The Grace Tame affair 2026

Grace Tame, Sydney Town Hall, Monday, 9 February 2026.

[NB: The following article deals only with the horrific HAMAS sexual violence carried out against Israeli women on 7 October 2023 and upon the hostages thereafter. It does not address the accusations of sexual violence by both HAMAS and Israel in the subsequent HAMAS-Israel war of 2023-2025. Throughout this article HAMAS is an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya ("Islamic Resistance Movement"), with the word hamas alone meaning "zeal" or "bravery" in Arabic.]

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Abstract: On 16 March 2026, the 2021 Australian of the Year Grace Tame stated that the well-documented extreme sexual violence carried out by Islamic HAMAS combatants from Gaza against Israeli women during the invasion of 7 October 2023 had been "debunked" as Israeli propaganda and did not occur. This followed on her infamous chant at a Sydney protest rally on 19 February 2026, "From Gadigal to Gaza - Globalize the Intifada", calling for death to Jews and the destruction of the State of Israel. The present article debunks her assertion around the events of 7 October and points to a large body of evidence to the contrary. It also addresses the issue of disinformation and misinformation in the post-COVID era, and the impact of the two statements on Grace Tame's reputation as a defender of the rights of women against sexual violence.

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Contents

Fall from grace
Debunking rape
Truth
References

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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, before a crowd of approximately 5000 protestors, 31 year old 2021 Australian of the Year Grace Tame led the crowd in the following chant: "From Gadigal to Gaza, globalize the intifada."

The chant was presented with a deal of rage on the part of Tame, and called for the carrying out of violent action against Jewish people around the world - from Sydney to Gaza - along with destruction of the State of Israel. The rally was part of the worldwide Free Palestine movement and specifically held to protest the arrival in Australia of the Israeli President Isaac Herzog and his wife to offer condolences to the survivors and victim families of the Bondi Beach massacre of 28 December 2025. The massacre had been carried out by two Sydney-based Muslim Islamic State terrorists: Sajid Akram, a 50-year-old permanent resident born in Hyderabad, India, and his 24-year-old son Naveed Akram, born in Australia. That day they slaughtered fifteen and injured fifty innocent Australians celebrating the Jewish feast of Hanukah. Sajid Akram was killed by police gunfire and immediately hailed as a martyr to the cause of Islam; his son survived.

Was Grace Tame aware of the precise meaning of the chant "From Gadigal to Gaza, globalize the intifada" and its wider implications as she stood upon the balcony of Sydney Town Hall? Most likely, yes. However, at the end of the day it matters little, because the venom with which she delivered it revealed that, at that specific moment in time, she was full of hatred toward the Jewish people, the State of Israel, and Isaac Herzog. Her words therefore stand, as she was not simply parroting a slogan. The complete speech Tame delivered at the Town Hall protest rally is seen in the following video.

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

The full text of this incredibly powerful speech is as follows:

Good evening Gadigal. 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 properly. 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 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. The Israel lobby 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. Thank you.

Tame received a lot of criticism for her speech from media, supporters of Israel, and especially sections of the Right in Australia. The Left was largely mute or defensive as it was an active element of the Free Palestine movement. The criticism and anger directed towards Tame included calls to remove her Australian of the Year 2021 award. As a result, on 10 February 2026, the day after the rally, she responded as follows on her Instagram account:

Grace Tame, Response to rally criticism, Instagram, 10 February 2026.

Instagram text: 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 personal video statement the next day, on 11 February 2026. The original three minute presentation is available on Instagram at her tamepunk site:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Grace Tame (@tamepunk)

Part of this video is also reproduced in the following 12 February report from Sky News Australia, which is, as expected for right-wing conservative media, highly critical of her Town Hall actions and subsequent defensive statements:

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

Grace Tame does not stand alone. She reflects the hatred within the Free Palestine movement towards Jews and the State of Israel. The degree of hatred is extreme and unwarranted. This is not to deny the fact that innocent people in Gaza have been killed, injured and dispossessed as a result of the HAMAS - Israel war - a war in which both parties are active participants and therefore responsible for the collateral damage and death of innocent civilians. This hatred has also built upon years of largely defensive action by Israel against Muslim attacks since its foundation in 1948. It is telling that the Free Palestine movement was basically mute in regards to the actions and responsibilities of HAMAS and Islam in general for the ideology that was the primary cause of the war and the need for Israel to continue to defend itself and seek to defend Jews around the world. This rampant anti-Semitism on the part of the Left was also evident when the war between Israel and the United States against Iran broke out at the end of February 2026. There were immediate statements that their action was illegal. It was not, and was undertaken as a primarily defensive action against the attacks by Iran against both parties since 1979. International law was clear in allowing nations to defend themselves, and this was a case of such defence. That the Left and sections of the West would proclaim it illegal was a continuation of this "Globalize the Intifada" mentality.

As many of the contemporary Free Palestine movement posters and slogans revealed, Palestinians and Muslims are presented as victim of Israeli and Western actions - not in any way the victims of the actions of Islamic organisations such as HAMAS - and heroes in defence of their so-called homeland of Palestine. The fact that the area of the Middle East known in the modern era as Palestine is part of the traditional homeland of the Jewish people, going back thousands of years, is ignored. The fact that a so-called race of people called Palestinians is only a recent invention and also ignored. Finally, the fact that Islam has been implementing a radical ideological genocidal campaign against Jewish peoples since 622AD, and since 1948 in regards to calls for the destruction of the State of Israel, is the most significant fact of history that continues to be ignored.

Islamists have stated they will never give up on this horrific and barbaric ideology, which it casts as a Holy War against Jews and the state of Israel. This reason alone is responsible for much of the action carried out by the Israel and the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) in defence of their nation and Jews around the world. This must be born in mind when critiquing the HAMAS - Israel war and the actions of Israel in the years since its creation in 1948 and when the first war against it by Muslims was instigated by the former Calif of Jerusalem and NAZI collaborator Hajj Amin al-Husayni. He was behind the Arab riots against Jews in the 1920s and the first war against Israel in 1948. That the Left and the Free Palestine movement ignores these historical facts and actively promotes an anti-Semitic narrative is why a young Australian such as Grace Tame has found herself in such strife.

