When the privately funded Civil Fee at the Oct. 7 crimes in opposition to ladies, males, and kids launched its landmark record on Might 12, Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy felt one thing she had no longer skilled in a long time: a deep sense of aid.
Elkayam-Levy, the fee’s main writer, approved accountability for paintings so heartbreaking and demanding – documenting crimes of bizarre cruelty – that many on her crew merely may no longer proceed. For 2 and a 1/2 years, she sat with the proof in addition to with survivors, and reviewed testimony in regards to the sexual crimes dedicated by way of Hamas-led terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, and thereafter.
“One of the most important takeaways is the before-and-after reality of the report,” famous Danae Marx-Callaf, director of global communications and some of the 4 co-founders of the Civil Fee. “Our report shifts the conversation from ‘whether it happened’ to ‘what are the consequences.’
“Another important thing is recognition of the victims. The report will go around the world to different policy makers and not remain just the knowledge of a few in the world,” Marx-Callaf added.
Israeli ladies stare upon Nova sufferers poster. (credit score: NIR LOTEM/REUTERS)
The great 298-page file main points the sexual terror dedicated on and after Oct. 7, which the Civil Fee concluded was once central to Hamas’s battle technique.
Knowledgeable in global regulation, human rights, and feminist felony idea, Elkayam-Levy serves as a Sophie Davis Fellow on the Leonard Davis Institute for Global Members of the family on the Hebrew College of Jerusalem, and was once a 2024 Israel Prize laureate for her tireless paintings at the record. For years, she taught and wrote about battle crimes, gender-based violence, and the accountability of felony techniques to offer protection to the prone and pursue justice.
However she by no means imagined that different extremely dedicated ladies’s advocates from different international locations – the similar other folks with whom she spent a profession educating and dealing – would abandon her after Oct. 7.
Within the days following the bloodbath, whilst Israel was once nonetheless counting its lifeless, and households have been looking for lacking family members, Elkayam-Levy traveled to New York to deal with the United Countries Committee at the Removal of Discrimination Towards Girls. There, she reported at the sexual atrocities that have been being retrieved from each Hamas’s and the sufferers’ telephones, from survivors’ testimonies, and the accounts of the ones charged with the holy job of figuring out the mangled corpses.
She arrived in New York anticipating that proof of the atrocities dedicated in opposition to ladies would command pressing global consideration. As a substitute, she discovered herself surrounded by way of the UN Committee’s apathy and hatred, as dozens of pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas activists got here out to accuse Israel of genocide. The enjoy left a profound impact.
“I remember feeling devastated,” Elkayam-Levy informed the Mag in an interview on the fee’s place of business in Modi’in.
The silence was once deafening
For a student of global regulation and human rights, that second changed into a turning level. “The silence was deafening,” she mentioned.
“I remember thinking we had to establish an organization. If the crimes were not being investigated, documented, and preserved with the urgency they demanded, we in Israel would have to do it ourselves,” she endured.
“Hamas itself had uploaded and distributed large quantities of material to cause as much psychological damage as possible. We knew we had to preserve those images before they vanished,” Elkayam-Levy added.
What started as an emergency reaction quickly developed into the Civil Fee, an NGO established as an impartial civilian initiative, break away executive establishments. The aim was once no longer handiest to research the crimes however to take action in keeping with the very best global felony and evidentiary requirements, making sure that the findings may face up to scrutiny in courts, tribunals, instructional analysis, and ancient inquiry.
For Elkayam-Levy, the objective was once to position a meticulously documented ancient document prior to the arena – a take-heed call no longer handiest to governments and felony establishments, however to humanity itself. The record, for example, highlights an account from Raz Cohen, a Supernova track competition survivor: “The men pulled a woman from the vehicle… forcibly removed her clothing, and raped her… They repeatedly stabbed her, killing her… they continued to rape her after her death.”
Mentioned Elkayam-Levy: “I never imagined something like this would happen here in Israel. For hours, terrorists moved freely through communities in southern Israel, murdering families in their homes, burning houses, taking hostages, raping them, and broadcasting much of it live.
“The attacks shattered more than Israel’s border defenses. They shattered a basic sense of security. One of the things we lost from the outset was our sense of safety. It felt like it could happen to any of us. Even today, that sense of vulnerability lingers,” Elkayam-Levy mentioned.
