Sheryl Sandberg spoke about global silence on the sexual violence used by Hamas terrorists on October 7 and beyond in a CNN interview on Monday night, discussing the completion of her new documentary, Screams Before Silence.
An American philanthropist and former technology executive known for her fight for equality opportunities for women, Sandberg unveiled her new documentary this week based on gender-based violence perpetrated by Hamas. Her documentary included the testimony of released hostage Agam Goldstein-Almog.
Goldstein-Almog was only 17 years old when she was brutally kidnapped by Hamas terrorists, and taken from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza. She watched as her father and older sister were both brutally murdered by the intruders, before she was rounded up and taken into Gaza with her mother and two younger brothers.
In an exclusive interview for the documentary, the young survivor told of horrific stories of other captives being sexually violated while in captivity.
“He entered the shower [where she was] and pointed a gun at her head and started kissing her, and she started crying... he took off all her clothes and touched her all over the body,” Goldstein-Almog told of her fellow captive.
“He asked her to touch his member in all kinds of ways and touched her [genital area] as well. She told me she just didn’t stop crying and he didn’t stop doing what he was doing to her. And he enjoys it,” she said. “And all this time, his gun was against her head.”
The young woman’s fate is unclear; she may still be held captive in Gaza.
World's silence is equivalent to complacency, Sandberg says
Sandberg told CNN’s Jake Tapper that a Hamas spokesperson denied the acts of sexual violence, saying it was against their religion – which, evidence shows, was simply a lack of accountability from the terrorist organization. “Not only did these atrocities occur, but they occurred systematically,” she said.
The documentary producer described evidence she was presented with when visiting Israel, from the sites of massacred Kibbutzim to the site of the Nova music festival. She told of the dead found lifeless, naked, and bloodied.
Sandberg added that she decided to create and partially narrate the film because of the world’s silence on the matter after October 7 when evidence came to the surface that “the silence was deafening, even though it was clear that acts of rape and sexual violence had been committed. We must not allow the silencing and cover-up of such acts anywhere in the world.
“People denied and refused to admit that such acts were indeed committed by Hamas, and therefore the film will allow them to see with their own eyes, and hear with their own ears, testimonies from survivors about the horrors that took place – and how the victims suffered in the last minutes of their lives,” she said, adding that “we have to look at things directly.”
Sandberg also said that she believes much of the silence was related to the mass polarization of the events – people were afraid that it would look like they were taking sides if they spoke out.
The philanthropist noted with amazement what Agam’s strength showed her: “We should all be afraid of such cases, which must not be repeated. It is impossible that an 18-year-old girl anywhere in the world will be forced to see and hear and go through such horrors.”