I am offering this thoughtful piece on the sexual violence of October 7th by Jill Filipovic with a gift link because I really want you to be able to read the whole thing. There’s so much sturm und drang around this topic that it’s hard to ever find clarity. This is one of the rare articles that provides it without pandering, excusing or obfuscating the reality.
She discusses in detail how difficult it was to get reliable forensic evidence in the aftermath of the attack and explains why it was important, as a journalist, to wait for the facts. Reporting of sexual violence is war is always fraught and with all discussions of rape it’s important to be precise because so often the reflexive response is to dismiss it. But that’s not the whole story here:
But soon after the attacks, the evidence started to come in, and it took the form that evidence of wartime rape often does: accounts from survivors of the attacks, emergency responders, medical personnel, those who examined the bodies and journalists who were permitted to see some attack footage. Some of these accounts have been presented by organizations, including Physicians for Human Rights-Israel. A Civil Commission on Oct. 7 Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children has been established in Israel […]
But even as evidence mounted, so did disbelief. On social media, accounts often flood mentions of Hamas’s gendered violence with arguments that no such thing happened, often insisting that the allegations were invented by the Israeli government as a pretext for war, are simply too unsubstantiated to be believed or pale in comparison with Palestinian suffering. Some of these accounts may be bots; others have hundreds of thousands of followers. […]
Denials and deflections have come from people with vast reach. Some work at prominent magazines; others run popular podcasts, YouTube channels and websites. These denials have migrated into global leftist discourse and seem intended to sow doubt or prompt wholesale dismissal of the subject.
You may find this surprising in the age of MeToo. But I can testify to the fact that it is absolutely true. She asks why anyone would doubt that sexual violence is part of war. After all, it’s been the case since the beginning of time. And she wonders, “does anyone really believe that, were it not for rape claims, Israel’s campaign in Gaza would be any less brutal, let alone nonexistent?”
But that misses the point. For many denialists, truth doesn’t seem to be the goal; a monopoly on righteousness is.
From the earliest days after Oct. 7, individual supporters of all sides have disseminated and fallen for distortions and blatant fabrications. This war comes at a time of minimal global trust and maximal ability to seek out evidence that supports whatever theory suits one’s political context.
Reporting on the attacks and the war also produced genuine confusion. Muddying the picture even more were claims later modified by reputable journalistic outlets, which has only propelled conspiracy mongering and denialism. Further, while much of the obfuscation has been stoked by bad actors — be they hostile foreign governments, right-wing bigots or cynical left-wing activists — those atrociously dishonest messages are then amplified and repeated, even by no doubt well-meaning people who simply sympathize with a brutalized population.
She makes the obvious point that while these horrors are often part of war, that doesn’t make it legitimate. Also:
Some of those who deny or question allegations of Oct. 7 sexual abuse argue not only that those abuses may not have happened but also that giving credence to these claims is, in effect, justifying Israel’s war in Gaza — a theory weakened by the fact that the Israeli incursion began well before stories of sexual violence made very many headlines. It’s a profoundly morally bankrupt position, one that demands silencing the truth to achieve a desired end. It’s a means of undermining stories of violence that has worked throughout the ages, as women have been told to keep quiet for the cause or encouraged not to ruin a good man’s life or written largely out of history as inconvenient or even deserving victims of the good guys.
It’s exhausting having to argue such an obvious point with the rabid hawks. It’s profoundly depressing to have to make the same argument to members of the left who have never, up until now, taken that stance.
The horrors of this war do not have to be either/or. One can both face the mountain of evidence of sexual violence on Oct. 7 and confront the staggering Palestinian death toll — people who were not mere collateral damage but individuals whose lives were brutally snatched away and many more who will carry this displacement and loss and trauma with them for the rest of their lives. One can seek to understand the context in which a group like Hamas comes to be and curb the impulse to recast openly misogynist fundamentalists into freedom fighters. One can hold deep contempt for this right-wing Israeli government and oppose this war with every bone in one’s body.
That is such an obvious point I can’t believe anyone has to say it out loud. But it must be said out loud, I guess. What I’m seeing unfold on social media on both sides, admittedly at least partly fueled by malicious propaganda and fake news bots, is a modern version of what unfolded after 9/11, when so many people lost their moorings and gave in to blood lust and vengeance.
There is no excuse for October 7th and there is no excuse for the massive slaughter taking place in Gaza. It’s not hard to acknowledge that, it really isn’t.
These excerpts don’t do the piece justice and I urge you to click on the gift link above to read the whole thing. It’s very nuanced and filled with important facts and analyses that need to be understood if we are to try to understand this horrific event without losing ourselves.
It’s that time, folks. If you like to throw something in the old stocking, I’d be grateful: