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For decades, the United Nations has searched tirelessly for new and innovative ways to disappoint Jews. This week, it may have achieved a career defining performance.
The chamber of the United Nations Human Rights Council fell into an awkward silence as Ilana Gritzewsky, a survivor of Hamas' October 7 massacre, stepped up to the microphone and did something increasingly rare in international diplomacy: tell the truth in front of people determined not t:o hear it.
Standing before Reem Alsalem, the U.N.'s special rapporteur on violence against women, Gritzewsky delivered firsthand testimony of the horrors she endured during Hamas captivity. While most people would respond to such testimony with compassion, horror, or at the very least basic human decency, the U.N. apparently prefers a more avant garde approach.
Gritzewsky recounted the attack on her kibbutz. She described murder, arson, kidnapping, sexual abuse, beatings, and waking up half naked surrounded by seven Hamas terrorists. She spoke about her broken hip, broken jaw, and the psychological scars that still follow her home every day.
She then confronted the woman whose job title literally includes the words "violence against women."
“In captivity, Jewish women were raped, abused, and humiliated. And you, special rapporteur, you choose silence and denial. You say there was no evidence of sexual violence on October 7th,” she told Alsalem directly. “I’m standing here today, not as a report, not as a statistic. I am a woman who survived. I am the living proof of sexual violence by Hamas.”
Then came the question that turned the room into a monument to moral cowardice.
“When I, another Israeli woman, begged not to be raped, why were you silent? Please look at me. Do you believe us now? Will you apologize?”
At that moment, Alsalem faced an incredibly difficult choice. She could acknowledge reality. She could show empathy. She could apologize.
Instead, she apparently chose Option Four.
Silence.
Followed by a smirk.
Nothing quite captures the modern U.N. like watching a survivor of sexual violence beg to be believed while a senior human rights official reacts like she's sitting through an inconvenient staff meeting.
The exchange exposed a record that would be scandalous if scandal still existed at Turtle Bay. Last November, Alsalem publicly claimed that “no independent investigation found that rape took place on October 7,” despite a U.N. report concluding there were reasonable grounds to believe Hamas committed sexual violence during the massacre and even stronger evidence regarding hostages held in captivity.
As recently as April 2026, she was reportedly dismissing survivor testimony as “misinformation” used to “justify genocide against Palestinians.”
Apparently, according to this remarkable theory, Israeli women are simultaneously victims, witnesses, and public relations props whose testimony becomes invalid whenever it interferes with a preferred political narrative.
Her June 2026 report, "Violence against Mothers," somehow managed to discuss motherhood, war, and women's rights while treating Hamas like a mythical creature whose existence remains unconfirmed. The report accused Israel of reproductive violence and genocide, worried that American and Israeli strikes against Iran might harm Tehran's women's rights record, and omitted any meaningful discussion of Hamas atrocities.
Israeli mothers murdered in front of their children? Missing.
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| Bibas children and mother murdered by Hamas |
Families tortured by years of hostage uncertainty? Missing.
The systematic destruction of entire families by Hamas terrorists? Also missing.
One suspects that if Hamas filed its atrocities under a different heading, perhaps "climate justice" or "sustainable development," they might finally receive a mention.
On June 23, Ilana Gritzewsky offered Reem Alsalem a simple choice. Look at a survivor. Acknowledge her suffering. Admit the truth.
The survivor spoke.
The evidence stood in front of her.
And the U.N.'s representative for violence against women looked away.
For an organization that constantly reminds the world to listen to women, the message could not have been clearer.
Some women, apparently, are more equal than others.
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