, duration: 5.19 minutes.

In an interview with Hamish McDonald on ABC Radio, Sydney, on 16 March 2026, Tame had stated the following:

Hamish McDonald: A listener texted in: "Can you please ask Grace why she is selective in her outrage?" She says, "I have never heard her condemn, or speak out on behalf of the Israeli women who were raped and killed by HAMAS on 7 October 2023." Have you spoken about that? Have you expressed outrage about that?

Grace Tame: No, I'm not going to sink to the level of entertaining any kind of propaganda, Hamish.

Hamish McDonald: What is the propaganda included in that question?

Grace Tame: There have been, both things have been debunked.

This wilful denial of fact, in an age where "debunking" and the spread of "misinformation" by government and media has gotten so far out of control such that young people cannot rely on being informed of truth any more, was most concerning. It revealed that truth depth of Tame's ignorance at that point in time and resulted in a response from the Israel Deputy Foreign Minister.

For an Australian in 2026 to deny the historical facts of the Hamas invasion of Israel on 7 October 2023 is systematic not only of the media blackout around that event, but also the problem of mindless anti-Semitism towards Jews around the world and the state of Israel. Tame needs to be educated in the truth. Once she is made aware of that truth, then perhaps she may alter her view. Perhaps not. A Sky News report the following day expanded upon the criticism of Tame.

Sharri Markson hits out at ABC for giving platform to Grace Tame and her ‘hateful views’, Sky News Australia, 17 March 2026, duration: 14.10 minutes.

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3. Debunking events of 7 October 2023

Grace Tame's statement that in regards to the rape and killing of Israeli women by Hamas men from Gaza on 7 October 2023 that "both things have been debunked" sent shockwaves around the world and cries of outrage from supporters of Israel and Jewish communities. Needless to say, many on the Left remained mute. The present writer was concerned that Tame would make such a statement as all the evidence he had seen confirmed that such events occurred, and the United Nations had produced an official report supporting that. So where did the debunking come from? In order to answer that, it is necessary to do a deep dive into events within the US media, as the following chronology will show.

2023

* 7 October - 6,000 Gazans under the control of HAMAS military officials invade Israel over two days. More than 1,500 people are killed and some 5,000 wounded according to Israeli sources.

* 8 October - around the world there are celebrations by Muslims in regards to the invasion and the killing of Israelis. These celebrations continue over following weeks and are taken up by the international Free Palestine movement. The Western media does not report on the actual events on the 7th, or make use of the footage taken by Hamas members as the killings, rapes and tortures were being carried out. The invasion is presented to the West and the Left as righteous revenge by the people of Gaza against Israel.

* 28 December - Jeffrey Gettleman, Anat Schwartz and Avishag Shaar-Yashug, The New York Times, 28 December 2023.

2024

* 14 January - Randa Abdel-Fattah, A critical look at The New York Times' weaponization of rape in service of Israeli propaganda, Institute for Palestine Studies, 14 January 2024.

Text: On Dec. 28, 2023, the New York Times published the now infamous “‘Screams Without Words': How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7” by Jeffrey Gettleman, Anna Schwartz, and Adam Sella. The ‘report' purported to “uncover[s] new details showing a pattern of rape, mutilation and extreme brutality against women in the attacks on Israel.” It went viral globally.

Israeli government claims of systematic sexual violence perpetrated against Israeli women by Hamas and The New York Times article have been thoroughly and compellingly discredited and debunked by both independent investigative journalists and MENA human rights and feminist organizations and initiatives. At this point, anybody who still insists on believing the mass rape claims and/or amplifies The New York Times report is doing so against a growing body of evidence that has called into question the credibility of the claims.

The challenge to these allegations of systematic rape is not about claiming Israeli Jewish women cannot be victims of sexual violence. It is not a question of challenging the allegations because the people making them are Jewish (the argument you make if you want to smear every critique as antisemitic). Finally, it is not about defending Palestinian men at all costs because they are subjected to systematic brutality at the hands of the Israeli regime as a belligerent occupying power, as if this somehow excuses acts of, or can ever be an alibi for, sexual violence.

