Key Takeaways:
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Israeli survivors of Hamas sexual violence – including former hostage Romi Gonen, who recently told her horrific story – are being ignored or doubted by major Western media, despite clear testimony and evidence.
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A double standard has emerged: Israeli women are met with cynicism and dismissal where other victims would be believed and amplified.
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This erasure fuels denial campaigns that shield Hamas from accountability, turning Israeli trauma into something “debatable” rather than reported as fact.
Believe all women, except Israeli women. That is the message the media has been sending repeatedly. When several years ago, sexual assault allegations were levelled against Hollywood stars, the women leading the way were consistently headline news for their courage in speaking out, despite being told not to by their abuser. Yet, when Israeli women and men have spoken out against their experiences in Hamas captivity or what they witnessed on October 7, the media has been far quieter.
When major outlets do give Israeli survivors a platform, their story is either minimized, obscured, or otherwise ridiculed by others online as a falsified account.
Related Reading: NBC’s Sickening ‘Both-Sides’ Rape Coverage
That is exactly what happened when Romi Gonen, who was held hostage in Gaza for 471 days, came out with her story of facing sexual violence while in captivity. In her interview with Israel’s Channel 12, Romi detailed the horrific and repeated sexual assaults she experienced at the hands of Hamas.
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The Western media, which has been so quick to accuse Israel of crimes such as genocide, despite the lack of evidence, has now become noticeably absent when the crime of sexual violence experienced by a former hostage is made public. It is extremely disappointing that, at the time of writing, only the Daily Mail and the Telegraph have covered Romi’s important testimony.
The crimes of sexual violence committed against Israelis on and after October 7 have now been known since the immediate aftermath of the attacks, documented by survivor testimony, forensic evidence, eyewitness accounts, and investigations by Israeli authorities and international bodies. Yet, online and in the media, as more evidence from survivors comes to light, it is still treated as controversial, rather than the truth.
This is not accidental. It reflects a disturbing double standard in which Israeli victims are denied the moral clarity routinely afforded to others. For Romi, this denial did not begin this past week with the near-total absence of coverage of her story. Several months ago, when her sister Yarden Gonen spoke to Briahna Joy Gray, formerly of The Hill, asking her to believe Israeli victims of rape, Gray responded by rolling her eyes.
That moment crystallized the problem. When Israeli women speak about sexual violence, they are not met with compassion but with suspicion, cynicism, or dismissal. What would be immediately recognized as cruelty in any other context is normalized when the victims are Israeli.
REMEMBER THIS? In 2024, while Romi Gonen was being sexually assaulted in Gaza, Briahna Joy Gray ROLLED HER EYES at Romi’s sister, Yarden, when Yarden tried to draw attention to the abuse the hostages were suffering.
It really is #MeToo_Unless_Ur_A_Jew. pic.twitter.com/qg0cyLtgFQ
— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) December 26, 2025
Since Romi’s interview aired, there has been an upsurge in denial of the crimes of sexual violence committed on and after October 7 by Hamas. Drop Site News, for instance, attempted to undermine Amnesty International’s first report of sexual violence on October 7 (which was itself delayed to avoid upsetting the Israel haters among Amnesty’s staff), claiming there was an “absence of such evidence” of sexual violence. Just weeks earlier, Drop Site re-shared Hamas’ denial of sexual violence on October 7.
Drop Site similarly republished a video by a journalist who took part in the Freedom Flotilla this past summer, claiming that she was raped while being transferred between Israeli prisons. The timing and authenticity of this claim raise serious questions, as it emerged at the same time as Romi’s testimony. The sudden amplification of an unverified counter-allegation that shifted focus away from Israeli victims and back onto claims against Israel cannot be viewed in a vacuum.
At the same time, it has now been two years since The New York Times published its “‘Screams Without Words’: How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7,” and social media influencers have once again attempted to undermine the investigation, calling it a “disaster” and a “historically disgraceful piece of Israeli propaganda.”
Related Reading: Sexual Abuse on October 7: The Campaign to Deny Atrocities & Defend Hamas
The erasure of Israeli victims of sexual violence is not neutrality. It is complicity, and the message is clear: their suffering is negotiable, their trauma conditional, their credibility perpetually on trial. Romi’s bravery for coming forward deserves the same empathy and amplification afforded to other victims of sexual violence. The media’s failure to provide this is a moral choice, not a selective oversight.
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