No Country For Anyone

One never has to answer for anything if one simply denies things:

It is a tragedy in its own right that Ilana Gritzewsky, a liberated Israeli hostage whom Hamas abused sexually, had to confront the United Nations expert on violence against women, according to Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.

“It’s absolutely horrible that this should have to be the case,” Neuer told JNS on Wednesday, the day after Gritzewsky appeared before the U.N. Human Rights Council to address Reem Alsalem, special rapporteur on violence against women and girls.

“It’s absolutely absurd and tragic that there are U.N. experts who are supposed to care about the rights of women, especially to combat sexual violence, and she’s one of the world’s major deniers of sexual violence against Israeli women,” Neuer said.

The United Nations considers special rapporteurs to be independent “experts,” whom it is loath to censure even when they make offensive comments. Francesca Albanese, a U.N. adviser on what the global body calls the “occupied Palestinian territories,” has a long history of antisemitic comments. The United Nations has told JNS often that it doesn’t tell its advisers what to say, or not say.

A Jordanian national who has held the unpaid, U.N. advisory role since 2021, Alsalem has denied survivor accounts of Hamas sexual violence on and after Oct. 7 repeatedly. She has said that “no independent investigation found that rape took place on Oct. 7.”

“She’s made some rather horrible statements that have either doubted or denied the violence against Israeli women, and in general against Israel as a whole,” Neuer told JNS.

Since Oct. 7, Alsalem has not met with a single survivor of the Hamas-led attacks, according to Neuer. That could change after Gritzewsky’s testimony, he said.

The special rapporteur stated on Tuesday that “if any other survivor of Oct. 7 is ready to finally meet with me, I am always ready to meet,” he told JNS.

“She claimed that she always was willing to meet with Israeli victims, but Israel never got back to her,” Neuer said. “So she said if Ilana and any other survivor wants to meet with her, they could do so anytime.”

Gritzewsky is willing to meet with Alsalem, Neuer said.

JNS sought comment from Alsalem about whether and when she would meet with Gritzewsky and if Gritzewsky’s testimony would prompt her to update or revisit her past reporting and public statements about sexual violence on and after Oct. 7.

Gritzewsky, who appeared before the Human Rights Council on Tuesday as part of an event organized by UN Watch, recounted the sexual abuse she endured in Gaza after terrorists kidnapped her from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz.

“I woke up half-naked with seven terrorists standing over me, not knowing what happened to me in those lost moments,” she told Alsalem. “I went through days of pain and horror in captivity and even now, the feeling of being powerless and violated still lingers. I came back with a broken hip, a broken jaw and a shattered soul.”

“When I and other Israeli women begged not to be raped, why were you silent?” Gritzewsky demanded. “Please look at me. Do you believe us now? Will you apologize?”

Video footage, in which Alsalem appeared to sit without visible reaction as Gritzewsky delivered her testimony, spread widely on social media. Neuer told JNS that the U.N. adviser was “stone-faced.”

“It’s not inconsistent with her positions until now,” he said.

 

Reem Alsalem is a b!#ch.