The Civil Commission: documenting the truth about Hamas's sexual crimes

That vision gave rise to the Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children, an independent nonprofit dedicated to documenting atrocities, preserving evidence, and advancing international accountability. Israel at Heart was proud to support the Commission as part of its broader commitment to ensuring that the crimes of October 7, and particularly Hamas's systematic use of sexual violence, would be thoroughly documented and never denied or forgotten.

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One of the most distinguished teams ever assembled

Founded by international law scholar and 2024 Israel Prize recipient Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy and headed by Adv. Merav Israeli Amarant, the Commission brought together one of the most distinguished groups of experts ever assembled around a single civilian documentation effort. Its leadership includes Einat Reich and Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum, while its advisory board features internationally respected figures from law, diplomacy, academia, philanthropy, and human rights, including Sheryl Sandberg, former Canadian Justice Minister Prof. Irwin Cotler, and numerous civil society leaders.

Supporting them is a multidisciplinary team of researchers, legal scholars, psychologists, forensic specialists, gender experts, and investigators who have systematically collected testimony, analyzed evidence, and developed legal frameworks for understanding the crimes committed on October 7. Their work has established the Commission as one of the world's leading independent research bodies examining the attacks.

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Silenced No More, and Kinocide

The Commission's most important publication is Silenced No More, a landmark report documenting the widespread and systematic use of conflict-related sexual violence during the October 7 attacks. Drawing on survivor testimony, eyewitness accounts, forensic findings, open-source intelligence, and legal analysis, the report helped establish the most expansive evidentiary record of the crimes.

The Commission also introduced the groundbreaking concept of Kinocide through its report Kinocide: The Weaponization of Families. It argues that Hamas deliberately targeted the family as a social unit through murder, kidnapping, forced separation, psychological terror, and public humiliation, proposing a new legal framework for recognizing attacks designed to destroy families as a distinct form of mass atrocity.

A permanent archive

Beyond producing reports, the Civil Commission has become a permanent archive of evidence and testimony, presenting its findings to governments, international organizations, universities, legal forums, and civil society around the world. Its work has helped shape international understanding of October 7 while laying the groundwork for future legal accountability.

Three years on, the findings reach the world

Three years after October 7, the Commission's work moved into a season of recognition. In October 2026 its findings reached New York University, the United Nations, and a memorial exhibition in Paris.

At an event at NYU School of Law titled Standing With Truth, Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy appeared in conversation with the feminist scholar Professor Carol Gilligan, who recognized the Commission's work.

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The recognition came as the Commission's findings reached audiences well beyond the academy. In a Wall Street Journal interview, Elkayam-Levy spoke about the struggle to confront denial. On October 8, Israel's Mission to the UN presented Silenced No More to the Third Committee of the General Assembly. And in Paris, an October 7 memorial exhibition organized by CRIF drew on the report: thousands of visitors, among them senior French officials, stopped to read the findings and the stories behind the images, and many left in tears.