Will Israeli Women Raped on Oct. 7 Find Justice?

Why I’m optimistic that this could happen.

Fearless reporting, a behind-the-curtains look at how journalism is made — and an unabashed point of view. Welcome to Chills.

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Let’s not discount the living and their agency; they can and will tell their stories of sexual assault to investigators — if they want to. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images

I was miserably tending to my broken ankle at my desk yesterday when I saw an email pop up with an interesting subject line. A group of prominent lawyers, advocates and journalists were asking me to sign a letter to Pramila Patten, the special representative of the UN secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict. As someone who has reported nearly exclusively for more than a decade on such violence in war, I looked at it carefully. It took me a minute to comprehend what I was reading.

The letter condemned Patten’s call for Israeli survivors of rape by Hamas on Oct. 7 to come forward about their ordeals. Huh?