Norman Finkelstein openly denies Oct. 7 rapes during interview with anti-Israel podcaster

Long-time Israel critic Norman Finkelstein denies widespread documentation of rape and sexual abuse by Hamas during the October 7, 2023, invasion and captivity of Israeli hostages in Gaza.

By World Israel News Staff

Author and far-left, pro-Hamas, pro-Hezbollah political scientist Norman Finkelstein last week openly denied the use of rape and sexual abuse by Gaza terrorists against Israelis on and after October 7, 2023, dismissing findings by Israeli investigators and the United Nations, along with witness testimony and statements by survivors themselves.

Finkelstein made the comments Friday during an appearance on a podcast hosted by Hasan Piker, a pro-Hamas progressive activist.

During the interview, Finkelstein focused on Silenced No More, a report released by the Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes Against Women and Children after a two-year investigation.

The report says its investigators reviewed more than 10,000 photographs and video segments, amounting to over 1,800 hours of visual analysis. Finkelstein claimed that the absence of publicly available footage explicitly showing rape disproved the wider allegations.

“There is not one single frame of Hamas committing rape or sexual violence,” Finkelstein said, later concluding that “it never happened.”

Finkelstein argued that Hamas and other armed groups deliberately circulated graphic recordings of killings and abuse to terrorize Israeli society and therefore would also have released footage of sexual assaults had such crimes occurred.

His argument treated the lack of explicit video of rape as evidence that the attacks did not take place. However, the Civil Commission’s findings were not based solely on images showing crimes as they occurred.

The commission said its evidentiary record included survivor and eyewitness testimony, accounts from released hostages and first responders, photographs and videos of victims and attack sites, official records, expert consultations and other primary materials.

Investigators conducted more than 430 interviews, testimonies and meetings with survivors, witnesses, returned hostages, relatives and experts. The evidence was coded, cross-referenced and mapped by time and location, according to the commission.

The report identified 13 recurring forms of sexual and gender-based violence, including rape and gang rape, sexual torture, genital mutilation, forced nudity, postmortem abuse, sexualized humiliation and assaults committed in front of relatives. It also documented allegations involving male victims and hostages held in Gaza.

The commission concluded that sexual and gender-based violence was “systematic, widespread, and integral” to the October 7 assault and the subsequent treatment of hostages.

The report also addressed the use of digital media by the attackers. It said perpetrators recorded and distributed sexualized humiliation, forced exposure, abuse and images of victims’ bodies, even when the recordings did not necessarily show the complete crime that had preceded the filmed scene.

Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, founder of the Civil Commission, rejected Finkelstein’s claims in a statement to The Jerusalem Post, saying the organization’s investigation had reached an unequivocal conclusion that Hamas and its collaborators used sexual and gender-based violence as a systematic component of the attack.

She said the record included survivor and eyewitness testimony, first-responder accounts and authenticated visual material documenting recurring patterns of rape, sexual torture, mutilation, forced nudity and abuse of bodies after death. Elkayam-Levy accused those rejecting the findings of denying documented atrocities and urged the public to continue circulating the commission’s report.

Finkelstein’s categorical denial also conflicts with findings released by a UN team led by Pramila Patten, the UN special representative on sexual violence in conflict.

Following a visit to Israel in early 2024, Patten’s team said there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that rape and gang rape occurred in at least three locations during the October 7 attack. The team also found “clear and convincing information” that some hostages were subjected to rape and sexualized torture in Gaza.

The UN mission cited witness accounts, patterns involving naked or partially naked victims whose hands were bound, and bodies showing injuries consistent with sexual violence. It found reasonable grounds to believe multiple sexual assaults occurred at the Nova music festival and surrounding areas, as well as evidence of sexual violence along Route 232 and near Kibbutz Re’im.

Patten emphasized that the mission was intended to gather and verify information rather than conduct a full criminal investigation. Her team was unable to interview victims who survived sexual assault, but it met with witnesses, released hostages, medical professionals and Israeli institutions.

“The true prevalence of sexual violence during the Oct. 7 attacks and their aftermath may take months or years to emerge and may never be fully known,” Patten said.

Finkelstein’s book argues that international institutions and officials distorted the facts and law surrounding the war to protect Israel. Its publisher says the book specifically challenges the work of the UN special representative who examined the sexual-violence allegations.

Finkelstein also compared the October 7 attack to Nat Turner’s 1831 slave rebellion, arguing that violence carried out by an oppressed population must be understood in the context of confinement and the absence of other routes to liberation.

His latest statements went further than questioning the number, extent or systematic nature of the sexual crimes alleged on October 7. By declaring that the violence “never happened,” Finkelstein rejected both the Israeli commission’s two-year investigation and the UN mission’s independently reached conclusions.