Detailed review of UN report on allegations of sexual violence committed by Hamas on 7 October does not reach many of the conclusions reported in western media, activists say
The Patten mission’s mandate perplexes. Its initial press release (24 January 2024) states that its purpose was to “gather, analyze and verify relevant information regarding allegations of” sexual violence. But it also emphatically states that, although it included a small team of technical experts, the “mission is neither intended nor mandated to be investigative in nature.” If, on the one hand, the mission was mandated to “gather, analyze and verify” evidence of sexual violence, and refers in the report to its “findings” and to having “verified” alleged instances of sexual violence; yet, on the other hand, the mission emphatically declares that it wasn’t “investigative in nature”—then what exactly was it? The press release further states that the mission “aims to give voice to survivors, witnesses, recently released hostages” of sexual violence. But if it wasn’t an investigative body, it’s cause for wonder how it would even know whose “voice” to give voice to. Isn’t this putting the cart before the horse?
Norman Finkelstein substack