It is about accountability, transparency, and consistency. Let's start with consistency.

It is normative practice for allegations of systematic rape used as a weapon of war to be subject to evidentiary standards and due process. Two years after the Rwandan genocide of 1994, Human Rights Watch issued a report of its investigation into the systematic rape and sexual mutilation of a quarter-million Tutsi women, girls, and men by the Hutu-dominated government of Rwanda. The report was based on “the testimony of rape victims themselves and rape victims who witnessed others being raped, other witnesses, doctors at the hospitals who had treated hundreds of rape victims, humanitarian organizations with programs for women, the UN Special Rapporteur's report on the situation of human rights in Rwanda.” In 2000, Human Rights Watch issued its report into gender-based violence against Kosovar Albanian women based on rigorous evidentiary standards.

However, in the case of Israeli claims of mass rape on Oct. 7, all standards of evidence and accountability have been suspended by institutionally powerful players, including Human Rights Watch. Indeed, those who demand that Israel be held to the same standards as everyone else are accused of antisemitism.

And so here we are. Even though Israeli police admit that they still have no victims or eyewitnesses; even though the sister of the report's primary victim, Gal Abdush, has publicly denied that her sister was raped, accusing The New York Times of manipulating her family for the story; and even though there is no forensic evidence, and there are questions to be answered about the reliability and independence of the supposed witnesses and their testimonies put forward so far, the mass rape claims are still actively being circulated and given credence by elites in the media and those with institutional power.

What does it, therefore, say about the level of anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia that the reflexive position of so many ‘progressives' is to dismiss demands for an anti-racist, anti-rape discourse as ‘whataboutism'?

To even pose a question about why there are double standards in the case of Israel or why normative investigative practice is being suspended, ‘liberal feminists' resort to accusing those who take a critical intersectional approach of being ‘rape apologists' or ‘not believing Jewish women,' or ‘undermining the #MeToo movement,' or all of the above.

Israeli and U.S. government claims of mass sexual assault are not the ‘believe women' or #MeToo flex that they think it is.

#MeToo was a grassroots campaign originally started by community worker Tarana Burke to reach sexual assault survivors in marginalized communities, and, according to Burke, “a catchphrase to be used from survivor to survivor to let folks know that they were not alone and that a movement for radical healing was happening and possible.” It was about empowering women to speak up about their experiences and to expose cultures of rape and unwanted sexual advances. Especially in workplaces and industries, to raise awareness about consent, gaslighting victims, and exploitation. ‘Believe women' was a rallying cry borne in the specific context of the #MeToo movement. It was a slogan that drew attention to the underreporting of rape, its prevalence, and the histories of women's testimonies of sexual assault being dismissed, questioned and attacked because of a presumption that women lie about sexual assault or must have ‘acted or dressed' in such a way as to ‘invite' rape. ‘Believe women' was a statement mobilized in the context of foregrounding imbalances of power in he-said-she-said cases: how power is central to understanding the stakes for women who have everything to lose when accusing powerful men who have nothing to lose because of the protection afforded by structures and societies that privilege men. At the center of the ‘believe women' movement were women's voices. Voices that are often silenced, discredited, ridiculed, and treated with hostility and contempt. However, when a critical race lens is applied to the absolutism of ‘believe women,' particularly in settler colonial contexts that are highly racialized with histories of lynching and vigilante settler violence, pernicious claims put Black and Brown men and their communities at great risk.

To be clear, the allegations of mass rape have come from the Israeli regime, not women. This is where accountability is crucial. The compelling question here is if, indeed, women do come forward, and there is evidence to make a case for systematic rape, does this then justify genocide? To put it more clearly, does sexual violence against a particular group of women ever justify the systematic annihilation of another group to whom the alleged perpetrators belong?

It seems no one is willing to countenance that question being asked out loud, let alone be answered.