Recalling her 51 days in Hamas captivity, Agam Goldstein, who was once 17 when she was once kidnapped, is quoted within the record, pronouncing: “It’s these little things that break you… when you have no control over your body and no control over how to take care of your body.”
The great 298-page file main points the sexual terror dedicated on and after Oct. 7– central to Hamas’s battle technique. (credit score: NIR LOTEM/REUTERS)A circle of relatives burden
Elkayam-Levy is the mummy of 4 youngsters. Her youngest son was once two-and-a-half years outdated when she co-founded the fee. Every day, she moved between two worlds. One was once stuffed with proof of cruelty, degradation, and struggling. The opposite was once stuffed with youngsters, homework, circle of relatives dinners, and extraordinary existence.
“My children were the reason I did this,” she mentioned. “They were what kept me sane.” Time with circle of relatives changed into a type of emotional restoration. On the similar time, she fearful repeatedly about what she was once lacking. “I wasn’t there enough. They needed me,” she mentioned wistfully.
Elkayam-Levy fearful about what her circle of relatives was once additionally sacrificing. Whilst she immersed herself in proof, interviews, and the day by day calls for of the investigation, her husband carried many of the burden of elevating their 4 youngsters. “He understood and supported me. But it was a lot.”
When Elkayam-Levy was once awarded the Israel Prize within the newly created class of Arvut Hadadit (Mutual Accountability) in 2024, the glory was once deeply significant, she mentioned, however no longer basically for pro causes. Her older youngsters all of sudden noticed the paintings throughout the eyes of the country, after years of gazing their mom disappear right into a project they have been too younger to totally perceive.
“They take pride in it now. The recognition helped them understand why I had been absent so often, why the work mattered, and why I had felt compelled to continue despite its enormous toll emotionally and on family life,” she added.
By no means the paintings of 1 particular person
The status quo of the Civil Fee on Oct. 7 Crimes by way of Hamas in opposition to Girls, Youngsters, and Households grew organically out of the impartial, non-governmental Dvora Analysis Institute, which Elkayam-Levy established in 2021. Identified as a outstanding felony student, human rights skilled, and lively within the Israeli ladies’s protests in opposition to the judiciary overhaul, she temporarily introduced in combination a crew of pros and co-workers.
The Civil Council tapped felony professionals, trauma consultants, archivists, researchers, and volunteers. It was once headed by way of a board of high-level global advisers, together with the Hon. Irwin Cotler, a former minister of justice and attorney-general of Canada, and Sheryl Sandberg, the American era govt and Lean In Basis founder. Consistent with a fee spokesperson, Sandberg equipped steadfast make stronger, mentorship, and ethical management from the earliest days.
The 4 co-founders of the Civil Fee (L to R): Danae Marx-Callaf, director of global communications; Israeli-Amarant; Nirit Samocha, COO, and Elkayam-Levy. (credit score: CHEN SCHIMMEL)
“Very few people agreed to bear witness to these crimes,” defined Marx-Callaf, the communications director. “The exposure to this violent material is one of our biggest challenges, and the fact that [the authenticity of] these crimes were questioned even by prominent figures kept us motivated to do this work, despite the difficulties. We wanted to ensure that the world knows what happened and the victims receive the dignity they deserve.”
A few of the key figures was once Karen Jungblut, director of archives, whose job was once each technical and deeply human, Elkayam-Levy mentioned. “Before evidence could become part of a legal record, someone had to view it, authenticate it, classify it, preserve it, and ensure it would remain accessible to future investigators, prosecutors, and historians. That responsibility fell to Jungblut.
“She was among the first people to confront much of the material that would eventually form the backbone of the commission’s findings: evidence of murder, torture, humiliation, sexual violence, rape, and gang rape in the aftermath of the attacks. The scope of that effort was staggering.”
By the point the record was once finished, the fee had reviewed greater than 10,000 images and video segments representing roughly 18,000 mins of pictures, and carried out 430 in-depth interviews with survivors, former hostages, eyewitnesses, first responders, clinical execs, bereaved households, and others attached to the occasions of Oct. 7 and its aftermath.
