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