Israel’s leadership is pushing the allegations that Hamas fighters raped Israeli women during the October 7 attacks for its own political objectives while the government’s ongoing refusal to allow the United Nations to conduct a full investigation into the matter threatens to hinder any evidence, advocates have warned.

  • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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    5 months ago

    Rape happens in war. I don’t believe it was used systemically on Oct. 7, as Israel claims, or at least, there’s no evidence of that.

    However, to claim that no one was raped during an attack that long and protracted, and with so many people involved, defies history and the realities of conflict.

    What’s worse, anyone claiming “no rapes happened” as a counter to “it was systemically used”, means that a single case of rape invalidates their claim, and by default, bolsters Israel’s lie.

    • TheFriar
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      5 months ago

      Right. As I was writing, I changed the definitive final sentence to a less definitive “it didn’t happen as they said it happened.” I never said there was no rape whatsoever.

      Unfortunately rape is used in war. You’re right about that. Both sides are allegedly using it as a tactic. But their story was systematic rape used as terror on Oct 7 was a lie.

      • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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        5 months ago

        The OP article makes a big deal, too, about this distinction between Israeli women who were raped by Hamas fighters because the Hamas fighters wanted to rape, as opposed to because their commanders told them to go out and rape. I’m not sure that’s a super impactful distinction. Why do you think it’s an important distinction?

        (Actually, the OP article says something stupider than that; it says that “some reports have asserted that those acts and other reported atrocities were committed by civilians and those not affiliated” with Hamas, without explaining what the fuck they’re even talking about, but I’m giving the benefit of the doubt and dealing mostly with their treatment that it’s important whether or not Hamas “ordered it” to happen, which is still stupid to me but not transparently absurd like the idea that unaffiliated civilians suddenly started coming in and raping all these Israeli women at the same time that the October 7th attacks were going on.)

        • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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          5 months ago

          There’s a huge difference between isolated incidents, and the systemic use of rape as a weapon of war.

          One’s a regular criminal offense, and the other is Hague War Crime Tribal level of offense.

          • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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            5 months ago

            Not even slightly. Or, I mean, not for quite a while; the treatment of rape in war has evolved past what you are describing since quite some time ago.

            • Pre World War 2: Shit happens, they’re soldiers, what are you going to do
            • World War 2 through 1993: Hey I think they shouldn’t do that
            • 1993: UN declares systematic rape to be a war crime <-- you are here
            • 1993-2008: Various minor redefinitions over a series of resolutions

            Then in 2008, the UN took the fairly sensible when you think about it step of saying that if you are fielding an army, and that army is raping people with any regularity, then that is your problem i.e. a crime against humanity and you don’t get to mount the defense that you didn’t tell them to, and so it’s not your problem if it is happening.

            Your viewpoint is disgusting and explicitly rape-apologist, as well as in this case legally incorrect.

            • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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              5 months ago

              Are you relying to the wrong the wrong comment? Or did you just not read mine correctly…?

              Before I lay into the absurdity of your response as it relates to my comment, please double check.

              Because it should be obvious that my comment adheres to the UN charter you reference and I never claimed that systemic only includes weaponized rape ordered through the chain of command.

              • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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                5 months ago

                You said that a soldier raping a civilian is a regular criminal offense. I cited the UN resolution that says among other things:

                The Council demanded that all parties to armed conflict take immediate and appropriate measures to protect civilians, including by, among others, enforcing appropriate military disciplinary measures and upholding the principle of command responsibility; training troops on the categorical prohibition of all forms of sexual violence against civilians; debunking myths that fuel sexual violence; and vetting armed and security forces to take into account past sexual violence.

                I mean, it’s possible that we’re saying the same thing; sort of contingent on what you mean exactly by “isolated incidents”. I am saying that widespread rape on October 7th is indicative of a war crime regardless of whether approval for it came through Hamas’s chain of command. Is that what you’re saying?

    • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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      5 months ago

      This is the other thing that’s weird about the “it was all debunked” side. So, they invaded the music festival, shot a bunch of people including plenty of women and children, hauled away a bunch of hostages, burned up some homes, and yet, nobody raped anybody. Just didn’t happen. That’s a red line that these music-festival-goer-shooters adhered to absolutely without fail.

      The Israeli government does much worse, unprovoked, and much more systematically. But that doesn’t mean all of a sudden that you have to say every bad thing about Israel is true and every bad thing about Hamas is false, and these people who invaded a music festival and shot more than a thousand innocent people are these noble paladins you have to protect the right and honor of.

      • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
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        5 months ago

        Rape does not happen during an attack it happens after. See israel raping Palestinians in their concentration camps.