We are thus compelled to intervene assertively as race-critical feminists. We are confronted with the political reality that sexual assault against Israeli women is being weaponized in the service of manufacturing consent for genocide against Palestinian men, women, and children in Gaza. Or, as many have stated, the allegation of mass rape is being deliberately deployed to justify the mass slaughter of Palestinian people in Gaza, to justify domicide — the mass destruction of civic infrastructure and homes in Gaza, and to justify the forcible transfer of Palestinian people from Gaza. In anyone's language, this is an abomination and must be called out regardless of white liberal feminist aggression, regardless of false accusations of antisemitism, and institutional attempts to silence Arab feminists, critics of Zionist atrocities, and those simply calling for a ceasefire.

This is the truth we land on. It is emphatically not anti-woman, anti-feminist, or antisemitic to name the political context in which the systematic rape allegations are being made. It is urgent that we call out rape atrocity propaganda and remind that this stratagem has historically been one of the most potent weapons used by White power to discredit, demonize, diabolize, and destroy Black and Brown men and to deflect sympathy from those resisting oppression to the actual oppressors, and finally to justify lethal responses.

Race-critical feminists have filled libraries with books and writings on the historical and contemporary iterations of rape atrocity propaganda in the service of war, imperialism, and maintaining racial hierarchies. In the violent settler colony of Australia from where I write, Indigenous scholars such as Larissa Behrendt and Judy Atkinson have written about systematic sexual abuse of and assaults against Aboriginal women by White Australian colonialists as a function of conquest. Angela Davis' seminal text, “Rape, Racism and the Myth of the Black Rapist” (1981), showed how the racist trope of the African American rapist was mobilized after the Civil War to justify lynching and race hierarchies. Chicana scholar Antonia Castaneda has written about sexual violence waged against Amerindian Women in service of the Spanish conquest of Alta California. In 2007, Lebanese-Australian feminist and scholar Paula Abood analyzed media representations of group sexual assaults that took place in south-west Sydney and interrogated how racial ideologies were mobilized within media texts to “present rape as a manifestation of Arab male bestiality” to “reassert racialized subject positions.”

In the context of the mass rape claims allegations against Palestinians, invoking these histories of scholarship and activism is critical. It is telling that when the accused is Palestinian/Arab/Middle Eastern/Muslim — always treated as interchangeable, stripped of their individual complexities and diverse identities — liberal and colonial feminists and many prominent progressives of color have ended up on the same side of the argument as Israel's right-wing genocide-cheerleaders. They have ended up on the same side as pro-Israel propagandists who are deliberately invested in whipping up genocide fervor and distracting attention from Israel's atrocities on Palestinians. Israel's propagandists comprehend all too well that the racist trope of the predatory Palestinian/Muslim/Arab man is the legitimizing monster that White feminists, liberals, and many progressives of color — those who are the institutionalized experts on diversity and inclusion — feed on. Thus, have we seen how the ‘rapist' has become a metonym that easily slides between words — ‘Hamas terrorist,' Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Gaza — because sustained global media and political narratives and moral panics have long stigmatized and maligned Palestinian/Arab/Muslim/Middle Eastern men as deviant, violent, criminal, hypersexualized, misogynistic, barbaric, woman-hating. Understanding this ideological and representational context means recognizing that allegations by a colonizing entity like Israel are made in specific racially charged and politically primed environments. Zionist propagandists understand that the racist constructs and Orientalist imaginings about Palestinian/Arab/Muslim/Middle Eastern men are so deeply embedded and known that it is able to proffer hyper-inflammatory, gruesome stories and claims, produce no credible evidence, then refuse to participate in a UN commission tasked to investigate the allegations. Zionists cry rape, and the world is shocked. Meanwhile, the Israeli Occupation Forces have committed grave and systematic sexual assault against Palestinian men, women, and children taken as hostages, human rights violations that the world doesn't want to know about. Where is the outrage? Where are the tweets, Instagram posts, TikTok videos, tears, and emotions for the routine violence Israel subjects Palestinians to? The disproportionate investment and attention on phantom settler victims versus Palestinian women, girls, boys, and men whose sexual violence cases are supported by verified evidence and credited human rights reports says everything. Asking why unverified, sensationalized claims of rape against Israeli women went viral, whereas verified cases of rape against Palestinians have not exposes whose life and dignity are prioritized and whose are not.

