Western Media Promoted A UN Report As Proof Hamas Sexually Assaulted Israelis

Yet the report's authors admitted they could not locate a single victim, suggested Israeli authorities staged a rape scene, and denounced “inaccurate forensic interpretations"

On March 4, the United Nations released a report into sexual violence which has supposedly taken place amid the Israeli war on Gaza. The report was immediately celebrated in mainstream media outlets as proof of what scores of Israel lobbyists and journalists under their sway have insisted for months (despite a wealth of evidence to the contrary): that Hamas forces engaged in a systematic campaign of rape during their attack on Israel on October 7.

There was just one problem. The report’s authors flatly contradicted the idea that any evidence existed to prove a campaign of rape by Hamas.

Many legacy media outlets papered over this inconvenient fact with a few clever tweaks of language. The Associated Press, for example, repackaged claims of rape at Kibbutz Be’eri — which the UN report dismissed as “unfounded” — as “allegations of rape that could not yet be verified.”

The AP wasn’t the only outlet to indulge in such creative writing. A March 5 New York Times headline insisted the UN report had uncovered the sought-after “Evidence of Sexual Assault in Hamas-Led Attack on Israel.”

But following a social media post by The Grayzone’s editor-in-chief, Max Blumenthal, the Times quietly amended its headline to read: “UN Team Finds Grounds to Support Reports of Sexual Violence in Hamas Attack.”

Comments by the head of the UN team have made it clear the UN mission to Israel was the product of an Israeli public relations campaign. By United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten’s own admission, the team was only dispatched following “pressure” by Israeli government-linked lobbying groups. Her personal schedule reveals its priorities: 15 days in Israel, and just two in occupied Palestinian territory...

What’s more, the UN team openly admits it “held several rounds of meetings to review information” from the Israeli army, Israeli security service Shin Bet, and the Israeli National Police’s Oct. 7 investigation unit, Lahav 433. Further meetings were held with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and various Israeli functionaries.

But after their multi-week guided fishing expedition, the UN representatives came back mostly empty-handed.

.....While the UN special representative on sexual violence, Pramila Patten, claimed to have found “clear and convincing information” that sexual violence later occurred to Israelis captured on October 7, she declined to name the victims or perpetrators and refused to say whether there was any pattern connecting the incidents.

At a press conference following the report’s publication, Patten stressed that the mission “was neither intended nor mandated to be investigative in nature” but noted that despite repeated calls for those affected to come forward, her team had been unable to locate a single victim of sexual assault by Palestinians.

🔗Source: Grayzone

Related: 2/24 — New Israeli Report Alleging "Systematic and Intentional Rape" by Hamas Relies on Debunked Western Media Reports

2/23 — US Intel Has "Low Confidence" in Israeli Claim That 12 UN Staff Participated in Hamas Attack

2/1 — Israel Fails to Produce Evidence to Justify Widespread Cemetery Destruction in Gaza

2/1 — Israeli Army, Police Repeat False Claims of Hamas Atrocities

"However, Haaretz reported that the incidents described in the interview never took place.
Haaretz reported there is no survivor of Germany’s World War II concentration camps named Genia in Be'eri"

1/4 — Washington Post Erases Israeli Minister’s Farfetched October 7 Rape Claim at His Request

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