Thursday, February 29, 2024 9:23:55 AM
Growing Scrutiny of Oct. 7 Rape Reporting
The Intercept has an important piece archaeologizing the bombshell New York Times investigation into the sexual violence of the Oct. 7 massacre. One thing they turned up was a Hebrew-language podcast after the fact in which a freelance reporter on the project speaks repeatedly about failed efforts to turn up evidence of rape at the places you’d expect to get it: Hospitals and rape crisis centers.
And a number of the “witnesses” and sources who were cited in the early reporting turn out to have a history of (a) not witnessing and/or (b) being bad sources.
The obvious issue with all of this is that reports of systemic sexual violence — especially from an outlet with the Times’ uniquely big megaphone — fuel bloodlust, which has no time for even the meager norms of war, which justifies atrocities.
The unobvious issue with all of this is that sexual violence is a reality of armed conflict. There apparently were victims of sexual violence — but since Oct. 7 they’ve had to live in a world that denies their reality. And none of us can know the individual experiences they’ve had as a result.
We do have a better idea today of what that whole bloodlust-fueled, by-any-means-necessary approach can lead to. Stuff like this:
An Israeli attack this morning killed an estimated 70 people who were assembled in Gaza City awaiting humanitarian aid, while injuring about 280 other people. Two minutes after I read those numbers, I saw al Jazeera reporting the number of dead was up to 77. When I clicked through to read the article, the number of dead had gone up to 104. So for God’s sake do not check the current death toll.
Either way, the new fatality numbers officially took the death toll in Gaza above 30,000. And a new report from NPR says that’s undercounting the dead. By thousands.
Bloodlust. Revenge. Retribution for what happened and also what didn’t happen on Oct. 7.
And it’s not just blowing up people waiting for food, it’s restricting the food supply in the first place.
Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, says Israel’s doing it intentionally, telling the Guardian, “This is now a situation of genocide. This means the state of Israel in its entirety is culpable and should be held accountable.”
Here’s the Guardian’s look at the diminishing amount of aid coming in through the two crossing points:
https://thefuckingnews.substack.com/p/feb-29-2024-supreme-court-to-rule?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=247716&post_id=142168913&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=6zfhm&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
The Intercept has an important piece archaeologizing the bombshell New York Times investigation into the sexual violence of the Oct. 7 massacre. One thing they turned up was a Hebrew-language podcast after the fact in which a freelance reporter on the project speaks repeatedly about failed efforts to turn up evidence of rape at the places you’d expect to get it: Hospitals and rape crisis centers.
And a number of the “witnesses” and sources who were cited in the early reporting turn out to have a history of (a) not witnessing and/or (b) being bad sources.
The obvious issue with all of this is that reports of systemic sexual violence — especially from an outlet with the Times’ uniquely big megaphone — fuel bloodlust, which has no time for even the meager norms of war, which justifies atrocities.
The unobvious issue with all of this is that sexual violence is a reality of armed conflict. There apparently were victims of sexual violence — but since Oct. 7 they’ve had to live in a world that denies their reality. And none of us can know the individual experiences they’ve had as a result.
We do have a better idea today of what that whole bloodlust-fueled, by-any-means-necessary approach can lead to. Stuff like this:
An Israeli attack this morning killed an estimated 70 people who were assembled in Gaza City awaiting humanitarian aid, while injuring about 280 other people. Two minutes after I read those numbers, I saw al Jazeera reporting the number of dead was up to 77. When I clicked through to read the article, the number of dead had gone up to 104. So for God’s sake do not check the current death toll.
Either way, the new fatality numbers officially took the death toll in Gaza above 30,000. And a new report from NPR says that’s undercounting the dead. By thousands.
Bloodlust. Revenge. Retribution for what happened and also what didn’t happen on Oct. 7.
And it’s not just blowing up people waiting for food, it’s restricting the food supply in the first place.
Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, says Israel’s doing it intentionally, telling the Guardian, “This is now a situation of genocide. This means the state of Israel in its entirety is culpable and should be held accountable.”
Here’s the Guardian’s look at the diminishing amount of aid coming in through the two crossing points:
https://thefuckingnews.substack.com/p/feb-29-2024-supreme-court-to-rule?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=247716&post_id=142168913&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=6zfhm&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Join the InvestorsHub Community
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
