U.S. Vice President’s remarks come amid allegations from Israel’s critics that claims of sexual and gender-based violence were either fabricated or exaggerated in order to provide justification for its military response in Gaza

Speaking at an event dedicated to raising awareness on conflict-related sexual violence, including the airing of Sheryl Sandberg’s “Screams Before Silence” documentary, “On October 7, Hamas committed horrific acts of sexual violence,” Harris said.

Her remarks come amid steady criticism from Israel’s critics on the left that claims of sexual and gender-based violence were either fabricated or exaggerated in order to provide justification for its military response in Gaza following October 7.

“In the days after October 7, I saw images of bloodied Israeli women abducted,” she continued. “Hamas committed rape and gang rape at the Nova music festival, and women’s bodies were found naked from the waist down, hands tied behind their back and shot in the head.”

  • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Sexual violence is not always rape.

    JFC, this sounds like something the Catholic Church would say after another priest is caught fondling little boys.

    As far as I’m concerned, sexual assault means rape. As far as I’m concerned, anyone who does this is a rapist:

    the guard, who called himself Muhammad, put a gun to her forehead, beat her and dragged her to a child’s bedroom. “Then he, with the gun pointed at me, forced me to commit a sexual act on him”

    • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
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      6 months ago

      No rape means sexual intercourse. Everything has a specific term.

      And you can find forensic evidence of rape.

      Also this account is different than what I read before which was supposedly someone groping her when she went into a room alone so this testimony is not looking too great.

      • AmidFuror@fedia.io
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        6 months ago

        I agree with you that rape requires intercourse.

        Does it have to be rape to be manufactured consent or can it be sexual violence? It’s a weird thing to quibble about.

        • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
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          6 months ago

          After the initial propaganda campaign focused on mass rapes as a weapon of war this is a very important distinction to make as he himself still associates it with such.

          One cannot start pretending that we were just “worried about sexual violence”.

          The Sharyl Sandberg “documentary” that Kamela Harris was attending very specifically states that rape happened.

          Sexual violence is a very broad term. In the UN report it’s used for Hamas tying women’s hands behind their backs when taking them hostage. Not raping them.

      • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Nah.

        Hamas raped hostages. Hamas are rapists. They’re worse than the Catholic priests. At least priests don’t point guns at their rape victims.

        And her account hasn’t changed, you just didn’t bother to read all of it.

        • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
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          6 months ago

          Try sending a message to the UN they might have never heard of your opinion.

          Either that or they specifically decided that it’s not rape.

          • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            Wrong again.

            UN:

            Based on the examination of available information, including credible statements by eyewitnesses, there are reasonable grounds to believe that multiple incidents of rape, including gang rape, occurred in and around the Nova festival site during the 7 October attacks

            UN:

            Credible information based on corroborating witness accounts describes an incident involving the rape of two women.

            UN:

            There are reasonable grounds to believe that sexual violence occurred in kibbutz Re’im, including rape. This included the rape of a woman outside of a bomb shelter at the entrance of kibbutz Re’im