{"id":251887,"date":"2024-01-08T12:00:24","date_gmt":"2024-01-08T12:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=251887"},"modified":"2024-01-05T05:16:25","modified_gmt":"2024-01-05T05:16:25","slug":"family-of-israeli-woman-in-nyt-oct-7-sexual-violence-renounces-story-says-reporters-manipulated-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/01\/family-of-israeli-woman-in-nyt-oct-7-sexual-violence-renounces-story-says-reporters-manipulated-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of Israeli Woman in NYT Oct 7 Sexual Violence Renounces Story, Says Reporters Manipulated Them"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A New York Times story claiming a pattern of Hamas’ gender-based violence on October 7 hinged on the story of Gal Abdush. But the Abdush family says there is no proof she was raped, and that Times reporters interviewed them under false pretenses. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

4 Jan 2024<\/em> – On December 28, the New York Times<\/em> published an \u201cinvestigative\u201d report<\/a> on gender-based violence allegedly committed by Palestinians during the October 7 attack. The newspaper says the story was based on over 150 interviews conducted by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Jeffrey Gettleman, along with Anat Schwartz and Adam Sella. The story concludes that Hamas fighters engaged in systematic rape and sexual violence against Israeli women.<\/p>\n

The story itself repeats October 7 testimonies that have been previously published and already debunked and discredited, but the Times<\/em> investigation hinges predominantly on one central story, the story of the rape of \u201cGal Abdush,\u201d who is described by the Times<\/em> as \u201cThe Woman in the Black Dress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although claiming its story proves that \u201cthe attacks against women were not isolated events but part of a broader pattern of gender-based violence on Oct. 7\u201d the veracity of the New York Times story was undermined almost as soon as it was published, including from the Abdush family itself who says there is no proof Gal Abdush was raped and that the New York Times interviewed them under false pretenses.<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/em> version of events<\/h2>\n

A heartbreaking photo of Gal Abdush\u2019s family \u2014 a working-class Mizrahi Jewish family who lost their daughter and son-in-law, Nagi Abdush\u2014appeared on the newspaper\u2019s cover<\/a>. The newspaper devoted a third of its report to the Abdush story. The report centered around a video that was captured on October 8 by a woman called Eden Wessely, which was published on her social media accounts. According to the Times<\/em>, \u201cThe video went viral, with thousands of people responding, desperate to know if the woman in the black dress their missing friend, sister or daughter was.\u201d The newspaper did not link to the video but released a distant, indistinct image from it that revealed nothing. It\u2019s unclear how the Times<\/em> confirmed the existence of these responses since Wessely\u2019s Instagram account has been banned, and she created a new account<\/a> in mid-December.<\/p>\n

The newspaper narrates the tragedy of the family, how they learned about their daughter\u2019s fate, and how the video and their daughter became known as \u201cthe woman in the black dress.\u201d The Times<\/em> states that her husband, Nagi Abdush, who was also killed, sent his last message at precisely 7:44 a.m., asking the family to take care of their children. What the newspaper omitted, and the family later confirmed, is that the husband contacted them at 7:00 a.m. and reported his wife\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

The Times<\/em> says the family saw the video recording and \u201cfeared that she might have been raped\u201d based on the body\u2019s condition. The Times<\/em> also states that the Israeli police used the video as evidence that rape occurred: \u201cThe videos caught the eye of Israeli officials as well \u2014 very quickly after Oct. 7 they began gathering evidence of atrocities. They included footage of Ms. Abdush\u2019s body in a presentation made to foreign governments and media organizations, using Ms. Abdush as a representation of violence committed against women that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is currently no trace of the video on the internet despite the Times<\/em> claim that it \u201cwent viral.\u201d Moreover, the Israeli press, despite reporting on hundreds of stories about the October 7 victims, never mentioned \u201cthe woman in the black dress\u201d even once previous to the December 28 story. It does not appear that the video had, in fact, become the widely circulated symbol the Times<\/em> claimed it had. But regardless, within a day of the report being published, facts began to emerge that undermined the Times<\/em> story.<\/p>\n

