JUNE 2026

SIVAN / TAMMUZ 5786

SPRINGFIELD, OH

~ RABBI'S CORNER ~

''Silenced No More''

On May 12, the Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children released a new report entitled ''Silenced No More.'' The report documents the atrocities committed on 10/7/23 through ''comprehensive evidentiary and legal analysis using over 10,000 photos and videos, over 1800 hours of other visual material, and over 430 interviews and testimonies from witnesses and victims. Numerous responses have been written and broadcast, including a damnable and widely criticized piece by New York Time columnist Nicholas Kristof, accusing Israel of training dogs to rape Palestinian civilians.'' What follows is an excerpt from a response to the Report penned by the South African Jewish writer, Justin Amler, that appeared in the Australian Sky News:

It reads like something from a horror novel - scenes of depraved brutality, frenzied murder, torture, and the celebration of evil.

It is difficult for Western audiences to comprehend the sheer scale of depravity that unfolded on October 7. Hamas and its civilian accomplices invaded Israel in a killing rampage that left almost 1,200 people dead and 251 more kidnapped.

But even as Israelis were in shock, along with Jews around the world, real-time denial was becoming commonplace. Homes were still burning, bodies were still being collected and remains still being identified, yet much of the world moved on with alarming speed, often within days, to change the focus, not on the victims of this brutality, but on Israel's reaction to it.

Sympathizers with Hamas began to pump out blatantly false claims that Hamas had only assaulted military targets and any civilians killed were actually killed by Israeli forces responding, or else random Gaza civilians. They even tried to portray the Israeli hostages as grateful to their kidnappers.

But Hamas did not hide their crimes. They were proud of them, often streaming them live, including on the social media accounts of the people they just murdered.

And still, another layer of horror emerged from October 7: the almost immediate evidence of sexual violence.

We saw the naked body of Shani Louk surrounded by Hamas terrorists in the back of a pickup truck. They were celebrating her murder, along with Gazan civilians cheering in the background. Her body, unnaturally twisted, was being abused and spat on. Even in death, there was no peace.

We saw female hostages, blood visible on the backs of their pants, being pulled by their hair into Hamas vehicles.

Some of the Israeli first responders found burnt bodies with their underwear missing, their faces shot and their genitalia mutilated.

Yet, in an era of the MeToo movement, where women were meant to be believed, suddenly the rules changed when it was Israeli women who were the victims and Palestinians the attackers.

It took UN Women, an organization that ''exists to advance women's rights,'' a full two months before it made a statement acknowledging ''numerous accounts of gender-based atrocities and sexual violence'' during the attacks.

In March 2024, a UN investigation led by Pramila Patten found ''reasonable grounds to believe'' that rape, gang rape, sexual torture, and other forms of conflict-related sexual violence occurred on October 7 and to Israeli hostages in captivity.

And it took until December 2025, over two years after the attack, until Amnesty International finally issued a report acknowledging Hamas' sexual violence crimes on October 7.

Meanwhile, Francesca Albanese, the United Nations ''Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories'' continues to cast doubt on the sexual violence, describing some claims of ''mass rape'' by Hamas as potential fabrications.

This was echoed by fellow UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, who claimed as recently as November 2025 that ''no independent investigation found that rape took place on October 7.''

In addition, even as the ''Silenced No More'' report was about to be released, the New York Times published allegations of widespread sexual violence by Israeli security forces just one day earlier. Relying on Hamas-linked sources, the timing and the dubious basis of the story suggested to many Jews a stark, deliberate double standard at play.

That's why ''Silenced No More'' is so critical. It used a multidisciplinary approach to document the most comprehensive evidence of these crimes to date. It will serve to provide the historical record with a rigorous evidentiary foundation, precisely to prevent the denials of these crimes we have witnessed for so long. But it's more than just words on paper.

It's a small window into the trauma that Israelis faced on that terrible day. A trauma that did not end on October 7 but only began. Because for many families, every day since then has been torturous.

Part of that trauma is what the report calls ''Kinocide'' - forms of violence specifically aimed at destroying family bonds and intimate human ties, including the use of a victim's own social media to broadcast their murder or abuse to their family.

For those determined to deny or excuse such atrocities, who see Israel as uniquely evil with no right to exist, reports like this will make little difference. Perhaps this even includes former Australian of the Year Grace Tame, who called the testimony of Israeli women about sexual violence ''propaganda.'' Where is she today?

But for those who were forever silenced by the violence and terror of that day, their silent screams will not be silent anymore. Their voices will not fade from existence, and their memories will not disappear with time.

Because memories matter. Truth matters. And in a world where too many choose to dismiss these as inconvenient to their own ideological prejudices, this document stands as an unshakeable marker of truth.