On 13 March 2026 Tame published in Crikey an article which expanded upon her Instagram statement comments and addressed the issue of the Prime Minister calling her "difficult.". The text was as follows:

The Difficult Truth

I do not support violence. I do not condone antisemitism, Islamophobia or hatred of any kind. I am a human rights activist who advocates for the safety of all children, no matter their background. I shouldn’t have to say this, but I’m currently up against a well-oiled, well-funded political propaganda machine whose aim is to frighten everyone into complicity by maligning its critics. We’re living in an Orwellian nightmare. The same powerful democracies that are bombing and starving children to death throughout the Global South are portraying anti-war protestors as a threat to social cohesion.

Let’s be real, there’s only one reason that the prime minister thinks I’m “difficult”. It’s not because I’m a woman or a child sexual abuse survivor. It’s because I have been outspoken about Australia’s toxic alliance with the US and Israel, and whether you agree with my methods or not, they have cut through. For the past month, our conservative politicians and media have been running a concerted smear campaign against me because I led chants of “globalise the intifada” outside Sydney’s Town Hall on Monday, February 9, at a peaceful rally protesting Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s state visit. It didn’t matter that the core message of my speech that day was one of hope; that seconds before I spoke the contentious phrase, I said, “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 — these are our weapons and we will keep on fighting with them until the very end”. It also didn’t matter that Isaac Herzog stands accused of inciting genocide, nor that he represents a rogue apartheid regime found to be committing genocide in the Gaza Strip by the UN. It didn’t matter that he signed his name on an artillery shell later deployed by the IDF. All that mattered was that I crossed one of many grey lines manufactured to obstruct dissent.

Language means different things to different people. The Arabic word “intifada” literally translates to “shaking off” or “uprising” and is often used in reference to two periods of Palestinian resistance that began with labour strikes, boycotts and peaceful protests against Israel’s violence. “Globalise the intifada” is a call for widespread nonviolent resistance to Israel’s ongoing oppression of the Palestinian people, but along with other pro-Palestine catch cries like “from the river to the sea”, it has been co-opted, decontextualised and disingenuously redefined as hate speech by pro-Israel lobbyists, who equate it to threatening collective violence against Jewish people. This is not my interpretation. That day, the press and our so-called leaders needed a soundbite. They needed a scapegoat to distract from the broadcast footage of unprovoked police brutality that erupted that very evening. I was the obvious, easy target.

A media firestorm

In the weeks following, countless headlines, opinion pieces, talk-show segments and radio interviews have been churned out, framing me as an antisemite and terrorist sympathiser who promotes violence. Never mind that I have spent half my life trying to protect children. ‘Members of federal parliament have called for my 2021 Australian of the Year title to be revoked, and NSW Premier Chris Minns, somehow, wildly, tried to link me to the Bondi massacre, stating that the attack represented “the consequences of ‘globalise the intifada’”. Tony Abbott denounced me on Sky News as an “unworthy recipient” of the Australian of the Year award. The Israeli defence minister described my speech as “absolutely outrageous”. In the corrupted colonial pantomime of right-wing populism, I am persona non grata. Why else would I be mentioned alongside global heavyweights like Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Donald Trump at an event sponsored by the Herald Sun on February 25? When Anthony Albanese was asked to describe me in a word association game, what seemed like harmless fun was in fact a political loyalty test in enemy territory. Dubbing the disgraced Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (“grub”) and Donald Trump (“president”) was the easy part. Individuals who don’t belong to an institution, who can’t be bought and sold, are much harder to place. Hence the prime minister came a cropper with me. He had three options: use a neutral noun like “survivor” or “activist”, signal approval with a positive adjective, or condemn me and earn a fleeting reward from his natural opponents who also loathe me.

The D word

He went with “difficult”, followed by a smile, then a pause for cheap laughter. He ultimately decided on performing for the same Tory crowd he had once sought to fight in a bygone era. It was no gaffe. It was an admission that I present a dilemma to him — perhaps several. We don’t call other people “difficult” unless they’ve challenged us in some way. Like countless other women, autistic people and child sexual abuse survivors who’ve dared disrupt the status quo, I’ve been called “difficult” throughout my life. But this isn’t a case of clumsy sexism, ableism or victim-blaming if you ask me, even if these are the prevailing themes that have seized public attention and generated evermore disproportionate outrage. Many things can be true at once. Calling non-compliant women “difficult” is a tired sexist trope, but this is more nuanced. Any politician would have gone into that game fully conscious of the media cycle. Upon hearing my name, the prime minister’s mind would have likely gone to my heavily covered actions before my gender or background. Regardless, he should have foreseen the consequences of using such a loaded word. It has far-reaching implications on the feminist discourse and broader human rights causes I champion, and on me specifically as an advocate for children who lack agency. Albanese took a calculated risk, and it backfired spectacularly. The “difficult” label simultaneously tarred several marginalised cohorts with a tone of disapproval. I’d rather be difficult than disappointing.

Anthony Albanese has let us all down by capitulating to foreign powers who crave hegemony, profit from endless chaos, and whose interests conflict with our own. This was recently reinforced by how quickly the government moved to show support for the Iran war initiated by the US and Israel without congressional approval and in direct violation of international law. For the record, I don’t think Albanese is a bumbling misogynist. I think he’s a savvy political operator keen to appease Washington and Tel Aviv. It’s a badge of honour to weigh on his conscience.

