Finkelstein's analysis of the new October 7 sexual violence report

Aug 28, 2026

A new 300-page report claiming Hamas used rape as a systematic weapon on October 7 is being picked apart as evidentially empty — bad news for the report's high-profile backers, and a boost for critics of Israel's war narrative.

  • The report runs nearly 300 pages, but most of it is quotes, blurbs, and footnotes, with the same handful of witnesses recycled over and over.
  • Its own claim of 10,000 photos and digital files from that day contains not one image of rape or sexual violence, despite bodycams, dashcams, CCTV, and phone footage.
  • That undercuts the core thesis: if the point was to terrorize Israelis with the images, the images would exist and would have been posted.
  • Witness accounts are thin — no survivor says they were raped, and the star witness only claims she *heard* several rapes at once from inside a windowless room.
  • The method itself blocks scrutiny: witnesses were never questioned or challenged, because the report puts their feelings ahead of its own documentation.

Outlook: Expect the report to keep circulating on the strength of its length and its endorsers — Sheryl Sandberg and Rahm Emanuel among them — rather than its evidence, while critics push the rebuttal into wider view.

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