In February 2024, Anat Stalinsky, along with cinematographer Sasha Gavrikov, began shooting the documentary “Screams Before Silence.” Sheryl Sandberg, the former chief operating officer of Meta Platforms, presented the film and conducted the interviews. The film details the sexual assault of women, men, and children by Hamas. It includes shocking testimonies from victims and eyewitnesses to rape at the Nova Festival and in Hamas captivity.
A screening of the film was held on July 15 at the Saban Theater, where 700 people watched the film’s depiction of the horrors of Oct. 7 and its aftermath.
“Screams Before Silence,” made for an international audience, was filmed in both English and Hebrew. It aims to address and counter the denial of the horrific sexual assaults on civilians by Hamas, providing testimonies — mostly from sight and hearing, sometimes firsthand — of the rapes and sexual assaults committed by Hamas terrorists.
Amit Sosna spoke in front of the cameras for the first time about the sexual abuse she endured in captivity. Agam Goldstein-Almog testified about her exposure to other abductees who were sexually assaulted. Dr. Ayelet Levy Shachar, whose daughter Naama was abducted and seen in a video with a bloodied face and clothes, discusses her daughter’s ordeal. Numerous eyewitness testimonies describe the rapes and brutality, and ZAKA members recount finding many naked bodies of women with their legs spread and foreign objects inserted in their vaginas.
Simcha Greiniman, deputy commander of ZAKA, Israel’s search and rescue organization, described finding many naked bodies with obvious signs of rape and sexual abuse. In the film he described one of them: “She had nails in her female organs. But not only nails, but different plastic and metal things.”
He added, “We are trained to collect parts, or even bodies in hard situations we go around the world to help. There were hundreds of bodies I dealt with. I don’t have words to explain what we saw.”
“I don’t have words to explain what we saw.” – Simcha Greiniman
Greiniman, who arrived especially from Israel for the event, went on stage after the screening, which left audience clearly moved and in shock. “I am the live testimony standing before you, before the world, speaking for the victims who no longer can,” he said. “The purpose of this movie is facing not only the tragedy that happened, but understanding what humanity is. All these people around the world, the suffering of sexual abuses of women, this is for sure something that has to stop.”
The screening was co-hosted by Daphna Edwards Ziman, co-founder and president of Cinemoí and founder of Justice for Women International/Children Uniting Nations, and Scooter Braun, music executive and activist against antisemitism.
Photographer credit: Linda Kasian
Ever since Hamas attacked Israel, Braun, who manages some of the biggest names in the music industry, has worked tirelessly to break the industry’s silence. Taking the stage, he spoke of his shock and disappointment over the silence of the world. “Over 400 were killed [at the Nova Festival] and 40 were taken hostage,” he said. “It’s the biggest music massacre in the history, and no one was saying anything? I was confused because we had the terror attack in Manchester. Twenty-two people were killed, and many more were maimed and injured. Within two weeks, the entire world rallied behind us, and we [held] ‘One Love Manchester’ just two weeks later, which was the biggest concert in the world, broadcast on every major network. Every social media site, and every artist from the entire community, showed up [to our] six-hour concert with the biggest names in music.”
In an effort to bring more awareness, Braun had helped put together an exhibit in New York using the canopy from the Nova Festival.
“We wanted to do something here that made people understand what happened to those kids,” he said, “these were innocent people, and it is absolutely inexcusable that we as a world and as a community can’t come forward and denounce this behavior.”
Immediately after the screening, there was a panel on what’s happening in the film and in Israel. Ahmed Fouad Al Khatib, a Palestinian peace activist originally from Gaza and now living in the United States, has lost multiple family members in the current Israel-Hamas war and said that he was pulled in different directions after the war broke out. However, he said, it’s possible to feel sadness for what happened to his home and people in Gaza and still feel empathy for the Israeli victims. One doesn’t go at the expense of the other.
“I talked to Palestinians one-on-one who confided in me how they’re absolutely horrified by the taking of women and children as hostages,” he said. “There are many in Gaza and throughout the Palestinian territories and the diaspora, who despise Hamas and are against them, but they are fragmented, they are afraid, and unable to speak out … my hope is to create a new political home where you can be supportive of our people’s aspirations for independence, peace, and statehood while also being against Hamas.”
Roz Rothstein, co-founder and CEO StandWithUs, and one of the eight panelists, said: “Israelis were massacred, tortured, raped and kidnapped by Hamas invaders on Oct. 7. Unfortunately, the world doesn’t quite understand the gravity of what Israel is going through in this tragic moment. This important film helps bring more understanding to the unfathomable suffering we are witnessing in Israel.”
Other participants at the panel were: Heidi Basch-Harod, executive director, Women’s Voices Now, Dr. Caroline Heldman, executive director, The Representation Project, and Dr. Steven E. Zipperstein, senior scholar at UCLA Center for Middle East Development. The event was produced with the support of Justice for Women International, Women’s Voices Now, Steve Tisch, Saban Theatre, Rabbi Baron of Temple of the Arts and StandWithUs.
“Screams Before Silence” is available on YouTube.
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