From photo-op to persona non grata

Albanese’s faux pas indicates that he knows I can see straight through him; I know he and his government have been corrupted by lobbyists and will do anything to protect them. This includes sacrificing individuals he previously supported and gained from. When it suited him, he was happy to court me for interviews and photographs. One of his 2021 highlights was watching me “speak truth to power”. The prime minister was once an advocate for Palestinian liberation and publicly decried Australia’s involvement in the Iraq war, whose false pretext mirrors that being used to justify the illegal assault on Tehran. But instead of using the majority handed to him by the Australian public at the last federal election to implement bold reforms, he has gambled it on the lie of American exceptionalism. As a relatively defenceless Pacific middle power, Australia cannot afford to cut its military ties with the US and Israel. We’re in a geopolitical choke hold. To Albanese, I am difficult because I am both aware of this reality and unafraid to scream it at the top of my lungs, much to his obvious chagrin. To Albanese, I am difficult to fool, difficult to control, difficult to ignore, difficult to silence. And while he might feel safe describing me as such in the false comfort of a conservative bubble, I sincerely doubt he would say it to my face. At the end of the day, Albanese’s word choices say more about our nation’s strategic political alliances than they do about his fickle feelings. The public’s reaction reflects what truths are free to discuss, which ones aren’t, and the media’s preoccupation with making objects out of human beings to serve their own agenda. Indeed, mainstream defences of me have been scant amid the ongoing “intifada” controversy. But within minutes of the prime minister calling me difficult, my phone was flooded with public and private messages of support. I am grateful for the groundswell. Part of me wants to send Albanese a fruit basket and a thank-you card for turning the tables so swiftly with one word. Suddenly the masses could relate to my plight. Corporate white feminist media couldn’t wait to get a piece of me and share their own experiences of being cast as difficult. They were finally given permission to show solidarity without stepping into a minefield. English words are safe. Arabic words are not. Gender inequality persists, but someone somewhere decided that a woman’s pain is more legitimate than a Palestinian’s. When Pauline Hanson called First Nations Senator Lidia Thorpe a “bitch” under parliamentary privilege just days ago, the media hardly flinched. Because such behaviour is normal for Hanson? Because her target was a black woman? Because the press is a racist extension of our political landscape that can only empathise with echoes of itself? Or all of the above?

Albanese’s defence

Despite Israel’s enduring stronghold on the political class, it has lost the narrative war. According to a recent Gallup survey, US citizens are now more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause than to the state of Israel. The tide of public consciousness has turned in Australia as well. This is the real danger for Anthony Albanese. The disconnect between the values of everyday voters and the desires of influential power brokers is irreconcilable. The game is up; we don’t buy the propaganda anymore. Just as we don’t buy Albanese’s defence for calling me difficult. He would have us believe he meant that I’ve “had a difficult life”. This same excuse was used by Scott Morrison three years ago after I frowned at him. Parts of my life have certainly been difficult. I’ve been stalked, groomed, repeatedly raped, harassed, spat on, choked, threatened and hit. I’ve lost several close friends for speaking the truth. I’ve been publicly vilified over and over and over again. In under a month, my livelihood has been completely destroyed. I’m no stranger to being thrown under buses by powerful institutions and individuals too cowardly to face accountability. Deflecting onto my trauma is as patronising and unoriginal as it is self-defeating. Albanese would rather insult our collective intelligence than admit wrongdoing. It would have been more honest if he’d confessed he found himself in a difficult position. Purpose always trumps popularity. You don’t change laws, win ultramarathons, escape sadistic violence, defeat child sex offenders and withstand ceaseless public shaming by being a pushover. I’ve been called many things in my time, but I’ve never been called a coward or turncoat. I am defiant, determined, daring, dynamic and devoted. I will never stop fighting for the voiceless, even when it’s difficult.

It is the context in which the events of February - March 2026 took place, for in an interview with Hamish McDonald on ABC Radio, Sydney, on 16 March 2026, Tame made further statements which added flames to the fire that had been ignited at the Town Hall rally:

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 [killings and sexual violence] have been debunked.

Tame was correct - the accusations had been "debunked", but the debunking did not give rise to truth; in fact, it gave rise to untruth which is part of the new, post-COVID era of public and government-supported misinformation and disinformation. Tame was deceived.

In a Sky News Australia report of 18 March 2026, reference was made not only to Tame's Gadigal statement, but also to the significant more contentious 16 March statements concerning the denial of the events of 7 October 2023 related to HAMAS extreme sexual violence against Israeli women. These statements actually garnered a response from the Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, specifically debunking her debunking comment.

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

Of major concern is 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 that young people such as Grace Tame can no longer rely on being informed of the truth in forming views on contemporary events. It revealed the true depth of Tame's ignorance at that point in time, and of the ignorance of many in the Free Palestine movement. For an Australian in 2026 to deny the historical facts of the HAMAS invasion of Israel on 7 October 2023 is systemic not only of the widespread media blackout around that event, and the subsequent campaign by the Free Palestine movement to ignore or downplay it, but also the problem of mindless anti-Semitism towards Jews around the world and the state of Israel. Much of the spread of this misinformation is funded by two of the wealthiest Gulf Arab oil states - Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Grace Tame and others of her ilk need to be educated in the truth of historical facts. They need to take into account the other side of the coin, so to speak, so that they can come to a position and understanding which is more measured and closer to the truth. Once Tame is made aware of that truth, then perhaps she may alter her view. Perhaps not. A Sky News report following the 16 March ABC interview expanded upon the criticism of Tame by the Right in Australia.

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.