Her job was once no longer handiest to peer it, however to create order from chaos – to grow to be scattered fragments of proof into an enduring ancient archive. With out such documentation, a lot of the proof may have disappeared into deleted accounts, damaged telephones, fading reminiscences, and the never-ending churn of social media. As a substitute, it changed into a part of a moderately preserved ancient document, Elkayam-Levy defined.
What emerged from a selection of apparently remoted incidents have been patterns that the Civil Fee studied to higher perceive the wider image.
The record discovered routine patterns of sexual violence, torture, humiliation, and degradation throughout more than one places, main investigators to conclude that those crimes mirrored a much wider operational way fairly than the movements of a couple of people appearing by myself.
Social media as mental struggle
One of the vital record’s maximum consequential findings considerations the position of social media itself. The movies, images, and reside streams weren’t incidental byproducts of the assaults. Consistent with the fee’s findings, they have been a part of the tactic.
“The terrorists were trained, instructed, and encouraged to maximize pain and suffering,” Elkayam-Levy mentioned. “Many of these acts were documented by the perpetrators themselves and uploaded onto social media and other digital platforms.”
For investigators, this changed into some of the clearest indications that mental struggle was once no longer incidental to the assaults however a part of the tactic itself. A few of the movies captured have been acts of utmost cruelty, helplessness, torture, degradation, and humiliation. Members of the family have been regularly compelled into unimaginable eventualities, pressured to witness the struggling of family members or take part in unspeakable acts meant to shatter non-public dignity and damage the sanctity of circle of relatives bonds.
“They leveraged social media and digital platforms to maximize the terrorization,” the record concludes.
Sheryl Sandberg, Civil Fee advisory board member and Lean-In.org CEO, with Elkayam-Levy on the screening of the documentary ‘Screams Prior to Silence,’ on the Simon Wiesenthal Heart, Los Angeles. (credit score: COCHAV ELKAYAM-LEVY)An evolution of recent terrorism
Hamas made households endure witness, prompting the fee to get a hold of new terminology to explain one of those planned, common use of violence to affect a whole circle of relatives.
Members of the family regularly realized what had came about to family members thru movies circulating on-line prior to any professional notification arrived. The record discovered that the violence was once designed to hurt the sufferers, traumatize households, communities, and the broader public thru planned acts of compelled witnessing.
“The videos created so much suffering for people who were not physically there,” Elkayam-Levy mentioned, including that the strategy represents an evolution in trendy terrorism. The violence didn’t finish on the crime scene. The telephone changed into a part of the weapon, and the display screen an extension of the battlefield, meant to focus on circle of relatives and family members by way of amplifying their trauma.
The record issues to a troubling hole between the rate with which terrorist organizations exploit virtual platforms and the facility of societies, felony techniques, and the arena’s main era platforms to reply.
Elkayam-Levy famous that she is deeply bothered that the telephone utilization in struggle now serves any other function. “I have no doubt that these videos serve as inspiration for other terrorist groups around the world.”
A civil fee led by way of ladies
The Civil Fee crew was once made up in large part of girls, lots of whom had spent years operating within the fields of human rights, sexual violence, and sufferer advocacy. On the heart of that effort was once adv. Merav Israeli-Amarant, the fee’s CEO. “She’s my ‘partner in justice,’” Elkayam-Levy mentioned.
Famous Israeli-Amarant: “To produce this report, our team spent months immersed in some of the most painful evidence imaginable.
“This is deeply lonely work, because so few people are willing to look at these materials, or even hear about them,” she added. “We understood from the outset that it would come at a personal cost. With the guidance and support of trauma experts, we carried not only a responsibility to the victims and survivors, but also to one another.
“The solidarity within the team was not simply a source of strength; it was a form of protection. In order to bear witness to such profound suffering, we had to ensure that no one carried that burden alone.”
The record comprises proof and photographs documenting a spread of sexual atrocities, together with the burning of genital spaces, the insertion of overseas gadgets into genital spaces, sexual torture, and sexual humiliation. Those fabrics contributed to the id and mapping of the 13 classes of sexual violence documented within the record. All over the method, intensive measures have been taken to offer protection to the privateness, dignity, and identities of sufferers and survivors on every occasion imaginable.
