Israeli propagandist behind Hamas ‘mass rape’ narrative exposed as grifter, fraud
Cochav Elkayam-Levy, the Israeli lawyer at the center of the campaign accusing Hamas of systematic sexual violence on October 7, now stands accused by Israeli media of scamming donors and spreading misinformation. The allegations appeared just days after Elkayam-Levy received the prestigious Israel Prize.
As the founder of the so-called Civil Commission on October 7th Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children, Israel lawyer Cochav Elkayam Levy has been a go-to source for Western media organizations pushing the narrative that Palestinian militants carried out sexual assault on a massive and systematic basis when they attacked Israel.
Elkayam-Levy has starred in a factually challenged CNN special on the topic narrated by the fervently pro-Israel host Jake Tapper, who identified her as “an expert in human rights law who organized a civil committee to document evidence.” Haaretz featured Elkayam-Levy as the subject of a puff piece which misleadingly claimed that her work “presents a horrifying picture that leaves no room for doubt: On October 7, Hamas terrorists systematically carried out acts of rape and sexual abuse.”
Then, on December 6, 2023, members of the White House National Security Council and Assistant to the President and Director of the Gender Policy Council Jennifer Klein hosted Elkayam-Levy in Washington to hear “about her work to gather testimony and document evidence of the events of October 7 and develop a comprehensive accounting of gender-based violence committed by Hamas.”
Now, the lawyer’s public relations extravaganza has earned her the Israel Prize, the most prestigious honor any Israeli citizen can receive from their government. “We must stand firm against the stark denial and the increasing tide of antisemitism,” she declared in a March 21 statement accepting the award.
Yet three days later, Israel’s largest newspaper, YNet, published a damning exposé accusing Elkayam-Levy of ripping off major donors, including a member of the Biden administration, spreading fake Hamas atrocity tales, and failing to deliver on her promise of a major report about sexual violence on October 7.
“People have disassociated themselves from her because her research is inaccurate,” an Israeli government official told YNet. “After all, the whole story is that they want to accuse us of spreading fake news, and her methodology was neither good nor accurate.”
Government officials were particularly incensed that Elkayam-Levy spread discredited claims that a Hamas militant cut a fetus from a pregnant woman before raping the woman – a lie first spread by confirmed fraudster Yossi Landau of the scandal-stained ZAKA organization. “The story about the pregnant woman who had her stomach cut open – a story that was proven to be untrue, and she spread it in the international press,” the official complained to YNet. “It’s no joke. Little by little, professionals began to distance themselves from her because she is unreliable.”
Elkayam-Levy further alienated the Israeli government by spinning her “Civil Commission” out of a one-woman operation she ran called the Deborah Institute, creating the sense that she was representing Tel Aviv in an official capacity. “In the beginning she was really very active, which was very nice,” a source told YNet. “Then it started calling itself a civilian commission. People got confused, members of Congress turned to people who work with Israel and asked what it is – ‘Israel built a commission?’ It’s a confusing name. And to the question of whether there is such a thing at all? Is there such a body? The answer is – no. It is the body. She is the civil commission.”
Through her Deborah Institute, Elkayam-Levy has raised millions of dollars. But if the government sources who spoke to YNet are to be believed, she conned wealthy American Jewish donors like Rahm Emanuel, currently the Biden administration’s ambassador to Japan, and channeled the money into her personal bank account.
According to YNet, Elkayam-Levy appealed for $8 million to launch her “Civil Commission,” requesting $1.5 million for “management and administration.” “Rahm Emanuel, the US ambassador to Japan, donated money to her, she took donations from a lot of people, and started asking for money for lectures,” the Israeli official complained.
After more than five months of research, however, the publicity-hungry lawyer has produced nothing of substance to justify her massive fundraising haul. Indeed, the “atrocity report” Elkayam-Levy had promised supporters, which would have provided clear evidence of systematic sexual violence by Hamas on October 7, has yet to arrive.
Meanwhile, she reportedly attempted to obstruct a visit to Israel by United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten, whose report was ultimately touted by Israel as “proof” of sex crimes by Hamas despite Patten’s own admission that it contained no evidence and lacked any investigative mandate from the UN.
I first became aware of Elkayam-Levy’s penchant for fudging facts during a November 11, 2023 presentation she delivered to Harvard University’s Maimonides Society. There, she presented images of female Kurdish fighters killed in combat as Jewish Israeli women who had been killed and raped by Hamas militants at the Nova Electronic Music Festival on October 7.
After I exposed her glaring falsehood, Elkayam-Levy refused to correct her claim, taking to Twitter/X instead to thank me for promoting her work.
Elkayam-Levy’s fall from grace comes as the New York Times publishes a report casting further doubt on the paper’s already-discredited December 28, 2023 article alleging “systematic sexual violence” by Hamas on October 7. According to the March 25 Times report, an Israeli paramedic identifying himself as “G” (real name: Guy Melamed) lied to the paper when he claimed to have found the corpses of teenage girls in Kibbutz Beeri in a state of undress that clearly indicated rape. “Footage taken by an Israeli soldier who was in Beeri on Oct. 7… shows the bodies of three female victims fully clothed and with no apparent signs of sexual violence,” the Times stated.
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