This is not a ‘what about?' maneuver. No regime in the world has perfected whataboutism more than Israel: raise seventy-five years of settler colonial violence and apartheid, and Israel responds with ‘what about Oct. 7?' Raise over 30,000 civilians bombed to pieces by Israel in 93 days, starved and forcibly displaced, and Israel responds with ‘what about the Holocaust?' Whataboutism is a rhetorical shield; a disingenuous flex used by the guilty, by perpetrators, by those with blood — so much blood — on their hands. And it behooves us to hold people to account for those they speak up for and those they ignore. Because what we are witnessing is the specter of Jewish Zionist victimhood hinged on the mass rape claims when it is Palestinians who are the ones being subjected to a campaign of targeted, systematic slaughter.

The genocide in Gaza has exposed the performativity and selective compassion of so-called progressives. Mainstream liberal feminists, academics sitting in gender studies departments, women's advocacy groups, and gender-based violence campaigners who have accepted and shared Israel's mass rape claims, or remained silent, or who have not spoken out against the cynical use of rape atrocity propaganda to justify Israel's genocidal campaign have not only completely abandoned Palestinians in Gaza to the forces of militarized violence, they have exposed their own deep-seated racism and double standards. I have absolutely no doubt that such ‘feminists' who have dog-eared pages of To Kill a Mockingbird would have sat in the courtrooms of America's Jim Crow-era southern states and silently watched on as Black men were accused of raping white women and duly sentenced to death. Today, history offers liberals and feminists temporal distance to safely posture on Black Lives Matter as a disembodied performance via posting a temporary tile on social media. They don't have to care more than that because their lives are never affected by the racist violence of settler colonial forces. They are not emotionally invested in racial justice because race does not follow them home like an Israeli missile. The genocide in Gaza has exposed the pretense.

And so, I ask: what is your human rights advocacy and feminism worth if you dismiss the critical insights and statements from Palestinian and MENA human rights and feminist organizations that have rejected The New York Times report and, crucially, declared that the weaponization of rape and exploitation of women's bodies and experiences in the service of propaganda harms victims and undermines global efforts to address sexual violence? What is your human rights advocacy and feminism worth if you lend credence to war atrocity propaganda as genocide is unfolding on our screens?

The fact is that Israeli mass rape claims are so emblematic of wartime atrocity propaganda that you have to be deeply committed to and affirmed by the racist tropes of Palestinian men to suspend all critical thinking and, in doing so, consent to the genocide of Palestinian people in Gaza.

This is the sobering reality Palestinians face. The racism that animates hyper-attention over crimes imagined to have been committed against Israelis is the same racism that desensitizes people to crimes actually committed against Palestinians.

* 14 February - Mission report - Official visit of the Office of the SRSG-SVC to Israel and the occupied West Bank 29 January – 14 February 2024, United Nations Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, 14 February 2024.

* 28 February - Jeremy Scahill, Ryan Grim and Daniel Boguslaw, Between the Hammer and Anvil: The story behind The New York Times October 7 expose, Intercept, 28 February 2024.

* 1 March - Oliver Darcy, The New York Times stands by its reporting on the Hamas terror attack after questions are raised, CNN Business, 1 March 2024.

* 2 March - the Democracy Now! podcast channel interviews Scahill and Grim and presents a report which debunks the report of the rape and killing of Israeli women on 7 October, based on an assessment of The New York Times story of 28 December 2023.

The Intercept: New York Times Exposé Lacks Evidence to Claim Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence Oct. 7, Democracy Now!, 2 March 2024, YouTube, duration: 29.08 minutes.

