New Word Required: "Kinocide”

(My brief comments on the publication of Silenced No More, a landmark document outlining the sexual crimes of Hamas)

Well, wouldn’t you know it, Nick Kristof and The New York Times had to get out their Der Stürmer-worthy op-ed just before Silenced No More was published. They were right to be nervous. It is a gruesome tidal wave of verified, ice-cold, damning evidence, which painstakingly documents the horrific sexual abuse committed by Hamas and Gazan “civilians.”

And it’s here now for all to see.

The landmark report is the product of a two-year independent investigation conducted by the Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children, an NGO established specifically to document and preserve evidence of gender-based atrocities committed during the massacre and hostage captivity. The commission was founded by legal scholar and human rights researcher Cochav Elkayam-Levy and includes jurists, prosecutors, legal scholars, trauma experts, researchers, and specialists in international human rights law.

The investigation documents crimes committed against victims representing 52 nationalities and was assembled with input from international scholars, legal experts, prosecutors, trauma specialists, and human rights researchers.

The report spans roughly 300 pages and draws on an evidentiary archive including more than 430 testimonies and interviews, over 10,000 photographs and video files, nearly 2,000 hours of visual documentation and forensic analysis, eyewitness testimony, hostage accounts, first responder evidence, and material gathered for future legal proceedings and historical recordkeeping. The commission concludes that the sexual violence committed on October 7 and during captivity was “systematic, widespread, and integral” to the attacks themselves.

Trigger Warning: What follows is only a small sampling of details from the report, reprinted in an article published by the Daily Mail.

“…It shows it was not just women who were degraded as a ‘deliberate tool of terror, humiliation, and control.”

“Men were also sexually abused and in at least one case gang raped.”

“Victims were mutilated, with body parts cut off used to create depraved scenes gleefully concocted to traumatize those who discovered them.”

‘The purpose was humiliation, not victory,” first responder Eran Masas, who came across one such barbaric arrangement, told The Civil Commission.

“Those taken hostage were assaulted in front of loved ones and young relatives forced to commit sex acts on each other, an intentional, premeditated strategy of kinocide to destroy family units even after release from captivity.”

Pause here and consider this new word: “kinocide.”

I am frankly, speechless.

In November of 2023, I was in New York City and, along with a number of journalists, had the opportunity — if one can call it that — to watch the 47-minute film documenting Hamas’s pogrom. After the screening, I stayed behind to speak with an Israeli naval attaché responsible for bringing this evidence to U.S. officials. “What you’ve seen this evening,” he told me, “is not even five percent of what is available. The other material was deemed too challenging for public viewing.”

At the time, it was impossible to conceive that anything worse existed than what I had already seen — and especially what I had heard. Now, I have a far better understanding of what he grimly conveyed to me.

The material compiled in Silenced No More may prove to be one of the most important documents yet assembled for understanding the scope of what not only Israel is confronting, but the Jewish people as a whole — and beyond that, anyone who wishes to resist the slide into utter barbarism.

None of this is pleasant. And for those who have wondered why I’ve become so consumed with trying to convey that this is not merely a regional conflict, but a civilizational issue, you are about to understand.

Prepare yourself.

Silenced No More

(My forthcoming album, Acts Of Will, contains the song “’Till My Fists Get Sore.” Like many of my better songs, it was written quickly, in the wake of an emotional experience.)