Hear from the incredible, courageous and most of all compassionate @CochavElkayam! @MarziehHamidi! @FawziaAminSido! @UNWatch
Please listen to the speech attached.
UN Watch’s official side event at the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council, “Women’s Rights Under Extremism and Conflict.”
In my speech I urged the international community not to turn a blind eye to the sexual violence committed against Israeli women:
“When we began this work, I believed our greatest challenge would be documenting the crimes. And in many ways, it was. The emotional burden of of confronting this evidence was immense.
There were moments when I wasn't sure we would be able to complete this work.
But as we were documenting the crimes, what I I did not anticipate was discovering how easily human suffering can become visible and invisible at the same time. I discovered that one of the greatest challenges of sexual violence in conflict is the human capacity to bear witness.
We were alone.
We faced, we encountered silence, hesitation and at times active and aggressive denial.
Certainly it motivated us to continue.
We wanted to ensure the world knows what happened. Very few in the world have agreed to look at these bodies. We felt that if we would not do this work, no one will ever see what happened to them.
Silenced No More report is not about the past. It it is about the future. It reveals some of the most dangerous developments in contemporary terrorism.
The truth is that Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations demonstrated methods of brutality that others now are already studying, imitating, and refining. This is risking women worldwide.
It will not stay at the limits of October 7 or at the borders of Israel.
And I want to tell you that we cannot begin to address what we do not know happened. We cannot confront what we refuse to understand.
The findings of this report should not get be confined to the history of October 7th. They should inform the work of those addressing national security,
terrorism, hostage taking and atrocity prevention across the world. Speaking here at the UN today, I believe the responsibility can no longer rest with survivors or civil society alone. The evidence has been gathered. It is overwhelming. The crimes have been documented. The question is no longer whether this happened. The question is what is this institution and then the governments that comprise it choose to do with that knowledge.
The most painful lessons for me was watching institutions created to protect witness, sorry created
to protect victims struggle to recognize them. …. For many years, I've taught generations of student that human rights belong equally to every human being and that the international system exists to protect us, to protect the most vulnerable, to protect human dignity. … The mechanisms that should have responded first with the ability to listen to simply express solidarity and to recognize suffering failed when they were were needed the most.
I witnessed victims of unimaginable violence struggling to be believed. I watched the willingness to acknowledge suffering depend on the identity of victims and the politics surrounding them. Most concerning was watching Israeli and Jewish victims receive neither the protection nor solidarity the system was created to provide. We have found ourselves confronting a wave of hatred, denial, and dehumanizations that continues to spread worldwide.
[...
Lastly, .. I realized that there is one sentence I wish I could have included there. Please always always remember that there is as much good in this world as there is evil. This belief allowed me to carry on during these very difficult years. The cruelty is real, but so is human courage. So is love. So is humanity. So is the goodness in people. Hold on to that, especially now, because that is where human rights begin. Thank you."
https://t.co/3NDNWP3hTo…
This is legit INSANE. Israel offers 1000s of work permits to provide economic opportunity to Palestinians (whose own gov doesnt)—thousands then massacre Israelis (incl their very employers!) on 10/7 starting a 2-yr war, & the complaint is Israel isn’t giving them jobs??
We’re witnessing another mask off moment for the “anti-war/anti-colonialist/anti-zionist/anti-sanity” sect.
@SecRubio has helped negotiate a pathway to peace between Lebanon and Israel.
One which gives the Lebanese people a chance to take their country back and which rejects the Iranian proxy, Hezbollah, which not only has the blood of US citizens on its hands, but who is the REAL enemy of the Lebanese people.
Israelis and Lebanese want to live in peace and prosperity, this framework gives that a real chance for once.
Anyone who is condemning this peace accord isn’t actually for peace or coexistence, they’re simply for the radical elements they idolize and root taking over, and wiping out the world’s only Jewish state.
Pay attention to who REALLY wants peace…and who ACTUALLY wants war.
Important update🙌🏻
I said many times this week that human rights begin with the people behind governments and institutions — I believe that this is where new bridges of solidarity are built.
I’ve had the honor and privilege to meet @Dabokunda Awa Dabo, the newly appointed UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights.
We spoke candidly about October 7th and documenting conflict-related sexual violence: the unimaginable suffering of survivors and their families, the reality of kinocidal sexual violence, and the growing scourge of digital crimes that continue to violate victims long after the attacks. One sentence from her that will stay with me is that - survivors’ voices are the starting point of every real change. Their voices, across nations, cultures, and borders, must guide our future and shape new partnerships for justice.
In our discussion we shared the devastating reality revealed in our report Silenced No More report: Conflict-related sexual violence has evolved. It has become more organized, more public, and more technologically amplified.
Certainly, the connections and relationships we build together will be critical to fighting it.
Thank you, @Dabokunda. I look forward to turning these conversations into partnerships, concrete action and justice.