Abstract: We speak with Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim of The Intercept about their exposé of a major New York Times piece into alleged mass rapes committed by Hamas militants on October 7 that raises serious questions about the accuracy of the story. The Times article was headlined "'Screams Without Words': How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7," and its release in late December helped the Israeli government to justify the ongoing war on Gaza and to paint pro-Palestine supporters abroad as not caring about sexual violence. One of the reporters of the Times piece, Israeli freelancer Anat Schwartz, is being investigated by the Times for her social media activity, which included dehumanizing language and endorsements of violence against Palestinians in Gaza. "The New York Times has grave, grave mischaracterizations, sins of omission, reliance on people who have no forensic or criminology credentials to be asserting that there was a systematic rape campaign put in place here," says Scahill, who criticizes the newspaper for not issuing any corrections for their flawed reporting. We also hear from Ryan Grim about how the flawed Times article touched off "extremely intense debate" inside the newsroom. "They're used to external criticism, but the amount of internal criticism they're getting has them on the back foot," he says.

* 4 March - Farnaz Fassihi and Isabel Kershner, Isabel, U.N. Team Finds Grounds to Support Reports of Sexual Violence in Hamas Attack,, The New York Times, 4 March 2024.

* 11 March - Reasonable Grounds to Believe Conflict-Related Sexual Violence Occurred in Israel During 7 October Attacks, Senior UN Official Tells Security Council, United Nations, UN Meetings Coverage and Press Releases, 11 March 2024. Extract:

There are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence — including rape and gang-rape — occurred across multiple locations of Israel and the Gaza periphery during the attacks on 7 October 2023, a senior United Nations official reported to the Security Council today, as she presented findings from her visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank.

Following allegations of brutal sexual violence committed during and in the aftermath of the Hamas-led terror attacks, Pramila Patten, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, led an official visit to Israel from 29 January to 14 February to gather, analyse and verify reports of sexual violence related to the 7 October attack. Due to ongoing hostilities, the Special Representative did not request to visit Gaza, where other UN entities that monitor sexual violence are operational.

“What I witnessed in Israel were scenes of unspeakable violence perpetrated with shocking brutality,” Ms. Patten recalled. Detailing her methodology, she said that her team met with families of hostages and members of communities displaced from several kibbutzim. It conducted confidential interviews with 34 individuals, including survivors and witnesses of the 7 October attacks, released hostages, first responders and health and service providers. It visited four attack sites - as well as the morgue to which the bodies of victims were transferred - and reviewed over 5,000 photographic images and some 50 hours of footage of the attacks.

“It was a catalogue of the most extreme and inhumane forms of killing, torture and other horrors,” including sexual violence, she stated. The team also found convincing information that sexual violence was committed against hostages, and has reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may still be ongoing against those in captivity. While there are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence occurred in the Nova music festival site, Route 232, and kibbutz Re’im, reported incidents of rape could not be verified in other locations.....

* 25 March - Jeffrey Gettleman, Anat Schwartz and Avishag Shaar-Yashug, 'Screams Without Words': How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7, The New York Times, 25 March 2024. Republication online of the original December 2023 article.

* 29 April - 59 tenured journalism and communications professors called for an investigation into the editorial process creation of the Scream Without Words article.

* 8 May - Laurel Leff, Opinion Why Did a Group of U.S. Journalism Professors Attack the New York Times' Story on Hamas Sexual Violence?, Haaretz, 8 May 2024.

2025

* October - Over 300 United States professors called for a retraction of the Scream Without Words article, claiming that it has been "debunked." It had not.

2026

* 21 March - The 'Scream Without Words' Wikipedia page makes no reference to the United Nations report confirming the general and specific accuracy of the events of 7 October as reported in the December 2023 New York Times article. Instead, it simply focuses on the article and its perceived errors. Public editorial access to the article is closed off, so this relevant information cannot be added. In the view of the present writer, this is evidence of how Wikipedia has been compromised and is biased towards the Free Palestine movement. Related Wikipedia pages also reflect this bias, especially in their language.

