Reem Alsalem, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, posted this:
“No Palestinian applauded rape in Gaza. No independent investigation found that rape took place on the 7th of October.”
Here is what Alsalem lays out when she expands on that X post in a recent interview and write-up:
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She explains that the widely cited report by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (SRSG-SVC) was never meant to be investigative. Its mandate did not include forensic verification; it compiled allegations and secondary reports but did not independently prove anything.
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She points to the Independent International Commission of Inquiry, which did have a fact-finding mandate and issued a report in June 2024. That body stated clearly that it “has not been able to independently verify such allegations, due to a lack of access to victims, witnesses and crime sites and the obstruction of its investigations by the Israeli authorities.”
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She says, in plain language, that the narrative Israel constructed about mass rapes by Palestinians on October 7th has been “completely debunked by an independent body.”
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And she adds that while Western governments and legacy media fixated on unverified claims about Palestinian rapists, they ignored the documented pattern of Israeli sexual violence against Palestinian men and women — a pattern backed by years of evidence.
i wonder what drives people to join the UN only to enable asshattery like this and i think it’s too simplistic to just label them as ideological zealots; but what else could it be?
What do you mean
it’s a tangent on this post and it’s me wondering why UN officials from delegations like the americans block humanitarian resolutions while turning around an insisting on humanitarian goals.
it would make sense if they’re two-faced politicians, but they’re lifelong diplomats.