\u2018The media invented it\u2019<\/h2>\n

On December 29, the Israeli website \u2018YNET\u2019 published an interview<\/a> with Etti Brakha, Gal Abdush\u2019s mother. In the interview, the mother says that the family knew nothing about the sexual assault issue until the piece in the Times<\/em> was published: \u201cWe didn\u2019t know about the rape at all. We only knew after a New York Times<\/em> journalist contacted us. They said they matched evidence and concluded that she had been sexually assaulted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, on January 1, Nissim Abdush, Nagi\u2019s brother, appeared in an interview<\/a> on Israeli Channel 13. During the 14-minute interview, Nissim repeatedly denied that his sister-in-law was raped. He explained that his brother Nagi had called him at 7:00 in the morning, saying his wife was killed, and he was next to her body. Then he continued to communicate until 7:44 and never mentioned anything related to sexual assault. Nissim also stated that no official party informed them of these doubts or this investigation, neither the police nor forensic experts. In the interview, Abdush reiterated that his brother\u2019s wife was not raped and that \u201cthe media invented it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gal\u2019s sisters also denied allegations of rape. Her sister Tali Barakha posted on Instagram, saying: \u2018No one can know what Gal went through there! Also, what Nagi went through, but I can\u2019t cooperate with those who say many things that are not true. I plead with you to stop spreading lies, there is a family and children behind them, no one can know if there was rape or if she was burned while alive. Have you gone mad? I spoke to Nagi personally! At 7 o\u2019clock, Gal was killed by those animals, and they shot her in the heart. Nagi was alive until quarter past eight\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"Tali
Tali Barakha Instagram post.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Likewise, Miral Altar, Gals\u2019 sister, wrote a comment on Instagram in response to a video<\/a> of a hasbara<\/em> account. Altar said: \u2018I can\u2019t understand all these reports. There were many difficult stories, why this story in particular? It\u2019s based on only one video published without the family\u2019s knowledge\u2026 It is true that the scenes in the video are not easy, but it\u2019s clear that the dress is lifted upwards and not in its natural state, and half her head is burned because they threw a grenade at the car. I don\u2019t want to be understood as if I\u2019m justifying what they did; they are animals, they raped and beheaded people, but in my sister\u2019s case, this is not true. At 6:51, Gal sent us a message on WhatsApp saying \u2019we are at the border, and you can\u2019t imagine sounds of explosions around us\u2019. At 7 o\u2019clock, my brother-in-law called his brother and said they shot Gal and she\u2019s dying. It doesn\u2019t make any sense that in four minutes, they raped her, slaughtered her, and burned her?\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Miral
Miral Altar Instagram comment<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Other comments from Abdush family friends and relatives (whose relationships have been confirmed through social media connections) also suggest that the \u201cWoman in the Black Dress\u201d video itself lacks enough information to support the claim of rape.<\/p>\n

Shiran Maluka, Miral\u2019s friend, wrote: \u201cBased on what does Eden Wessely conclude that she was raped? based on the video she took there is no evidence, it\u2019s not true that half of her body was burned, only her face, and there is nothing but a dress pulled up.\u201d Another friend, Almog Peretz Hemo, wrote a similar comment.<\/p>\n

Many of the comments from those in and around the Abdush family point to the role of Eden Wessely in pushing the rape allegations. Although Wessely\u2019s quotes in the Times<\/em> didn\u2019t contain a graphic description, her following statements to the Israeli media<\/a> were very explicit and clearly stated that Abdush was raped, burned, and murdered. Those pushed back on the story seem to believe that it was in fact Eden Wessely\u2019s testimony and personal interpretation that initially raised these allegations of sexual violence rather than the video itself. They argue that Wessely\u2019s testimony is inaccurate, and does not match with what\u2019s seen in the video.<\/p>\n

A look at Eden Wessely\u2019s Facebook account reveals extreme right-wing opinions.<\/p>\n

For example, in the early days of the war, Wessely posted fake news<\/a>, debunked by the Israeli media<\/a>, about \u201cIsraeli traitors who supported Hamas fighters during the attack on October 7th.\u201d Wessely also shared many posts by the extreme right-wing organization \u2018Im Tirtzu<\/a>\u2018 and posts by the far-right rapper \u2018Hatzel<\/a>,\u2019 considered a symbol of Israeli fascist racism. In another post, Wessely shared a picture<\/a> of the Israeli human rights lawyer Lea Tsemel, calling her: \u2018The devil incarnate.\u2019<\/p>\n

Weaponizing \u2018the woman in the black dress\u2019<\/h2>\n

The family\u2019s testimonies unmistakably confirm that the Israeli authorities did not have the decency to inform the family about the investigation into their family member\u2019s rape. But, three months following her death, Israeli authorities and the Israeli police are weaponizing her case and using the death of Gal Abdush as propaganda material to garner support for and justify the genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Likewise, the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0also joined in exploiting the family in a highly unethical manner. Despite mentioning the element of rape to the family, the Times<\/em> reporters did not make clear this was the focus of the story and evidently got them to agree to participate by\u00a0saying they wanted to cover the family\u2019s tragedy. According to Abdush\u2019s sister, Miral Alter, this is why the family agreed to speak to the reporter. As Alter explains in the Instagram comment above, the Times<\/em> reporters \u201cmentioned they want to write a report in memory of Gal, and that\u2019s it, if we knew that the title would be about rape and butchery, we\u2019d never accept that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, it appears that the New York Times<\/em> manipulated a working-class Mizrahi family in the service of Israeli hasbara<\/em> in order to score a journalistic achievement, which in reality is nothing more than a repetition of fake news and government propaganda.<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/p>\n

The Short String is an anonymous group of Palestinian journalists in Israel who analyze the role of international media and organizations in promoting Israeli propaganda. The authors have requested anonymity in the face of persecution, violence, and threats from Israeli authorities, which would put them in severe danger.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original – mondoweiss.net<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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7 2 9: BOYCOTT FOR JUSTICE!<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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