At long last, the UN Human Rights Council has formally acknowledged that Hamas in Gaza carried out executions, torture, improperly used medical facilities for terror purposes, and engaged in violent abuses against women and children after October 7. The report captures only a fraction of what actually occurred, in part because documenting these crimes is extraordinarily difficult and because Gazans fear retaliation if they report anything to the UN or other investigators. The findings on Hamas were buried beneath a long section on Israeli settler abuses in the West Bank, but even so, this marks a significant shift for an international body that has long struggled to speak plainly about Hamas’s brutality in Gaza.
Most importantly, the report acknowledges but barely scratches the surface of how extensively Hamas has weaponized Gaza’s medical infrastructure, embedding fighters in hospitals, using patients as shields, and turning civilian facilities into operational hubs. The UN even notes that Doctors Without Borders evacuated non-essential staff from Nasser Hospital because Hamas was interfering with the hospital’s operations.
When I shared this information, including testimonies from Gazans who documented Hamas’s fascistic behavior inside hospitals, and photos of fighters emerging from Nasser Hospital after the ceasefire, the online “pro-Palestine” chorus had nothing to offer except accusations of Zionist collaboration, accusations of betrayal, and personal insults. This UN report is an indictment not only of Hamas, a violent extremist terror organization responsible for immense suffering, but also of every activist, journalist, and academic who chose to look away. It shows that Hamas’s crimes were so egregious, so undeniable, that even a slow, hesitant, and often ineffectual body like the UNHRC could no longer pretend not to see them.
Shame on anyone who still defends Hamas or ever believed its violence constituted “resistance” on behalf of the Palestinian people.
"When something of that scale occurs and it is occurring in real time... it is important to be present and to investigate"
After October 7th, Dr. Alice Jill Edwards, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture, funded her own trip to Israel to witness and document the horrors of Hamas's massacre.
For some reason, her instincts weren't shared by other UN officials.
"I understand I’m the only Special Rapporteur who has ever requested to go to the Israeli mission to see the video and the documented evidence," she said at a recent event.
From what she witnessed, she crafted a letter about Hamas's crimes on October 7th. But: "There was a campaign to prevent that letter from going out. There were weeks of being bullied and deterred from writing it and telling me that everything in it was false."
Edwards was forced to edit the letter, even though it was based on her own research. "The letter shrank considerably."
In the end, she said, "it was only signed by the Special Rapporteur on summary extrajudicial killings and me," she said.
She said the "Rapporteur" position at the UN is being abused: "In the past we were this agile group forty years ago or thirty years ago of people that were supposed to be able to react actively and quickly to various issues that are going on in the world. Now we are being pushed to coordinate amongst one another."
"Authoritarian and totalitarian governments don’t like the special rapporteurs, so they have created their own special rapporteurs and they fund them," she said.
"We all want the UN to be a robust but also honest and objective body and if it can’t do the job, then maybe we do need to start thinking about what replaces it. That is a very worrying scenario."
Reporting Credit: @JewishChron
@HeidiBachram@adammaanit I mean, I suppose it is if you consider the huge amount of waste and harm to the environment their flotillas have been causing. And I’m sure ocean life was harmed by them dumping their computers into the ocean.
@grahamformaine So you are running for office and don’t understand the legalities of how money is not allowed to come from outside the U.S. Nor do you know what AIPAC is as all money comes from U.S. citizens. And why is this the only PAC you point out? Something smells like antisemitism.
Ten Flotilla land convoy members were detained by Libyan militias TEN DAYS AGO and just had their imprisonment extended by the repressive regime there. I haven’t seen a global outcry or obsessive coverage by media. I wonder why.
Yesterday, on the one-year anniversary of the antisemitic firebombing attack in Boulder, the local SJP chapter chose to share a lengthy social media post glorifying the attack, lauding the terrorist for his actions, and calling for his release.
While we and others around the country remembered and mourned Karen Diamond z''l, who died from her injuries, and honored the other victims who were badly burned, the local SJP chapter chose to condone the violent attack that claimed an innocent life and left others with devastating injuries.
The content of the post is beyond reprehensible. It is so detached from basic facts, human decency and reality that it would be difficult to take seriously if its message were not so dangerous.
This is unacceptable and simply horrific.
Afghanistan’s education minister announced that women are permanently banned from attending schools.
The United Nations? Silent.
Women’s Rights Organizations? Silent.
Greta Thunberg? Silent.
They’re too busy being obsessed with Israel and the Jews.
Let's be blunt
This wasn't merely a boycott of Israeli goods, as illiberal as that would be
No
It was a message directed at Jewish New Yorkers, telling them that they're no longer welcome at the co-op
Much like the grotesquely named "anti-apartheid" zones in Irish cities where businesses put up signs declaring their boycott of Israeli goods, the Park Slope Co-op is going down a dark path of discrimination and racism
What they really mean is "Zionists aren't welcome here"
And we all know what that means