In Australia, Grace Tame built a national reputation on one simple, powerful principle: believe survivors. It was that clarity that made her Australian of the Year in 2021, cementing her as the voice of victims of sexual abuse. Her platform was moral, her advocacy unassailable, until recently.

In an ABC interview with Hamish Macdonald, Tame dismissed allegations that Israeli women were raped during the October 7 attacks as “propaganda” and “debunked.” Investigations linked to the United Nations suggest that sexual violence did occur. These are not abstract claims. Attacks were filmed by the perpetrators themselves, including videos of killings and sexual assaults, and a 47-minute compilation shows atrocities in horrifying detail. Some attackers even called their families to boast of murders committed with their own hands. Yet the ABC interview barely interrogated Tame, allowing her assertion to pass largely unchallenged.

Hamish Macdonald could have challenged Tame deeper by asking some basic questions, including but not limited to; who is the source of her claim that the sexual assault allegations are “propaganda”? What framework does she use to decide which groups are oppressed and which are not? In a room full of Israeli survivors who are alleging sexual assault, how would she respond to their claims be treated differently based on nationality or political context?

If documented sexual assaults and filmed horrors can be waved away as “propaganda,” one has to ask: who is feeding her these claims, and on what authority?

Tame frequently presents herself as someone who stands with “the oppressed.” A noble claim until one asks: which oppressed people? Welcome to Critical Race Theory! Let’s divide victims........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)