The Simon Wiesenthal Center has called on the Japanese government to publicly denounce instances of denying the October 7 massacre, including the rape of Israeli women by Hamas terrorists following a video in which a Japanese journalist claims that Israeli women were not raped during the terror attack.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, a senior official at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, sent a letter to the Japanese Ambassador to the United States, drawing attention to a YouTube video where Japanese journalist Miki Otaka denies the Hamas terror attack on October 7 and sexual violence against Israeli women.
In the video, Otaka demonizes Israel and its citizens, and among her false claims, Otaka says: "October 7 was a fabrication. Israel uses depleted uranium bombs to eliminate Gaza in the future. The land in Gaza is already contaminated with radioactive soil. In fact, there are already cases of children inhaling smoke from depleted uranium bombs and suffering from pneumonia, radioactive contamination, and cancer."
The Japanese journalist continued her lies: "Israel has a vision for Gaza, as a first step, and then it wants to settle Jews there. A UN report says the radiation will remain there for 450 years (there is no such UN report, and Israel has denied any use of depleted uranium). There is no drinking water in Gaza. The only way is to drink seawater, and of course, this water is not healthy. Israel has imposed a total blockade on Gaza. The Palestinian ambassador said the main reason for the attack on Rafah is to lock all Palestinians in, so they will never leave the ghetto. If all supplies, food, medicine, and water brought there are cut off, these people will die."
The video also includes antisemitic accusations that Israel pays $3.5 billion for lobbying activities in the U.S. and Europe to prevent sanctions on Israel. "They control the media with the power of money," claimed the Japanese journalist.
"There were videos and photos of the atrocities committed by Hamas. However, a report came out saying these were actually fabrications... I'm not saying all of them, but... the biggest justification for retaliation against Hamas is that Hamas beheaded 40 babies; even Biden said that. And mass rape of women by Hamas. I also met with the Palestinian ambassador, and the ambassador told me: 'How could they afford to do that when they entered Israel, risking their lives?' Meaning they were in a high-alert combat situation in enemy territory, so they probably didn't even think about raping women."
Rabbi Cooper wrote to the Japanese ambassador: "We all recognize the power of social media to influence people, and in the case of Ms. Otaka, there will be those who treat this journalist's slanders as fact." Cooper noted that this same journalist liked an anti-Semitic post claiming there was a daycare center in the Auschwitz death camp, equating Holocaust denial with the denial of the October 7 terror attack.
Pramila Patten on sexual crimes committed by Hamas on Oct. 7
( UN)
