IN THE MEDIA
The Fall of Grace
March 18, 2026 | Justin Amler
Sky News – 18 March 2026
October 7, 2023 was the darkest day for Jews since the end of the Holocaust. Israel’s border was breached by thousands of Hamas terrorists, who were later joined by many civilians. What happened next will go down as one of the most brutal and horrific attacks on civilians in modern history.
Entire families were burnt alive. Children hiding in safe rooms were shot dead. Old people were gunned down at bus stops. Teenagers, enjoying the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, were massacred at a music festival.
Men, women and children were raped, tortured and murdered by an evil that few can truly comprehend.
It was a moment of absolute horror documented like never before in history. GoPro cameras worn by the perpetrators captured the terror, the fear and the pain of the victims. They weren’t hiding their actions. They were celebrating it. They were proud of what they’d done.
But that wasn’t even the end of the story.
October 7 did not end on October 7.
In the days and months that followed, something else began to take shape – something more insidious. A blurring of moral clarity. A distortion of truth. A willingness, in some quarters, to question, minimise or dismiss what had occurred.
This is where Grace Tame, former Australian of the Year, comes in.
In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Tame was asked about the rape and murder of Israeli women on October 7.
Her response was unequivocal. She dismissed it as “propaganda” and claimed such accounts had been “debunked.”
Believe women, it seems, comes with a qualifier.
An investigation by the United Nations found “reasonable grounds to believe” that acts of sexual violence, including rape, occurred during the October 7 attacks.
Survivors and witnesses have described scenes that are difficult to comprehend.
Witnesses from the Nova music festival and nearby communities spoke of women found stripped and murdered, evidence that sexual violence formed part of the assault.
The evidence is not abstract. Released hostages have since described the constant threat of abuse in captivity.
Amit Soussana, who was dragged into Gaza at gunpoint, has publicly described being sexually assaulted while held in captivity.
As did Arbel Yahud and Ilana Gritzewky, who detailed their abuse in interviews.
Moran Stella Yanai spoke of humiliation, threats and the constant fear of sexual violence in captivity.
Footage of Naama Levy being dragged into Gaza, visibly injured and bloodied, became one of the defining images of October 7.
Romi Gonen said she faced ongoing sexual violence and feared she would become a “sex slave”.
To dismiss this as “propaganda” is not scepticism. It is the refusal to see.
Empathy cannot be selective. And truth cannot be optional.
And then there are those who cannot speak — whose lives were cruelly ended in the most atrocious ways imaginable.
That responsibility now falls to those who remember.
Tame’s dismissal of these accounts reflects a profound failure to recognise the gravity of what occurred.
To see someone who had been honoured with the title of Australian of the Year for her fight for women’s rights and against sexual abuse and rape, dismiss her own principles when it comes to Israeli victims is astounding. Beyond the obvious hypocrisy, it displays contempt for the values Australia claims to hold dear.
It insults not only the victims and their families, but the values most Australians hold dear.
October 7 led to two crimes. First, the horror of the attack itself. And second, the attempt to recast victims as perpetrators.
To dilute, deny or dismiss what occurred, and to turn testimony into something negotiable.
Edmund Burke is widely attributed to saying that “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
But Grace Tame is not just doing nothing. She is contributing to the spread of disinformation. This is not mere rhetoric. It has real consequences for Jews around the world, including Australia.
She claims she is the victim of a smear campaign, but this is entirely self-induced. The images of her calling to “globalise the intifada” on the steps of Sydney Town Hall — a phrase widely interpreted as a call for violence targeting Jews — will be long remembered by the Jewish community.
Especially in the wake of the worst terrorist attack in Australia’s history when Jews were targeted at a Chanukah event at Bondi Beach in December 2025, leaving 15 people murdered.
In many ways, the story of Grace Tame is not just about one individual.
It reflects a broader willingness to distort, deny, or dismiss uncomfortable truths when they do not align with a preferred narrative. This is what we have seen across segments of the anti-Israel movement since October 7 — and long before.
But truth must not be negotiable.
And when it is treated as such, it is not just one group that suffers – it is the integrity of public discourse itself.
Because when we lose the ability to recognise truth, we also lose the ability to recognise evil.
