Outrage: Over 300 Rabbis and Jewish Leaders Demand UN Fires Official Who Denied Hamas’ Oct. 7 Rapes

In a blistering open letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, more than 300 prominent rabbis, scholars, and Jewish leaders, including former U.S. antisemitism envoy Deborah Lipstadt, are calling for the immediate removal of Reem Alsalem, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls.

Their reason for the move is because Alsalem publicly denied that Hamas terrorists committed rape and gang rape during the October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel, despite two separate UN reports finding "reasonable grounds" to believe sexual violence occurred in multiple locations.

Just two weeks ago, anti-Semite Alsalem posted on X: "No independent investigation found that rape took place on the 7th of October."

That claim didn't just spark outrage, it ignited a full-throated rebuke from Jewish leaders who say the Jordanian-born rapporteur is actively aiding Hamas' war crimes by whitewashing them. "The targeted sexual abuse of Israelis by Hamas and its supporters is one weapon in the arsenal of those seeking Israel's obliteration," said Amy Elman, a Kalamazoo College professor who organized the letter. "It's outrageous that deniers such as Reem Alsalem are aiding and abetting the sexual violence by claiming it never happened. These apologists should be ashamed of themselves."

Elman, who has written extensively on anti-Semitism and state responses to sexual violence, co-organized the petition with Rafael Medoff, director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.

Among the heavy-hitting signatories: Lipstadt, Jewish Women’s Archive CEO Judith Rosenbaum, pioneering Orthodox theologian Rabbi Irving Greenberg (former chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum), Reconstructing Judaism president Rabbi Deborah Waxman, and Hebrew College president Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld.

Medoff pulled no punches on the double standard at the United Nations.

"If a UN official made such a remark concerning rape victims from any other ethnic or religious group, there would be an international uproar," Medoff said. "The same standard should apply to Israeli Jewish women who were sexually assaulted by Hamas terrorists."

The controversy exploded after Alsalem appeared on a Substack podcast claiming the world had fallen into an Israeli "trap" by believing reports of "barbaric sexual violence" committed by "barbarian Palestinian men." This was in spite of the fact that several jihadi attackers actually bragged about the sexual assaults along with other atrocities they perpetrated.

Alsalem used the platform to question the credibility of the UN's own March 2024 report and claimed Israel was using the rape allegations "in order to then justify the genocide."

Yes, the UN's own expert on violence against women accused Israel of weaponizing rape claims to justify… defending itself against the terrorists who actually committed the rapes. This isn't the first time the UN has faced accusations of turning a blind eye to Hamas' atrocities. But having the official responsible for protecting women worldwide openly deny those atrocities is a middle finger to women and is a new low, even for an organization with a long history of Israel-bashing.

The Jewish leaders' message to Guterres is clear: Reem Alsalem has to go--immediately.

Because when the United Nations employs someone who denies the rape of Jewish women by Hamas terrorists, it's not just a betrayal of Israeli victims — it’s a betrayal of every woman, everywhere.

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