As much of the so-called debunking of the 7 October events is based around a New York Times article of 28 December 2023, a lot of substantial evidence for the attacks has since been made public and reinforced the lack of substance to those debunks, made, as they were, prematurely. Despite this, the Free Palestine movement holds on to the past and has not retracted the lies it has long promulgated in regard to the Palestine - Israel situation. These lies include baseless and unproven accusations of Israeli genocide and apartheid. But you might say, in regards to Tame's statements, "That hatred was only the result of the genocidal action taken by the State of Israel against the people of Gaza!" If you did, then you would be wrong. Why? Because Israel has not undertaken any genocidal action towards the people of Gaza, despite the accusations of certain groups, including the International Court of Justice and certain individuals with associated with the United Nations. Genocide is the targeted destruction of a group or race of people by another group of race of people. Israel has never targeted the destruction of the inhabitants of Gaza or the Left Bank, or Palestinians as a group or race of people. It has, however, engaged in an ongoing war with residents and others from Gaza and the West Bank, and Muslims from the Middle East region who have attacked them. That is a very different matter, even if it has resulted in the death of innocent civilians. For example, of the 70,000 deaths at the hand of Israel stated to have occurred in Gaza since the HAMAS - Israel war began following the HAMAS invasion of 7 October 2023, below is a recent (February 2026) breakdown of death statistics:

* 50,000 deaths - According to HAMAS, this is the approximate number of their combatants killed up to February 2026. This figure was released by an HAMAS general, 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 as part of the war with HAMAS. These deaths are not genocidal, but the victims of war and what is known as collateral damage.

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 proven genocide is on the part of Islamic ideology and HAMAS, as an agent of the Muslim Brotherhood which has, since 1928, been carrying on the Islamic genocide of Jews around the world which, in turn, has existed since the time of Muhammed in 622AD.

"But, in regard to what Grace Tame said, this was a humanitarian cry for peace and compassion!" you say. Was it? Well ..... no.

If Tame had 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 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 as outlined above; though it must be admitted that there are a large number of ignorant Free Palestine supporters in the West who, perhaps like Grace Tame, may not know its full meaning. There is no real excuse for Ms. Tame's action - she, and all the others who publically make such statements, should have done their homework. They should have carried out some basic historical research and also sought to more fully understand the context of a very complex Middle East situation which has, to date, proven unsolvable. Of course, there are two sides to every story and the following chronology attempts to reveal some of that, with culpable actions on the part of both HAMAS and Israel, but with a focus on the former due to the failure of the international Left and the Free Palestine movement to do so. The following comment by an Australian member of the Jewish community, podcaster and former news presenter Erin Molan, is strongly critical of Tame for her statements:

Grace Tame has no shame, The Erin Molan Show, 18 March 2026, YouTube, duration: 6.17 minutes.

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3. Debunking 7 October

Grace Tame's statement in regards to the rape and killing of Israeli women by 6,000 HAMAS Muslim men from Gaza and elsewhere on 7 October 2023 that "both things have been debunked" sent shockwaves around the world. It resulted in cries of outrage from supporters of Israel, Jewish communities, fair-minded people seeking truth, and the government of Israel. Needless to say, many on the Left and supporters of the Free Palestine movement remained mute, because they were either ignorant of that truth, or sought to continue to hide it as it was indefensible and went against everything that the Left had traditionally fought against, and still publically stated that it believed it. The Free Palestine movement presents clear evidence of selective memory and political hypocrisy.

The present writer was especially concerned that Australian Grace Tame would make such a statement in denial of the 7 October atrocities, as all the evidence he had seen confirmed that such events occurred, and the United Nations had published an official report supporting that on 4 March 2024 (Patten 2024). So where did the debunking come from? In order to answer that, it is necessary to do a deep dive into events within the United States media, United Nations press releases, and information which slowly emerged from Israel, as the following chronology will show.

The Debunk & The Truth

2023

* 7 October - 6,000 Muslim HAMAS combatants from Gaza and elsewhere invade Israel, with the aim of conquest. They were under the command of HAMAS military officers. Innocent civilians of all ages were murdered as the combatants moved through towns and a music festival located close to the Gaza - Israel border. The combatants were armed with rifles, missile launches, swords and were mobile on motorbikes and military vehicles. Over 50 Israeli communities were overrun; more than 1500 people killed and over 5,000 wounded. They attacked people wherever they found them - men, women, children, babies - and used Go Pro and videos to record their actions and in some instances live broadcast. It took two weeks before the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) are able to take back control and completely expel HAMAS combatants from Israel back into Gaza. The subsequent HAMAS-Israel War of 2023 - 2025, which the actions of 7 October by HAMAS had started, then extends into Gaza over the following 2-3 years, with 50,000 HAMAS combatants killed by February 2026, according to HAMAS sources. As part of the offensive, HAMAS carried out rape and sexual violence on women as an instrument of war, and continued it with those captured on 7 October and held hostage over the following years. The evidence for their actions is overwhelming, ranging from post-mortem investigations, first hand accounts by victims and witnesses, and the video and other surveillance footage and audio referred to above. Amongst the HAMAS combatants, some 450 UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) employees were present and either active terrorists on 7 October or later.

* 8 October - around the world there are celebrations by Muslims in regards to the invasion and the killing of Israelis the previous day, including at the Sydney Opera House.

'Seam of hatred': Witness recounts Sydney Harbour protest, Sky News Australia, 6 February 2024, YouTube, duration: 5.46 minutes.

These celebrations continue over following weeks and are celebrated by the international Free Palestine movement. The Western media does not in any significant or even-handed degree report on the actual events on 7 October, or make use of the footage taken by HAMAS members as the killings, rapes, decapitations, 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 invasion and atrocities by Israel since 1948. Accurate, unbiased and detailed media reports over the remainder of 2023 are rare. Push-back and debunking of any such media commences, with United Nations representatives at the forefront of such attacks on truth.

* 18 October - Israel / Palestine: Videos of HAMAS-led attacks verified, Human Rights Watch, Jerusalem, 18 October 2023. Refers to videos of murders which took place on 7 October 2023 by HAMAS combatants.

* 18 October - HAMAS terrorists live-streamed Israel murders amid attack, sister of victim says, LiveNOW from FOX, 18 October 2023, YouTube, duration: 14.16 minutes.

