Grace Tame has apologised for her comments labelling the rape of Israeli women by Hamas during the 7 October attacks as “propaganda” and “debunked”, saying her words were “misinterpreted”.
The former Australian of the Year issued the apology in an Instagram video on Thursday. The comments were made in an ABC interview about Israel and Gaza in March.
In the video, Tame said she stood with survivors of sexual violence “everywhere, no matter who they are”.
“There’s something I’ve wanted to clarify for a while, which I regret not clarifying sooner. I stand with survivors of sexual violence everywhere, no matter who they are”, she said.
“Comments I made on ABC radio in March this year were misinterpreted to mean that I disbelieve Israeli survivors of sexual violence. This is not the case. I always have, and always will stand with survivors of sexual violence,” she said.
Tame said Human Rights Watch had been unable to find evidence to support the claim that Israeli women were raped en masse on 7 October 2023.
“However, I do not deny the legitimate accusations of rape made by individual Israeli women, including accounts of gang-rape,” she said.
“I do not hate Israelis. I do not hate Jewish people. I abhor the crimes of the State of Israel.
“I believe Israeli survivors, I believe Jewish survivors, as I believe all survivors. While the intention of my remarks was not to imply otherwise, I acknowledge and sincerely apologise for any harm their mischaracterisation has caused.”
Lynda Ben-Menashe, the president of the National Council of Jewish Women Australia, lashed Tame’s statement, saying it was not an apology.
“She called Israeli women’s widely proven claims of sexual violence ‘debunked propaganda,’ which added insult to their injury, and fanned the flames of incitement against all Jewish women – and men in this country,” she said in a statement.
“Saying she’s sorry for how people interpreted her words is not an apology. It neither rehabilitates her nor reverses the damage her original words did to us.”
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In the March interview, Tame was asked whether she had expressed outrage about Israeli women who were sexually assaulted during the 7 October attacks.
She said: “I’m not going to sink to the level of entertaining any kind of propaganda” and that “those things have been debunked”.
In 2024, the United Nation’s special envoy on sexual violence in conflict concluded there were “reasonable grounds” to believe sexual assaults including rape and gang-rape in several places took place during the 7 October attacks by Hamas.
Tame’s comments drew a rebuke from the Israeli embassy in Canberra, with a social media post accusing her of losing her “moral compass”.
The ABC’s ombudsman’s office said it received 145 complaints after Tame’s interview, while a further four raised “distinct but similar matters”.
