A Green Party spin doctor has denied that women were raped in the October 7 attacks in 2023.
Abi Wilkinson, appointed just days before the partyâs victory in Gorton & Dentonâs by-election, posted on social media that “there is no Israeli woman whoâs said she was raped by militants”.
She also wrote on X: âThereâs absolutely no new evidence, there is not a single identified victim.â
There is evidence of rape and sexual violence being committed during the attack – in December 2023, the BBC reported that âfew victims are thought to have survived to tell their own storiesâ.
Eyewitness accounts, officials and experts from Israel and the UN concluded there were âconvincing evidenceâ of rapes, gang rape and sexual violence during the attack.
The 35-year-old also said she would not be âintimidated into pretending non-existent evidence from 7/10 is realâ, the Daily Mail reports.
On October 7, 2023, 1,219 people were killed after an armed incursion carried out by Hamas and several other Palestinian militant groups entered Israel.
There have been calls for Ms Wilkinson to be sacked.
Joani Reid, Labour MP for East Kilbride and Strathaven and chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) Against Antisemitism, said: âThe commends linked to this Green Party press officer are repellent.
âDenying the October 7 atrocities, casting doubt on the rape and murder of women, and recycling anti-Semitic tropes is disgraceful.
âIt insults victims and fuels fear in Jewish communities here at home.
âZack Polanski should sack her – he wonât, and that tells you a great deal about the standards he is willing to live with.
âWe should not be handling them with kid gloves because they wrap themselves in the progressive label.
âIf a party harbours extremism, it should expect to be called out.â
Ms Wilkinsonâs career before the Green Partyâs press office includes writing for Novara Media, the left-wing news outlet, and for the Guardian.
Zack Polanski, leader of the Green Party, praised her as a âprolific writer and fearless advocate for Palestineâ.
The X account associated with Ms Wilkinson has since been deleted, but The Mail on Sunday revealed that she made repeated comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany.
In one post, she wrote that Israel was pursuing âLebensraumâ, the Nazi term for âliving spaceâ used to justify the invasion of Eastern Europe during World War II.
She also wrote that Israel was turning Gaza into a âconcentration campâ and shared a post on X that used the term âJudeonaziâ.
In another post, she responds to pictures of Israelis, writing: âSome of them are pretty and it doesn’t make them less demonic.â
âWhen political parties who seek power deny what happens to women, it sets us all back.
âDismissing reports of sexual violence and mutilation during the October 7 Hamas attack is no different.
âPeople that refute the testimony of victims shouldnât be anywhere near British politics.
The Dinah Project represents rape victims from the October 7 attack and has analysed evidence from various sources from the event.
They said, âHamas used sexual violence as a tactical weaponâ, adding that âmost victims were permanently silencedâ, because they were either killed or left too traumatised to talk.
Some of Hamasâs hostages have also described becoming âsex slavesâ after being taken kidnapped.
A Green Party spokesman told the Mail on Sunday: âWe do not comment on individual staff members.â
