“Friends” actor David Schwimmer wrote a scathing message Saturday attacking organizations that have ignored the sex crimes Hamas committed against Israeli women during the Oct. 7 attack.
The Jewish actor noted that he has been an advocate against sexual violence for decades, and lashed out against any group that failed to recognize and denounce the rape of Jewish women.
In his social media post, Schwimmer referenced a detailed New York Times report about the role of sexual violence in the Hamas attack, which left some 1,200 Israelis dead. Schwimmer strongly urged the public to believe the stories of the survivors.
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“I served on the Board of Directors for The Rape Foundation for almost 20 years, and have been an advocate for child and adult survivors of sexual violence for almost 30,” he posted to Instagram. “I have met the most incredible and courageous people in my life through this work: Children, teens, men and women, who not only survived the most horrific conditions imaginable — but, with the right treatment and care, refused to let their trauma define them and went on to lead incredibly loving, healthy and productive lives.”
“One crucial aspect I learned early on about the healing process, and for justice to be served by the criminal offenders, is that the survivor be BELIEVED,” he added.
The Times report Schwimmer referred to included the accounts of Israeli medics who described finding that corpses of women with their “legs spread, clothes torn off, signs of abuse in their genital areas.”
The Times also described a video produced by the Israeli military that showed two dead Israeli soldiers who had been shot directly in their vaginas.
RAPE AND MURDER! this is what the Palestinians will always do to Jews. It is not just Hamas. New York Times reveals details of sexual violence on Jewish women and gi… https://t.co/8GveMrjO64 via @YouTube
— Jeffrey Randall (@Randallj66) December 29, 2023
“Why do so many REFUSE TO BELIEVE — despite all the evidence on camera and in testimony — the women, children and men brutally assaulted by terrorists on Oct. 7th?” Schwimmer asked his fans. “Where is their outrage?” (RELATED: Record Executive Scooter Braun Calls Out Own Industry For Being Silent Over Israeli Music Festival Massacre)
“In the weeks and months that followed, it became clear that their activism, their advocacy, is conditional. They’ll fight like hell for ALL victims of sexual violence — unless they’re Jews,” he continued, adding that those who refuse to “believe the survivors” have “RE-TRAUMATIZED them, as well as their families, friends, and those of us who did believe them.”
Hamas has dismissed accusations of rape as “unfounded lies,” and many of the group’s Western apologists have either echoed those denials or accused Israel of using sexual violence against its citizens as a pretext for disproportionate aggression against Gaza.