Grateful to @WorldJewishCong for facilitating this important meeting.
#HumanRights #Accountability #Justice #October7 #ConflictRelatedSexualViolence #SilencedNoMore
“They are killing enormous numbers of civilians…they are targeting one, two, three enemy combatants and in the process killing huge numbers of civilians. @piersmorgan Piers a few minutes later – “If you can’t say exactly how many civilians have been killed in Gaza, what you say about numbers is bull.”
Dear @piersmorgan I tried to explain to you where numbers in the Gaza war (or any war) are going to come from "simply.” But let me type it out so you have a record of it instead of the interruptions and the tactic of just asking the same question over and over while I explain how the numbers work. The same numbers by the way that you used minutes before to criticize Israel and constantly repeat or have guests on that repeat, or more often state not even Hamas numbers but false numbers about xx civilians, xx women, xx children, xx percentages that go beyond Hamas's actual list of casualties.
First, let me correct you again (like I did to start the segment) by providing you my actual quotes:
1 - "Israel and the IDF have implemented more measures (sometimes quoted as precautions) to prevent civilian harm in urban warfare than any military in history,"
That is testable against urban warfare history of any similar situation (mostly attack of defended urban terrain). Israel civilian harm mitigation measure have included advance notification (flyers, phone calls, text messages, voicemails, drones with speakers, tv, radio, social media), safe corridors to include improving roads used for safe corridors in the middle of the war, roof knocking (notifying all residents of a building in advance for evacuations and then using non-penetrating low-yield munitions on top of the building before then waiting to strike), over daily multi-hour pauses in fighting (over 400 days of the 800 days of fighting) to allow civilian evacuations and aid movement, establishing a one-star commanded civilian harm mitigation cell that created a real time civilian presence (using cell phone presence, drones, satellite images, etc.) software reflected on all combat operating systems, handing out their own military maps to the entire population (to include the enemy) and then communicating the location of IDF operations, areas to avoid or further evacuate, using major call outs of buildings and neighborhoods, restrictive rules of engagement based on likely civilian presence, rigorous fires processes and legal reviews that often ended in calling mission off out of civilian harm estimates. Many of these measures have never been attempted, by any military.
2 - "Israel has a lower civilian to combatant ratio than any similar context (war or battle) in the history of urban warfare.” After acknowledging the lack of comparative cases (size of enemy forces (which I asked you about, you don't know), tunnels, density, strategy, tactics, prevention of civilian evacuations) but still doing the simple analysis, in order to provide the evidence for this statement I use the same numbers you and your frequent guests push to condemn Israel. But here:
Q: How do you estimate the number of civilians deaths?
A: Take the number the Hamas Gaza Health Ministry reports (despite that it includes any death in Gaza for any reason or cause (Israel/Hamas/Other terrorists) and has been well documented with inaccuracies (even having to be updated by Hamas of natural deaths, incomplete entries, false entries) and subtract the Israel stated combatant deaths.
The Hamas Gaza Health Ministry claims roughly 72,000 deaths in Gaza. The IDF says it has killed about 25,000-26,000 combatants, a number also reported by President Trump in October 2025. If you subtract 25,000 from 72,000, even using Hamas’s number at face value, you get roughly 47,000 non-combatant deaths, or a bit less than a 2:1 ratio. If you were modest to adjust for natural deaths and Hamas-caused deaths, is likely closer to 35,000–40,000 non-combatant deaths versus 25,000 combatants killed, which puts the ratio closer to 1.5:1.
If you compare 2:1 or 1.5:1 to any numbers we have (in many cases we don’t have) for wars, urban centric wars, contested urban battles they will be some of the lowest ratios (in some cases lowest by far) ever seen despite none of those wars or battles had the context of Gaza. For example:
World War II – 70 million civilians, 20 million combatants, 3.5:1
Korean War – 2.5 million civilians, 90,000 combatants, 27:1
Iraq War – 280-300,000 civilians, 150-200,000 combatants, 1.4:1 to 2:1
But wait, the Gaza numbers are usually aggregated numbers for the entire war, any death ever reported in Gaza.
But if you disaggregate the numbers to specific battles like Rafah, Khan Yunis, Gaza City 2025 for comparison you get different numbers. Based on modest numbers from the Battle of Rafah, the civilian to combatant ratio would be more like 1:100 due to multiple operational variables like the success of civilian evacuations.
Major urban battles (modest comparison of battles with any like variables).