The toughest testimonies
For the entire proof amassed by way of the fee, not anything ready investigators for the conversations they might have with former hostages. Other people regularly suppose the toughest a part of the paintings was once gazing the movies.
Elkayam-Levy disagreed. “The hardest conversations were with families, the bereaved, the first responders, the search-and-rescue teams, and the doctors and nurses who treated survivors and returning hostages.
And, most difficult of all, the former hostages. The investigators found themselves confronting experiences that seemed to resist language.
“There aren’t enough words,” she mentioned. “We don’t have enough legal definitions.”
From the outset, the fee partnered with the Israel Trauma Coalition to supply skilled make stronger for Civil Fee team of workers and volunteers uncovered to profoundly demanding subject matter. Based in 2001 on the initiative of the UJA-Federation of New York, the Israel Trauma Coalition is an NGO that serves as a cornerstone of trauma remedy in Israel.
“We realized from the beginning that we needed emotional support,” Elkayam-Levy mentioned.
Because the mission developed, the fee started organising new standards for the ones becoming a member of the trouble. Skilled enjoy changed into more and more essential, no longer handiest on account of the complexity of the paintings, however on account of the emotional calls for it imposed.
“We understood that you needed people with significant professional experience,” Elkayam-Levy mentioned. “People with young children were often especially affected.”
As a mom herself, Elkayam-Levy understood the problem. After lengthy days immersed in testimony, proof, and felony research, she would go away the place of business and go back to her circle of relatives. Merely maintaining her toddler-age son changed into a supply of convenience.” My youngsters stored me sane,” she mentioned. Time spent with them reminded her of what she was once preventing for.
US President Donald Trump meets former hostage Rom Braslavski, a safety guard operating on the Nova competition who was once too traumatized to consult with the White Space previous this 12 months with different former hostages. He has spoken out about his sexual abuse in Hamas captivity. (credit score: LIANE GRUNBERG WAKABAYASHI)
The fee’s record information testimony from former hostages who described attaining some degree the place they not sought after to reside. But one thing stored them going. Some say it was once essential to return to their households and live on for his or her households. Others drew power from religion, or the deep religious reviews in captivity that stored them alive, and preventing for his or her lives.”
Paying attention to former hostages talk about survival, Elkayam-Levy discovered herself fascinated by different survivor narratives she had encountered right through her profession. “It sounds similar to the testimonies of Holocaust survivors,” she mentioned. “In the most difficult reality, they wanted to keep their humanity. Their victory would be to establish a family, to continue with their lives, to show they survived for their family and for future generations.”
But at the same time as she spoke about resilience, Elkayam-Levy was once cautious to not romanticize survival. The record makes transparent that many sufferers, witnesses, and previous hostages proceed to hold profound mental wounds. A few of the accounts that stay with Elkayam-Levy is that of a psychiatrist who stayed beside a newly launched hostage for 3 days – with out slumbering all the time.
Between circle of relatives and accountability
Because the record neared final touch, Elkayam-Levy discovered it more and more tough to set the paintings apart, even right through the time she valuable for her circle of relatives.
“The work often followed me home,” Elkayam-Levy recalled.
On one contemporary Shabbat, she stuck herself fascinated by the record’s ultimate edits. “What if something happened to me before the report was finished?” she fearful. The load of the accountability was once monumental.
The fee’s record would even apply her into her goals. One evening, after reviewing agonizing proof of sexual violence inflicted upon a lady, whose identify and tale had change into etched in her thoughts, Elkayam-Levy discovered herself wrestling with a query that had accompanied the fee from the start. How a lot will have to be proven? How a lot might be published whilst nonetheless protective the honor of the sufferer?
That evening, the sufferer gave the impression to her in a dream and mentioned: “Share it. People need to know.”
Scrolling thru her notes, she discovered a message she had written to herself: “In order to do this work, I had to believe that there is as much goodness in this world as there is evil.”
She paused. “The cruelty is real. But so is human courage. So is love. So is humanity. So is the goodness in people. Hold on to that. Especially now.”
Silenced No Extra, the Civil Fee File at the Untold Atrocities of Oct. 7, will also be considered in its 16-page govt abstract, and as a 298-page file, unfastened to obtain from the Civil Fee’s site. www.civilc.org/silenced-no-more.
The author is a Haifa-based journalist and artist.