        Hamas certainly isn’t going to drop their weapons with Apache helicopters and rockets flying overhead to rape a blown up bodies in a car.

        If Hamas would be raping people it would be the kidnapped hostages. Yet that rescued hostage from yesterday did not look very pregnant.

        • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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          5 months ago

          I said I wasn’t going to indefinitely play the game of you saying total bullshit and me citing sources for why it’s wrong, because going back and forth with it too many times usually isn’t a good use of time, but for some reason this one irritated me all afresh.

          I(17) from the report, page 5: “With respect to hostages, the mission team found clear and convincing information that some have been subjected to various forms of conflict-related sexual violence including rape and sexualized torture and sexualized cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and it also has reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may be ongoing.”

            • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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              5 months ago

              Since I already cited a few entries out of the UN report to you, I’m gonna make this one into one of those “exercise for the reader” type of things. Like teaching a man to fish. In what entry in the table of contents to the report do you think the answer to this question might be contained?

              I realize you will have to read most of the whole first page of the document to find it, but I believe in you. Hold your focus. Persevere.

              • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
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                5 months ago

                You didn’t cite any evidence you just posted the summary.

                What information is used to come to those conclusions in the summary? It’s in the report surely you’ve read it right?

                • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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                  5 months ago

                  I sent you a link to the full report. Maybe that needs to be the first part of your challenge then: Finding the link to the report, and then finding the table of contents, and then identifying which entry in the table of contents might contain the answer to your question.

                  Do you really not want to take on the challenge of finding it? I am trying to help you become more capable with sources and verification procedures. I wasn’t expecting finding the report that I sent the link to to be the hard part, but I honestly don’t think any part of it should be altogether super-challenging.

                  • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
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                    5 months ago

                    I already read the report and stated what is in it. You are the person claiming differently so link the part where they had anything other than witnesses to present.

        • JacksonLamb@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Yet that rescued hostage from yesterday did not look very pregnant.

          Out of order. You can easily make the same point without resorting to perpetuating a misogynist myth about rape.

          • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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            5 months ago

            “Out of order” is not quite a strong enough reaction for “We found a woman who doesn’t look pregnant as far as I can tell so that means that her and all the other women definitely didn’t get raped, so stop worrying about it”

        • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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          5 months ago

          Did you really just try and claim that rape doesn’t happen during active and protracted urban combat…?

          Also, while I agree that of the attackers that day, the Hamas forces were the least likely culprits due to training and defined mission objectives, they weren’t the only people to enter Israel after the barriers were breached. That doesn’t mean they didn’t, just that I think there are other scenarios with a higher probability.

          And last, I’m not really sure if you’re being intentionally honest with your retelling of events, or if you really just don’t know that much about the scope and duration of the attack. Either way, you don’t really have a firm grasp enough to speak on this with any sort of authority, certainly not with the confidence you seem to have.

          • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
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            5 months ago

            Since empathy with brown people appears to be impossible let’s switch it up a bit.

            Let’s say the IDF kidnaps a Palestinian. Do they stick an electrified stick in their ass while in a firefight with Hamas, or do they kidnap the Palestinian back to base and then rape them?

            • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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              5 months ago

              Thanks for clearing that up, you’re being intentionally disingenuous.

              Never have I defended the IDF, nor have I condemned any Palestinian combatants.

              I certainly never expressed any skepticism about the genocide or sexual violence that does appear to be deliberately systemic within the IDF, or at minimum, widely tolerated up the chain.

              So, with that out of the way. Re-read my comments, and then decide to engage honestly, or just go and try and peddle your uninformed garbage somewhere else.

              • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
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                5 months ago

                I am saying that nobody rapes during combat in the middle of a firefight. Being in mortal danger is not a huge turn on.

                The rape if it happens, happens after a victim is extracted to a safe location or an area is fully captured.

                Same for the rapes that happened in Ukraine. There were no rapes during combat that happens after all combat is over.

                • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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                  5 months ago

                  It’s telling that you think a multi-day combat operation over a geographically dispersed area is just one very long firefight.

                  It sounds like you’re basing this off a mixture of movies, television, and your gut.

                  • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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                    5 months ago

                    I think they are basing it off the conclusion that they have already decided that they want to reach

                  • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
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                    5 months ago

                    There were some stragglers playing hide and seek but the operation was mostly over the second the IDF copters shows up which was within 24 hours.

                    The “witness allegations” which turned out to be untrue were during the main raid including the festival. The UN report allegations also pertain to the festival. These were the earliest hours.

                    The only one basing things off their gut is people claiming they have evidence of rape which they clearly don’t have.

        • gedaliyah@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          What concentration camps? What are you talking about? You are literally just making this up.