Mosul – 10,000 civilians. Combatant unknown but total estimate in battle 5,000 – 2:1
Manila – 100,000 civilians. Combatants 17,000 – 6:1
Seoul – Unknown/no record of civilian but very likely high ratio based on histories
Mariupol – Unknown/mass graves, estimate 20-22,000 civilians, 3-8,000 combatants - 2.5:1 to 7.3:1
I actually use this discussion about numbers or quote about ratio sparingly despite how many times it has been attribute to me because I know the complexity of casualty counting especially in urban centric wars with combatants that violate the law of war and do not distinguish themselves (uniforms/marking) making determining a body found (if there is a body) or a name reported (such as methods in Gaza) and then classifying that person as was participating in the hostilities (combatant) or not (noncombatant) is beyond just difficult and should always be viewed as questionable. In Mosul, a year after the battle there was not only no agreed upon casualty number, but the Mayor of the city also said there were 40,000 civilian deaths. These numbers are always messy, political, susceptible to manipulation by the different organizations involved.
My point has always been that numbers of casualty reporting in Gaza doesn’t paint the story people routinely push. Actually, the opposite.
Urban warfare is inherently and historically costly against civilians and the infrastructure. All wars involve noncombatant death. The moral, legal requirement is to do proportionality assessments and take feasible steps to prevent excessive civilian harm.
So, using your logic Piers, if you can’t state how many combatants were killed (by Israel, Hamas, terrorist rockets, other terrorists in power struggles) … you can’t say (or allow your guests to say) Israel has killed a “large number of civilians” or “killed a disproportionate number of civilians” like you did in this very interveiw.
You can't spend years saying Israel is killing enormous numbers of civilians and then tell me nobody can estimate civilian deaths so ratios aren't valid. Those two positions can't both be true.
If casualty estimates are reliable enough to accuse Israel, then they're also reliable enough to examine civilian-to-combatant ratios. If they aren't, then they shouldn't be used selectively only when they support one conclusion.
@JMcknightDelta it’s not just that our national museum is importing a foreign conflict- newly revealed emails point to the Palestinian Authority directing and influencing its staff. Our institutions belong to Canadians. @CMHR_News
@MarcMillerVM it’s sad that @CMHR_News wants to promote foreign conflicts and not focus on what brings Canadians together. T tell them to follow their mandate.
BREAKING: Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, founder and chair of the Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children, challenges the U.N. over its failure to stand with Israeli victims.
@CochavElkayam's powerful testimony on behalf of UN Watch:
Our Civil Commission’s report, Silenced No More, was recently presented to you.
Drawing on an extensive historical archive, we assembled the most comprehensive evidentiary record of the sexual crimes of October 7 and in captivity.
For two years, we immersed ourselves in testimonies of unimaginable violence.
We revealed 13 patterns of abuse — including rape, gang rape, sexual torture, and the deliberate mutilation of victims’ faces and genitalia.
Victims were filmed while being tortured.
Families were forced to see the suffering of their loved ones.
We had to coin a new legal term – kinocidal sexual violence – to describe the deliberate sexual torture of family members.
This terror was made for visibility. Women’s bodies became spectacles of war.
This was also a calculated strategy, repeated again and again.
The truth is that Hamas created a blueprint for others to follow, putting women at risk worldwide.
Finally, the question is no longer whether the crimes occurred. But what is the world do about it.
Speaking for so many Israeli women who care about women’s rights, we were heartbroken by your response.
Where is your compassion?
Will the UN rapporteurs who doubted or denied these crimes acknowledge the truth?
Israeli victims were not merely abandoned. They were singled out, dehumanized, delegitimized.
We are now left to face a world consumed by hatred, and with an international system that fuels it.
Will anything change?
We call upon you to recognize our findings. And let this be the beginning of change.
@theCC07
Attempts to bring a private prosecution against a man with dual British Israeli nationality for serving as a reservist in the IDF after October 7th have been thrown out by a judge in the most glorious way I've ever seen. The judge called it "embarrassing".
Judge Goldspring's comments are essentially that if Pro Palestinian activists wish to engage in lawfare they should at least know what the law is.
Comments from the judge include:
“This application is legally flawed, evidentially deficient, and procedurally defective. It constitutes an abuse of the process of this court, driven by an improper motive and facilitated by serious breaches of the duty of candor. The application for a summons is refused.”
https://t.co/qfsv2dv0Ik
At the end of World War II, a small unit of American soldiers was checking bridges in Austria when they came upon a concentration camp almost by accident. One of the liberating soldiers was a 22-year-old medic from Illinois named LeRoy Petersohn. His job was to triage which inmates could be helped. https://t.co/3PYPRl3tw9
The holocaust didn’t start with gas chambers. It actually started with a group of people whose life mission was to eradicate an entire race from the face of the Earth for no reason. People who used propaganda to further that goal on a daily basis until it reached a fever pitch.
So that’s why you fight against propaganda and that is why you fight for the truth not because you’re fighting for a foreign country but because you were fighting for western civilization.
Dear media
Israel is a democracy that was horrifically attacked on Oct. 7.
Hezbollah is an Islamic terror group that attacked Israel.
Iran is the brutal regime that funds Hezbollah.
Just reminding you because, from much of your reporting, you seem to have this all muddled.