A protest outside Unesco headquarters in Paris on December 1, 2023. © Dimitar Dilkoff, AFP
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CW: This piece contains reference to rape and sexual assault
In the wake of the October 7 terror attack in Israel, horrific details began to emerge of Hamas assailants brutalizing Israeli women and girls, parading their broken bodies through the streets, and concertgoers being raped and murdered in front of their friends. By November, videos and eyewitness testimony were widely available to the public, showing and describing Hamas terrorists using rape as a weapon of war.
Despite evidence of widespread sexual assault by Hamas, there was no global outcry. Some journalists even wrote off the rape testimony as “Israeli propaganda” being used to distract from the war. As more evidence emerged, prominent international women’s groups like UN Women refused for weeks to condemn or acknowledge the devastating impact of Hamas’s misogynist rampage.
The staggering hypocrisy of this gutless silence from international “feminist” organizations and “feminists” around the world reflects a broader issue, highlighted by the “Me Too Unless You’re a Jew” campaign: the rules are different for Israeli and Jewish women. Dehumanizing Israeli women by writing off their lived experiences is antisemitic.
In March 2024, nearly six months after the terror attacks on Israel, the denial of sexual assault by Hamas continues across social media platforms and beyond. The trend has been particularly glaring on X (formerly Twitter), where denialists have significant audiences.
An analysis by the ADL Center on Extremism identifies five X influencers responsible for sharing the widest-reaching posts supporting sexual assault denial since October 7, finding that while these users span the political spectrum, they all have a history of promoting an anti-Zionist and anti-Israel agenda.
Data analysis on X
From October 7, 2023, to March 19, 2024, five key influencers played a prominent role in spreading the narrative denying sexual assault against victims of October 7. The following five examples are the highest-reaching conspiratorial posts from each influencer promoting this narrative. These five posts alone garnered over 193 thousand likes and over 80 thousand reposts, with a combined estimated reach of 45 million. On X, the “reach” metric indicates how many users are estimated to have seen a given post based on a combination of factors, including follower count, engagement and approximate view counts.
Jackson Hinkle – Over 2.4 million followers on X
Top post from Jackson Hinkle (October 31, 2023). Source: X
Jackson Hinkle is a far-right influencer and commentator who has heavily engaged in anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric in recent months in addition to spreading false narratives about the Israel-Hamas war, as tracked by the ADL Center on Extremism. Hinkle is just one of many influential accounts on the “anti-Israel far-right,” which include Stew Peters, Lucas Gage and Tristan Tate, the brother of misogynist influencer Andrew Tate.
In his post, Hinkle claims, “There is NO evidence Hamas raped Israelis,” followed by other alleged actions by Hamas that have been the source of public debate. However, his assertion that there is no proof of rape is false based on a growing body of evidence, including eyewitness reports and videos.
Aaron Maté – Over 406,000 followers on X
Top post from Aaron Maté (December 4, 2023). Source: X
Aaron Maté, a writer for The Grayzone, a fringe far-left blog site, not only implies in this post that the rape allegations are unsubstantiated, but - by saying that “... ‘stories’ like this are only starting to ‘surface’ now. It seems clear that this is yet another fabrication in the service of genocide” - he also claims that these testimonies are emerging during the Israel-Hamas war to serve as an Israeli propaganda tool. By deeming Israeli rape victims’ testimonies as mere “stories,” Maté diminishes their pain and suffering, effectively dehumanizing them.
Briahna Joy Gray – Over 390,000 followers on X
Top post from Briahna Joy Gray (December 4, 2023). Source: X
Briahna Joy Gray is a political commentator, podcaster, former Politico journalist and former Press Secretary for Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign. In recent months, Gray has been increasingly vocal about her stance against Zionism and continues to promote conspiratorial claims about the Israel-Hamas war.
In the post, Gray argues, “’Believe all women’ was always an absurd overreach: woman [sic] should be heard, claims should be investigated, but evidence is required. The same is true of the allegations out of Israel. But also, this isn’t a ‘believe women’ scenario bc no female victims have offered testimony.”
By promoting these falsehoods, Gray is essentially undermining the credibility of female rape victims everywhere, while ignoring how many of the rape victims from October 7 are believed to have been murdered and therefore cannot offer testimony.
Dilly Hussain – Over 110,000 followers on X
Top post from Dilly Hussain (November 29, 2023). Source: X
Dilly Hussain is a UK-based journalist, podcaster, influencer and editor of the independent news website 5Pillars – which claims to serve the Muslim community – and has written for several prominent publications, including Al Jazeera. Hussain has a history of espousing vehement anti-Israel and anti-Zionist rhetoric.
In the post, Hussain shared a video of British journalist Owen Jones discussing his thoughts after attending an IDF screening of video evidence from October 7. Hussain appears to take Jones’ opinions as fact, concluding that there is “no proof of rape” and that the video footage was a form of Israeli propaganda—a common talking point among anti-Zionist conspiracy theorists.
Sarah Wilkinson – Over 256,000 followers on X
Top post from Sarah Wilkinson (January 3, 2024). Source: X
Sarah Wilkinson is a U.K.-based anti-Israel activist who has posted Holocaust denial and anti-Zionist rhetoric on social media. Wilkinson has also appeared on and written for Press TV, an Iranian state-sponsored outlet that promotes anti-Jewish hatred.
In Wilkinson’s post, she exaggerates criticisms of a New York Times investigation into sexual violence by Hamas on October 7 to dub their entire investigation as “all fake,” claiming that the “interview was done under false pretences [sic].” This perpetrates the false narrative that there was not sufficient evidence to claim that Israeli women were raped on October 7.