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4. References

Abdel-Fattah, Randa, A critical look at The New York Times' weaponization of rape in service of Israeli propaganda, Institute for Palestine Studies, 14 January 2024.

Aldred, Max, Israel's Australian embassy hits out at Grace Tame for claiming Hamas sexual violence testimony amounted to 'propaganda', Sky News Australia, 17 March 2026.

[Babies are Occupiers Too poster], American Jewish Committee, X, 12 March 2024.

Breslin, Conor, ‘She’s making no contribution to the truth’: Grace Tame’s legal claims exposed amid fallout from ‘globalize the intifada’ chant, Sky News Australia, 11 February 2026.

Darcy, Oliver, The New York Times stands by its reporting on the Hamas terror attack after questions are raised, CNN Business, 1 March 2024.

Fassihi, Farnaz and Isabel Kershner, U.N. Team Finds Grounds to Support Reports of Sexual Violence in Hamas Attack, The New York Times, 4 March 2024.

Gettleman, Jeffrey, Anat Schwartz and Avishag Shaar-Yashug, The New York Times, 28 December 2023.

Grace Tame defends intifada response, Sky News Australia, 12 February 2026, YouTube, duration: 10.00 minutes.

Hamad, Ghazi, Hamas Official Ghazi Hamad: We will repeat the October 7 attack time and again until Israel is annihilated; We are victims - Everything we do is justified, X.com, 1 November 2023, duration: 1.21 minutes.

Leff, Laurel, Opinion Why Did a Group of U.S. Journalism Professors Attack the New York Times' Story on Hamas Sexual Violence?, Haaretz, 8 May 2024.

Markson, Sharri, Sharri Markson hits out at ABC for giving platform to Grace Tame and her ‘hateful views’, Sky News Australia, 17 March 2026, duration: 14.10 minutes.

Mhajne, Anwar, Understanding Sexual Violence Debates Since 7 October: Weaponization and Denial, Journal of Genocide Research, 28(1), 30 May 2024, 103-121.

['Rape is Resistance' poster], Commission of Inquiry into Antisemitism at Australian Universities Bill 2024 (No. 2), Submission 452, Parliament of Australia, Canberra, 23 August 2024.

-----, An absolutely sickening poster, Facebook, 27 August 2025.

Robb, James, Means and Ends in Gaza: A note on the morality of the 7 October massacre, Platypus Review, 170,The Platypus Affiliated Society, 7 October 2024.

Screams before silence: Mass rape on 7 October 2023, Screams before Silence, 26 April 2024, YouTube, duration: 56.55 minutes. [WARNING - EXTREMELY DISTURBING AND VIOLENT]

Stephens, Brett, The appalling tactics of the Free Palestine Movement, New York Times, 2 April 2024.

Tame, Grace, The Ninth Life of a Diamond Miner: A Memoir, Pan Macmillan Australia, Sydney, 2022, 342p.

-----, Grace Tame's fierce and beautiful speech in full, Mer Ja Media, 10 February 2026, YouTube, duration: 5.57 minutes.

-----, Response to Sydney rally statement criticism, Instagram, 10 February 2026.

-----, [Grace Tame interview with Hamish McDonald], ABC Radio Australia, Sydney, 16 March 2026.

The Intercept: New York Times Exposé Lacks Evidence to Claim Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence Oct. 7, Democracy Now!, 2 March 2024, YouTube, duration: 29.08 minutes.

Wikipedia, Scream Without Words, Wikipedia, accessed 21 March 2026.

Wiess, Rebecca Lamb, Martin Sedra and Millicent Sedra, The Truth About Islam, Rebecca Lamb Weiss, YouTube, 7 February 2026, YouTube, duration: 105 minutes.

What happened on October 7, 2023 - Israel HAMAS attack explained [video], Government of Israel, duration: 3 minutes.

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Last updated: 21 March 2026

Michael Organ, Australia

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