‘Beheaded babies or raped women is a lie’
The beheading of Israeli babies and rape of Israeli women during the October 7 massacre was propaganda and lies, US Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-New York) said last November in a video discovered by Politico on Tuesday.
In a TikTok video posted by former Westchester County Board of Legislators legislative assistant Amy Vele, Bowman participated in a pro-Palestinian protest, calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza war. Bowman addressed the crowd and made several controversial statements.
“There was propaganda used at the beginning of the siege,” he said in the video. “There’s still no evidence of beheaded babies or raped women, but they still keep using that lie.”
Politico asked Bowman if he still believed that and he replied: “The UN confirmed that Hamas committed rape and sexual violence, a reprehensible fact that I condemn entirely... I always stand against sexual violence in all forms and stand for peace for all.”
During the footage of the protests, Bowman also said while they called for a ceasefire and the release of Israeli and foreign hostages held by Hamas, terrorists and security prisoners held by Israel had to be released in the same way.
Bowman contextualized the conflict with “what’s been happening for 75 years,” claiming that occupation was a war crime, and that Israel was credibly accused of apartheid.
Hamas’s actions on October 7 were war crimes, he said, adding that Israel was compounding them by using white phosphorus as a weapon and calling on Palestinians to leave their homes.
Bowman said he was calling for a ceasefire because he did not want more Israelis or Palestinians to die.
During the same protest, the video shows that pro-Palestinian protesters chanted, “Resistance is justified when people are occupied,” and “Biden, Biden you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.”