* 20 November - Reem Alsalem, Women bearing the brunt of Israel-Gaza conflict: UN expert, Press Release, United Nations, Geneva, 20 November 2023.

Comment MO: Statement by the Jordanian-born United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls which focuses on claims of Israeli violence against Palestinian women, and gives only brief mention to the Muslim HAMAS attacks on 7 October 2023, suggesting that evidence needs to be produced to confirm that. Alsalem will become part of the debunking and downplaying of the HAMAS sexual violence of 7 October and beyond. Her anti-Israeli bias is seen even at this early point.

* 4 December - Demonstrators gather outside of United Nations headquarters in New York City protesting the extreme sexual violence against women by Muslim HAMAS combatants in the October 7 invasion.

Protests against HAMAS sexual violence, United Nations, New York, 4 December 2023.

* 28 December - Jeffrey Gettleman, Anat Schwartz and Avishag Shaar-Yashug, 'Screams Without Words': How HAMAS Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7, The New York Times, 28 December 2023. A copy of the article has been archived at The Dinah Project site.

Comment: This article created outrage amongst the Free Palestine movement due to the horrific facts presented. It was subsequently subject to intense attack and the spread of misinformation / disinformation in regards to both the process of preparation and the facts presented. As a result, by 16 March 2026 Australian Grace Tame is able to claim that, due to the widespread critical attacks on this article, the attacks on women by HAMAS on 7 October 2023 had therefore been debunked - a widely inaccurate interpretation - and that they were merely Israeli propaganda. That, is, sexual violence by HAMAS combatants on 7 October 2023 had never taken place. This was a gross and shameful abuse of the media and of reality. A process of opposition by the Free Palestine movement against The New York Times then commenced. The impact of these debunks carried through to Wikipedia, where the claims remain - untested and unable to be edited or corrected - as of March 2026. The New York Times stood by the report throughout this period, and in fact republished the article on 24 March 2024 amid the debunking frenzy.

Free Palestine protestors outside The New York Times offices, New York.

* 29 December - South Africa lodges a claim with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Comment MO: A guilty determination is never brought down by the ICJ as of March 2026, though members of the Free Palestine movement frequently state that such is the case. On 16 September 2025 a report was published by an "independent", pro-Palestine organisation and UN affiliate, presenting a legal opinion that Israel committed genocide in Gaza. This opinion, like that which later claimed the US / Israeli war on Iran in 2026 was illegal under international law, was challenged by other legal experts, revealing that fact that interpretation and bias can come into play in such instances, and especially where international law is concerned.

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. This article, by an Australian-born noted anti-Semite also claiming to be Palestinian, rejects the claims of The New York Times article and compares the 7 October actions with other mass rape events which were subsequently proven. The text is reproduced below:

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.” [Comment MO: Human Rights Watch on 18 October verified video evidence of HAMAS killings on 7 October 2023. In July it noted the problems associated with obtaining evidence of sexual violence.] 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 under-reporting 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 victim-hood 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.

[Comment MO: It is interesting to note Abdel-Fattah's comment that it took two years for the facts around the Rwanda episode to be revealed, due to the sensitivities of the subject on the part of the victims, the obvious denial of the truth by the perpetrators and their efforts to hide what they did and destroy any evidence. This same thing happened in regards to the HAMAS treatment of Israeli women on 7 October 2023 - denial, both actual and trauma-based.

* 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. This article debunks The New York Times article of 28 December 2023. Its arguments are specious, convoluted and weak, in the view of the present writer.

* 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 podcast is presented below:

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.

* 4 March - Pramila Patten, 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, United Nations, New York, 4 March 2024, 23p. This initial, preliminary report confirms the rape, mass rape and sexual violence carried out by Muslim HAMAS combatants on 7 October 2023 and on subsequent hostages. It specifically notes that further investigations over time will reveal additional evidence, as is the case with other such rape in war and conflict events.

* 4 March - Following visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Ms. Pramila Patten, finds sexual violence occurred on 7 October, and against hostages and calls for a fully-fledged investigation, Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, United Nations, New York, 2024. Text:

