Exposing Hamas's Sexual Crimes

On October 7, 2023, as the first reports began to emerge, reports that would soon shake Israel and the world, Professor Ruth Halperin-Kaddari understood immediately that something deeply horrific was unfolding. As an internationally recognized expert on women’s rights and sexual violence in conflict zones, she knew that an attack of this scale could involve severe sexual crimes. What she could not have known was that within months, she would be leading an initiative that would become a powerful legal force on the international stage, reaching even the corridors of the United Nations.

Recently, Professor Halperin-Kaddari, Head of the Rackman Center for the Advancement of the Status of Women at the Faculty of Law at Bar-Ilan University, received the Shield of Transparency for her leadership of Project Dinah. The initiative succeeded in securing unprecedented international recognition of the sexual crimes committed during the October 7 attack and during Hamas captivity in Gaza. Beyond public recognition, the project played a meaningful role in shaping the UN decision to add Hamas to the blacklist of organizations that use sexual violence as a weapon of war.

A Project Born from the Ashes

“This project grew from the ground up, quite literally from the ashes of October 7,” says Professor Halperin-Kaddari. “Each of us understood that something unspeakable had happened here, something this country had never experienced before.” What began as an individual response by several senior women professionals quickly evolved into a collective effort with a clear mission: to give voice to victims who were silenced forever, and to pursue international recognition and justice.

The project’s name, Dinah, is drawn from the biblical story of Dinah, daughter of Jacob, who was a victim of sexual violence. “Dinah is voiceless throughout her story,” explains Professor Halperin-Kaddari. “She never speaks, and in her name, we are committed to making the voices of victims heard.”

Project Dinah was led by Professor Halperin-Kaddari alongside retired judge Nava Ben-Or, Lt. Col. (res.) Attorney Sharon Zagagi-Pinhas, and visual editor Nurit Jacobs-Yinon. Together, they built a comprehensive evidentiary and legal framework that has become a leading reference point in Israel and internationally for addressing sexual violence in conflict zones.

From Global Silence to Historic Recognition

“Immediately after October 7, we expected strong condemnation, or at the very least serious engagement, from the international community,” recalls Professor Halperin-Kaddari. “But as we quickly realized, that did not happen.”

One of the project’s central goals was to ensure that the sexual crimes would be documented in the UN Secretary-General’s annual report on conflict-related sexual violence. Achieving this required a formal investigative visit. Project Dinah played a significant role in advancing the efforts that ultimately made such a visit possible.

The UN representative who arrived in the region was Pramila Patten, the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict and a former colleague of Professor Halperin-Kaddari, with whom she served for 12 years on the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. “The report she published in March 2024 marked a major turning point,” says Professor Halperin-Kaddari. “For the first time, a senior UN official unequivocally stated that there were reasonable grounds to believe that rape and severe sexual crimes had indeed been committed.”

The most significant achievement came in August 2025, when the UN Secretary-General formally added Hamas to the blacklist of organizations that use sexual violence as a weapon of war, alongside groups such as ISIS and Boko Haram. “The meaning of this decision is clear,” she says. “In the eyes of the UN, Hamas is not a legitimate fighting force. It is an organization whose members commit the most heinous crimes.”

A New Doctrine in International Law

The significance of Project Dinah extends far beyond documentation and recognition. In a book authored by the project’s leaders, In the Name of Truth: October 7 and Beyond, they present a groundbreaking legal thesis.

“The challenges of pursuing justice in these situations are immense,” explains Professor Halperin-Kaddari. “In many cases, as on October 7, there are no survivors who can testify, and no clear way to identify individual perpetrators. As a result, many attackers are never prosecuted or held accountable for their actions.”

The solution proposed by the researchers is a doctrine of collective responsibility. “We argue that anyone who participates in an attack that is genocidal in nature, after undergoing ideological indoctrination of this kind, bears shared responsibility for all crimes committed even if their individual role cannot be conclusively proven.”

This represents a paradigm shift in international law, recognizing sexual violence as a group-based crime against a group, and demanding accountability accordingly.

The Power of Independent Academia

One of the key reasons for the project’s success on the international stage lies in its academic foundation. Project Dinah operates independently of political or governmental bodies. “Our work is grounded in academic research and in the professional credibility of the women leading the project,” says Professor Halperin-Kaddari.

The team conducted hundreds of meetings with diplomats and decision-makers around the world. Their book received extensive international media coverage. “In the first week alone, there were more than a thousand mentions in the international press,” she notes, “most of them, surprisingly, positive, including coverage on CNN and the BBC.”

The book is currently being translated into Hebrew, German, and French, with plans for Arabic and additional languages. The award of the Shield of Transparency serves as an important acknowledgment of a project that not only documented the events of October 7, but also offers new legal tools that may reshape how the world confronts sexual violence in war.