Human Rights Expert Documenting New Kind of War Crime in Oct. 7 Attacks on Israel
6.24.2024
On Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, murdering 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages. The brutality of these crimes – including rape, murder, maiming, and kidnapping – has international human rights experts considering a new category of war crime: kinocide, or the purposeful targeting of families.
At an informational session hosted by the New York State Bar Association, Cochav Elkayam-Levy, chair of the Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children and recipient of the Israel Prize, described the evidence her team has collected from Oct. 7 – including videos filmed by Hamas terrorists as they were attacking.
“We’re documenting all war crimes against women and children, not just the sexual abuse,” said Elkayam-Levy. “Because when you see the images, when you see the torture that people have been through – the abused, naked bodies, the burning of bodies, the handcuffing, the bounding of legs – again and again in several locations… you understand the brutality that was inflicted on the victims.”
Elkayam-Levy is an internationally recognized expert on human rights law, international law, and feminist legal theories.
More than 220 people attended the informational session. Immediate Past President Richard Lewis introduced Elkayam-Levy and made opening remarks.
Kinocide Explained
In conjunction with Irwin Cotler, a former minister of justice and attorney general of Canada, Elkayam-Levy and her team have developed a new term, kinocide, to describe the pattern of the purposeful targeting of families.
“It’s the kind of evil that can’t be explained,” she said. “They separated families. They separated children from families, from parents. They murdered parents in front of their children, children in front of their parents.”
Elkayam-Levy added that her team is also documenting sexual abuse against men, and physical and psychological abuse against hostages.
“Justice begins with recognition, justice and healing of victims,” Elkayam-Levy said. “I think our role as lawyers is to believe, to be there, as advocates for victims. And we see through that how it initiates a process of healing for those who just experienced the worst kind of crimes in their lives.”
Allies in Condemning War Crimes
Elkayam-Levy said her organization is focusing on working with global allies, like the United States, who do recognize that Hamas committed war crimes. She said that the Biden administration quickly released strong condemnation of the attacks, and last week Vice President Kamala Harris hosted a screening of the film “Screams Before Silence,” a documentary about the sexual violence committed on Oct. 7.
Elkayam-Levy also said it was important to continue to fight for the release of the 120 hostages still held in Gaza. “I do want to ask for all of us to still fight for those who are still in captivity, for their release, to do everything in our power to release them, to make sure their faces are seen everywhere,” she said. “And that they get the kind of fight that they deserve to bring them back.”
“As someone who has been more immersed in this situation since October 7, and has dealt with this so intimately, we can still hear the emotion in your voice,” Lewis said of Elkayam-Levy’s presentation. “Clearly you don’t harden to this type of crime.”
Elkayam-Levy said she gets therapy every week.
The Civil Commission asks that those looking to help in their mission of documentation and archival visit dvora-institute.org/cco7.
The program was co-sponsored by the Women in Law Section and the International Section. The full discussion is available here.