New York, 4 March 2024: At the invitation of the Government, Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) Pramila Patten led an official visit to Israel, supported by a team of technical experts, from 29 January to 14 February 2024. The objective of the visit was to gather, analyze and verify allegations of conflict-related sexual violence reportedly committed during the brutal, Hamas-led terror attacks of 7 October 2023 and in its aftermath, given the absence of relevant UN entities operating in Israel, in order to inform reporting in the exercise of her mandate, including to the United Nations Security Council. SRSG Patten and team (the mission team) also visited the occupied West Bank to engage with the Palestinian Authority, civil society organizations, released detainees and other relevant actors. Considering the ongoing hostilities, the mission team did not request to visit the Gaza Strip, where several other United Nations entities are present, including some that monitor and address sexual and gender-based violence. The visit was neither intended nor mandated to be investigative in nature, a mandate vested in other United Nations bodies, which have promptly signaled their willingness and availability to investigate all alleged violations committed in the context of the 7 October attacks and their aftermath. The scope and parameters of the visit were agreed in advance with the relevant authorities, to ensure, unimpeded and confidential access to interlocutors and information. The mission team adhered to standard UN methodology, including principle of independence, impartiality, objectivity, transparency, integrity, and “do no harm” principles, related to respecting confidentiality and informed consent. SRSG Patten was supported by a technical team composed of nine experts from the United Nations system, including specialists in safe and ethical interviewing of victims/survivors and witnesses of sexual violence crimes, a forensic pathologist, and a digital and open-source information analyst. The mission team spared no effort to gather information and to encourage victims/survivors and witnesses to come forward and share their stories. The mission team conducted a total of 33 meetings with Israeli national institutions, including relevant line ministries, as well as the Israeli security forces. It visited the Israeli National Center of Forensic Medicine, the Shura military base, the morgue to which the bodies of victims were transferred, as well as four locations affected by the 7 October attacks, in relation to which reports of sexual violence had emerged. The mission team reviewed over 5,000 photographic images and approximately 50 hours of footage of the attacks, in a concerted effort to identify any potential instances or indications of conflict-related sexual violence. It conducted confidential interviews with a total of 34 interviewees, including with survivors and witnesses of the 7 October attacks, released hostages, first responders, health and service providers amongst others. While the number of survivors/victims of sexual violence of 7 October remains unknown, the mission team was made aware that a small number of those are reportedly undergoing treatment and continue to experience severe mental distress and trauma. Despite concerted efforts to encourage them to come forward, the mission team was not able to interview any of these survivors/victims. The mission team also met with families and relatives of hostages still held in captivity, members of displaced kibbutzim communities, as well as representatives from Israeli civil society organizations and academia. The Israeli national authorities faced numerous challenges in the collection of evidence in pursuit of their investigations. Efforts to collect evidence were beset by the limited availability of forensic information, due to the large number of casualties and widely-dispersed crime scenes; a context of active hostilities; the prioritization of search and rescue operations as well as the recovery, identification and burial of the deceased in accordance with religious practices over the collection of forensic evidence; the loss of potentially valuable evidence due to the interventions of some untrained volunteer first responders; the alteration of crime scenes in some cases, as well as the large number of bodies affected by extensive burn damage. The mission team also faced specific challenges in the gathering and verification of incidents of sexual violence included: limited professionally-gathered forensic material; inaccurate and unreliable forensic interpretations by non-professionals; the extremely limited availability of victims/survivors and witnesses of sexual violence due inter alia to the internal displacement of affected communities; the lack of public trust and confidence in national and international institutions; the questioning by some of the narrow focus of the mission on crimes of sexual violence given the range of other grave crimes committed on 7 October and its aftermath; and the intense media scrutiny of individuals whose accounts have appeared in the public domain, increasing trauma and fears of social stigmatization. Based on the information it gathered, the mission team found clear and convincing information that sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment has been committed against hostages and has reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may be ongoing against those still held in captivity. In line with a survivor/victim-centered approach, findings are conveyed in generic terms and details are not revealed. In the context of the coordinated attack by Hamas and other armed groups against civilian and military targets throughout the Gaza periphery, the mission team found that there are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence occurred in multiple locations during the 7 October attacks, including rape and gang-rape in at least three locations, namely: the Nova music festival site and its surroundings, Road 232, and Kibbutz Re’im. In most of these incidents, victims first subjected to rape were then killed, and at least two incidents relate to the rape of women’s corpses. The mission team also found a pattern of victims, mostly women, found fully or partially naked, bound, and shot across multiple locations. Although circumstantial, such a pattern may be indicative of some forms of sexual violence, including sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. In other locations, such as kibbutz Kfar Azza, while circumstantial information may indicate some forms of sexual violence, the mission could not verify reported incidents of rape. In Kibbutz Be’eri, the mission team determined that at least two allegations of sexual violence, which had been widely reported in the media, were unfounded. These included the graphically publicized case of a pregnant woman whose womb had reportedly been torn open, before she was killed, and her fetus stabbed while still inside her. In relation to the Nahal Oz military base, the team was not able to verify a reported case of rape, nor did it find a discernible pattern of genital mutilation in either female or male soldiers, though forensic analysis revealed injuries to multiple body parts, including genitalia. Regarding genital mutilation overall, the mission team was not able to establish a discernible pattern. Overall, the mission team is of the view that the true prevalence of sexual violence during the 7 October attacks and their aftermath, may take months or years to emerge and may never be fully known. The mission team also visited Ramallah in the occupied West Bank to hear the views and concerns of Palestinian officials and civil society representatives in response to allegations of conflict-related sexual violence received by the mandate in the aftermath of the 7 October attacks, allegedly implicating Israeli security forces and settlers. Interlocutors raised concerns about cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of Palestinians in detention, including various forms of sexual violence in the form of invasive body searches, threats of rape, and prolonged forced nudity, as well as sexual harassment and threats of rape, during house raids and at checkpoints. This information will complement information already verified by other UN entities on allegations of CRSV in Gaza and the occupied West Bank for potential inclusion in the annual Report of the Secretary-General on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence. In terms of recommendations, SRSG Patten encourages the Government of Israel to grant access to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel to conduct fully-fledged independent investigations into all alleged violations to complement and deepen the findings emerging from her mission. She calls on Hamas to immediately and unconditionally release all individuals held in captivity and to ensure their protection, including from sexual violence. The SRSG further calls on all relevant and competent bodies, national and international, to bring all perpetrators, regardless of rank or affiliation, to justice based on individual, superior and command responsibility. In this regard, she extends the support of her Office to enhance the capacity of the national authorities. She also urges all relevant actors to uphold the highest standards of information integrity, including respect for safety and ethical principles in reporting of sexual violence cases, given the risks of inflammatory rhetoric and sensationalized headlines escalating tensions, as well as media and/or political pressure compounding trauma and stigmatization of survivors of sexual violence. SRSG Patten echoes the calls of the Secretary-General for a humanitarian ceasefire and urges the inclusion of expertise on addressing conflict-related sexual violence to inform the design and implementation of all ceasefire and political agreements, stressing that the voices of women and affected communities should be heard in all conflict-resolution and peace-building processes. She reiterates her profound sympathy and solidarity with all civilians affected by the brutal violence in the region since the 7 October attacks and urges a sustainable return to the path of peace.

* 5 March - Pramila Patten, United Nations official confirms HAMAS raped victims during October 7 massacre, i24News, YouTube, 5 March 2024, duration: 2.34 minutes.

* 6 March - Shocking: New evidence proves UNRWA is HAMAS, The Caroline Glick Show, JNS TV, Israel, 6 March 2024, YouTube, duration: 30.06 minutes. UNRWA is the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. This reveals the bias against Israel which is evident in the criticisms of that country far over and above any criticisms of the actions of HAMAS and other Islamic organisations such as Islamic State.

