In the aftermath of October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists launched their savage assault on Israeli civilians, there was one undeniable truth etched into every second of the raw footage: evil revealed itself in broad daylight. And yet somehow, over a year later, some are still trying to downplay, deny, or distract from the sheer horror of what happened.
Among them is Reem Alsalem, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls—who, incredibly, seems more concerned with scoring points on social media than honoring the dignity of the victims. Responding to a post alleging that Palestinians celebrated the rapes committed by Hamas, Alsalem doubled down: “No Palestinian applauded rape.”
A mob waiting to jump people exiting a screening of atrocities against Jews = “two groups clash”
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) November 9, 2023
This wasn’t a clarification. It was a gaslight.
The idea that no one applauded—the stripping, the raping, the mutilating, the kidnapping—is flatly contradicted by the very footage Hamas itself circulated. Men and boys in Gaza cheered as bleeding Israeli women were paraded through the streets. Hostages, many of them barely clothed, were jeered at, spat on, and filmed like trophies.
No Palestinian applauded rape in Gaza. No independent investigation found that rape took place on the 7th of October.
— Reem Alsalem UNSR Violence Against Women and Girls (@UNSRVAW) November 14, 2025
And the fact that Alsalem made her comment after months of documented evidence—some of it collected by her own organization—only makes it worse. A UN mission in March 2024 found “reasonable grounds” that rape and sexual violence occurred during the attacks. The UN Commission of Inquiry documented gang rapes, mutilations, and deliberate targeting of women’s sexual organs. These aren’t rumors—they’re official findings.
The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel reported that most of the raped women were then executed. In some cases, their corpses were violated. And yet here we are, with a senior UN official splitting hairs over who applauded, as if the depravity somehow needed a cheerleader section to count as real.
It’s why people don’t trust the UN anymore.
It’s not just that the institution is ineffective—it’s that it’s morally bankrupt. An international body charged with protecting the vulnerable has become a stage for the worst kind of equivocation. Instead of condemning terror, UN bureaucrats like Alsalem posture online, sneering at critics while ignoring mountains of evidence that should end any debate.
My statement is again being deliberately misrepresented.
I had recently spoken at length on the reported sexual violence, including rape on and since 7 October in this podcast interview here: https://t.co/ep5PlumkkK— Reem Alsalem UNSR Violence Against Women and Girls (@UNSRVAW) November 15, 2025
Let’s be absolutely clear: Hamas committed war crimes on October 7. They raped, tortured, and murdered Israeli women in full view of cameras, gleefully broadcasting their atrocities. And now, the apologists want us to forget.
But we won’t forget. And we won’t be gaslit.
The UN doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt anymore. Its headquarters in New York has become a shrine to hypocrisy, funded by the very country it consistently undermines. Maybe it’s time we start asking why the United States continues to host and bankroll an organization so openly contemptuous of truth, justice, and basic human decency.
