Lies always precede pogroms, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told an assembled crowd at a belated July 4 event hosted by Newsmax on Wednesday. In medieval times, he explained, they were blood libels, accusations that Jews used Christian children’s blood for matzah, that they poisoned wells, that they spread pestilence. Lies laid the groundwork for violence.
Centuries later, the dynamic is unchanged. Today, falsehoods about Israel, amplified in global forums, pave the way for excusing or denying atrocities committed against its people. The United Nations’ recent decision to add Hamas to its blacklist for conflict-related sexual violence should have been an unequivocal moral moment for the world to condemn the horrific scenes that Hamas showed on October 7. Instead, it was delayed, diluted, and accompanied by the same “both sides” balancing act that has long undermined the UN’s credibility.
In his annual report, UN Secretary-General António Guterres named Hamas for the first time on the list of parties credibly suspected of committing sexual violence in conflict. It is a long-overdue acknowledgment of what survivors, first responders, and investigators have documented since October 7. Hamas used sexual violence as a weapon of war.
The report also precedes a scheduled special discussion on conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) at the UN on Tuesday. It references evidence gathered by UN Special Representative Pramila Patten during her mission visit to Israel in 2024, which included meetings with captivity survivors.
The atrocities were not hidden. They were filmed and broadcast by the perpetrators themselves and boasted about. And yet, for months, denialists demanded “proof” that went far beyond any reasonable evidentiary standards, treating the victims’ testimonies with suspicion and, in doing so, compounding their trauma.
CRSV is notoriously hard to prove. In the chaos of mass attacks, physical evidence is often destroyed, contaminated, or buried under other devastation. Survivors may be displaced or too traumatized to testify. The stigma surrounding sexual violence further silences voices. Even when victims come forward, presenting such evidence in court is enormously difficult.
The Dinah project
One of the most important breakthroughs came from the Dinah Project. Through interviews with survivors, witnesses, first responders, and forensic staff, they documented sexual violence not as isolated incidents but as part of a deliberate strategy.
Their July report urged expanding what is accepted as valid evidence in conflict settings. Without their work, it is doubtful the UN’s listing of Hamas would have happened, or it might have been pushed even further down the road.
And yet, even in this moment of recognition, the UN could not resist adding a warning to Israel. Guterres said that while Israel is not in the current report, the UN remains “gravely concerned” about “credible information of violations by Israeli armed and security forces” against Palestinian detainees and may add Israel in the future if “necessary measures” are not taken.
Why is it that when the UN finally acknowledges Hamas’s crimes, crimes that were filmed and celebrated, it feels compelled to balance the scales by casting suspicion on Israel, often on the basis of untested allegations?
The lies that have permeated around the world since October 7 regarding its alleged crimes – sexual violence, deliberate starvation, genocide, indiscriminate shootings and bombings – are the modern manifestation of what Netanyahu described. And what happened 1000 years ago is repeating itself today. Jews are being attacked daily, the world over, because of the lies spread about Israel.
Hamas is not a state, and bringing its surviving leaders to trial will not follow the same paths as prosecuting state actors. But legal tools exist. The International Criminal Court can indict individuals; countries with universal jurisdiction can open cases; ad hoc tribunals can be established.
Having listed Hamas, the UN must now support referrals, assist Israel in building cases, and impose meaningful consequences on the terror group. Anything less will make the blacklist a symbolic gesture rather than a step toward justice.
Hamas knows perfectly well how to play the game of narrative, and it invests much in misinformation, distortion, moral equivalence, and outright denial as strategic weapons. Every time the UN blunts its condemnation of Hamas with a parallel warning to Israel, it gives Hamas a propaganda victory.
The sexual violence of October 7 was weaponized, filmed, and celebrated. Denying or downplaying it is as corrosive as the medieval lies Netanyahu recalled. The UN’s recognition is welcome, but it is too little, too late.
Palpable justice for the victims can only come from the courts. So, Israel must keep fighting, on the ground and in the realm of truth, to ensure that lies do not once again prepare the way for the next massacre of Jews.