* 6 March - UN finds "clear information" the HAMAS raped hostages in October 7 attack, CNN News, 6 March 2024, duration: 9.16 minutes.

* 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.....

* 11 March - UN / Israel Palestine Sexual Violence - The Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, told the Security Council that “clear and convincing information that sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment have been committed against hostages” and added there are “reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may still be ongoing against those in captivity.” [Video], 11 March 2024, duration: 3.29 minutes.

* 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 around the creation of the Scream Without Words article. This is a continuation of the debunking campaign of The Times of New York article by the Free Palestine movement and the Left.

* 25 April - Sheryl Sandberg (director), Screams Before Silence [video], 25 April 2024, YouTube, duration: 56.56 minutes. The first Western video to present facts around the HAMAS sexual violence of 7 October 2023.

* 3 May - ‘HAMAS used rape systematically’: Sheryl Sandberg on new doc | Full interview, NewsNation, 3 May 2024, YouTube, duration: 12.54, minutes.

Abstract: "Screams Before Silence," a new documentary, exposes Hamas' use of rape and sexual violence. Sheryl Sandberg, formerly Facebook's COO, wanted to create a film that showcased the mass sexual violence against women perpetrated by Hamas on Oct. 7. In the documentary, Sandberg captures firsthand accounts of survivors and freed hostages regarding their reality of that day. Sandberg joins NewsNation and Chris Cuomo and asks, "Where's the outrage and protests?"

* 25 March - Ali Abunimah, Israeli "commission" on 7 October rape claims exposed as fraud, The Electronic Intifada, 25 March 2024.

* 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.

* 17 July - Questions and Answers: The HAMAS-led armed groups' October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, Human Rights Watch, 17 July 2024.

* 7 October - Pramila Patten, A year after the 7 October attacks, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Ms. Pramila Patten, remembers the victims of the attacks and reiterates her call for the immediate and unconditional release of hostages, United Nations, Press release, 7 October 2024. Text:

A year after the brutal attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, expresses her heartfelt solidarity with all the victims, their families and communities affected by these tragic events. Special Representative Patten stated: “Today we stand united in remembrance of those who lost their lives and in unwavering support of the survivors who bear the scars of that fateful day, in particular the victims of sexual violence, a heinous crime that has devastating physical and psychological impacts.”

She also recalled the conclusions of her mission to Israel earlier this year, that conflict-related sexual violence including rape and gang rape, was committed during the 7 October attacks in multiple locations across the Gaza periphery; and subsequently against hostages during their captivity. She also recalled having reasonable grounds to believe that such violence against hostages may still be ongoing. Special Representative Patten expresses her continued concerns about the plight of hostages still in captivity in Gaza and reiterates her call for their immediate, safe and unconditional release. “In these challenging times, I recognize the courage and resilience of those who have been released but remain gravely concerned for the hostages still held in captivity. I accordingly urge political leaders in the region and all those with influence over the parties to the conflict to intensify their efforts to ensure the release of all remaining hostages as a matter of utmost priority.”

“A year since these heinous attacks, victims, survivors, and their families deserve justice. It is of vital importance to ensure fully-fledged independent investigations into all allegations of sexual violence during or in the aftermath of the 7 October attacks. My mandate stands resolute in its offer of support to the Israeli authorities, in the pursuit of justice and accountability”, added Special Representative Patten.

“As this prolonged conflict continues to exacerbate suffering and loss, a ceasefire is paramount in halting the humanitarian crisis and alleviating the suffering of all affected peoples,” stressed Special Representative Patten. She reiterates the call of the Secretary-General for an immediate ceasefire and urges the international community, regional actors and the involved parties to champion a ceasefire as a foundational move towards enduring peace and the realization of a two-State solution.

2025

* 18 February - HAMAS abuse against women revealed in sock new evidence, The Sun, 18 February 2025, YouTube, duration: 8.29 minutes.

* July - Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, Navah Ben-Or and Sharon Zagagi-Pinhas, A Quest for Justice - October 7 and Beyond, Report of The Dinah Project, Jerusalem, July 2025, 84p. Comprehensive report on the HAMAS sexual violence associated with the events of 7 October 2023.

* 9 July - Astha Rajvanshi, New Israeli report says Hamas used sexual violence as a 'weapon of war' in Oct. 7 attack - "A Quest for Justice" includes eyewitness testimony from at least 17 different incidents of sexual assault, as well as accounts from first responders, forensic evidence, and audio and visual documentation, NBC News, 9 July 2025.

* 16 September - Israel has committed genocide in the Gaza strip, UN commission finds, United Nations, Press Release, United Nations Human Rights - Office of the High Commissioner, 16 September 2025. A legal opinion from a biased United Nations "independent" pro-Palestine group, headed by Navi Pillay.

* Navi Pillay, Legal analysis of the conduct of Israel in Gaza pursuant to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Independent report by the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, 16 September 2025, 72p.

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

* 15 November - United Nations official for violence against women falsely claims no independent probe found Oct. 7 rape, The Times of Israel, 15 November 2025.

Abstract: Comments by Reem Alsalem contradict the 2024 UN report which found ‘reasonable grounds’ to believe sexual violence took place in Hamas-led attacks, and even more against hostages in Gaza. They also ignore the evidence which has come to light since the UN team visited Israel in January - February 2024.

* 11 December - Reem Alsalem, Statement by Ms. Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences: Concerning reports of sexual and gender-based violence
committed on and since 7 October 2023, Press Release, United Nations, New York, 11 December 2025.

2026

* 5 January - Professor Halperin-Kaddari, Proof of sexual violence on October 7, The Jerusalem Post, 5 January 2026, YouTube, duration: 30.33 minutes.

* 9 February - Australian Grace Tame chants From Gadigal to Gaza - Globalize the Intifada at a rally in Sydney, Australia (refer details above).

* 16 March - Grace Tame states on ABC Radio, Sydney, that rape and killing of Israeli women on 7 October 2023 has been debunked as Israeli propaganda (refer details above).

* 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 arising out of the biased and false "debunking" process. Public editorial access to the article is closed off, so relevant information as presented above 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 and against Jews and Israel. Related Wikipedia pages also reflect this bias, especially in their language.

---------------------

4. The truth - debunking the debunkers

On 7 October 2023 6,000 armed men from Gaza and other locations, under the command of HAMAS military, invaded Israel with the aim of conquest. Many of the combatants were carrying Go Pro and other video equipment to record what action they took. Some of this video was streamed live. The video contains horrific scenes of murder, rape, gang rape, torture, and incredibly vicious and vile activities, mostly carried out against ordinary and innocent Israeli citizens and tourists. The video, photographs, Israeli surveillance camera footage, first hand accounts of survivors and witnesses, and the testimony of family and others such as first responders and medical staff, all provide evidence to describe in incredible detail the barbaric activities of the HAMAS invaders. The majority of this evidence - especially that extremely graphic material - it too traumatic to view by the general public, and was, as such, not revealed by the Western media following the slaughter in which 1,500+ people died and more than 5,000 were injured. As a result, and as revealed above, debunkers were able to promote a narrative that, based upon the spread of disinformation and misinformation, the aforementioned events never happened and that HAMAS was innocent of all charges. This is a narrative which continues to the present day (March 2026), as reflected in the statements by Grace Tame. Personally, the writer does not blame Tame for this. She is a victim of the lies spread by the media and those behind the Free Palestine movement, including Middle Eastern players such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, who expend billions of dollars in promoting Islamic ideology around the world and spreading the aforementioned misinformation / disinformation. If one chooses to ignore the evidence - and that evidence is in itself trauma inducing - then one must accept that their view is both biased and can be deduced as anti-Semitic. Ignorance is always an excused, but only up to the point where no action is taken to address it; thereafter, it is unforgivable.

---------------------

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.

Abunimah, Ali, Israeli "commission" on 7 October rape claims exposed as fraud, The Electronic Intifada, 25 March 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.

Alsalem, Reem, Women bearing the brunt of Israel-Gaza conflict: UN expert, Press Release, United Nations, Geneva, 20 November 2023.

-----, Statement by Ms. Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women
and girls, its causes and consequences: Concerning reports of sexual and gender-based violence committed on and since 7 October 2023, Press Release, United Nations, New York, 11 December 2025.

[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, 'Screams Without Words': How HAMAS Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7, The New York Times, 28 December 2023. A copy of the article has been archived at The Dinah Project site.

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

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

Halperin-Kaddari, Ruth, Proof of sexual violence on October 7, The Jerusalem Post, 5 January 2026, YouTube, duration: 30.33 minutes.

Halperin-Kaddari, Ruth, Navah Ben-Or and Sharon Zagagi-Pinhas, A Quest for Justice - October 7 and Beyond, The Dinah Project, Jerusalem, July 2025, 84p.

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.

HAMAS abuse against women revealed in sock new evidence, The Sun, 18 February 2025, YouTube, duration: 8.29 minutes.

HAMAS terrorists live-streamed Israel murders amid attack, sister of victim says, LiveNOW from FOX, 18 October 2023, YouTube, duration: 14.16 minutes.

HAMAS victims showed 'systematic genital mutilation', says IDF volunteer | Israel-Hamas war, Sky News, 1 February 2024, YouTube, duration: 8.14, minutes.

Hostages speak up about HAMAS sexual abuse - interview victim 7 October, ILTV Israel News, 15 February 2024, YouTube, duration: 2.39 minutes.

Human Rights Watch, Questions and Answers: The HAMAS-led armed groups' October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, Human Rights Watch, 17 July 2024.

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.

Molan, Erin, Grace Tame has no shame, The Erin Molan Show, 18 March 2026, YouTube, duration: 6.17 minutes.

Patten, Pramila, 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, 4 March 2024.

-----, A year after the 7 October attacks, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Ms. Pramila Patten, remembers the victims of the attacks and reiterates her call for the immediate and unconditional release of hostages, United Nations, Press release, 7 October 2024.

Pillay, Navi, Legal analysis of the conduct of Israel in Gaza pursuant to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Independent report by the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, 16 September 2025, 72p.

['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.

Sandberg, Sheryl, Screams Before Silence [video], 25 April 2024, YouTube, duration: 56.56 minutes.

-----, ‘Hamas used rape systematically’: Sheryl Sandberg on new doc | Full interview, NewsNation, 3 May 2024, YouTube, duration: 12.54, minutes.

-----, MISINFO Spreads; Sheryl Sandberg Gives OXYGEN To Now DEBUNKED New York Times Hamas Rape Story: Briahna Joy Gray, The Hill, 9 May 2024, YouTube, duration: 12.35 minutes.

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, tamepunk, Instagram, 10 February 2026, duration: 3.00 minutes.

-----, The Difficult Truth, Crikey, 13 March 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.

United Nations, Following visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Ms. Pramila Patten, finds sexual violence occurred on 7 October, and against hostages and calls for a fully-fledged investigation, Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, United Nations, New York, 4 March 2024.

-----, 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.

United Nations official for violence against women falsely claims no independent probe found Oct. 7 rape, The Times of Israel, 15 November 2025. Abstract: Reem Alsalem’s remarks contradict 2024 UN report which found ‘reasonable grounds’ to believe sexual violence took place in Hamas-led attacks, and even more against hostages in Gaza.

Wikipedia, Screams Before Silence [video], Wikipedia, accessed 20 March 2026.

-----, Scream Without Words, Wikipedia, accessed 12 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.

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Last updated: 4 April 2026

Michael Organ, Australia

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