Sheryl Sandberg is on a mission to make sure October 7 horrors aren’t forgotten
Filming a documentary about the terror attack in Israel, former Meta executive Sheryl Sandberg says this is ‘the most important work of my life’.
Sheryl Sandberg, billionaire, feminist and corporate star, is using her fame to turn the world’s attention to Israeli victims of sexual violence on October 7.
Sandberg has spent a whirlwind four days in Israel filming a documentary on sexual violence that was part of the attack, interviewing survivors and witnesses on a bare-bones set in a cavernous, cold warehouse and travelling to kibbutzes and the site of a music festival where 1200 people were murdered in the worst terrorist attack in the country’s history. She’s seen photos of dead bodies of women she says show clear signs of sexual violence.
“You can’t unsee all these photos,” she says.
Sandberg says she can’t sleep and struggles to stop crying. She choked up repeatedly, tears filling her eyes but not quite spilling out, during an interview with The Wall Street Journal inside a brewery 20 minutes outside Tel Aviv where she’s shooting the film.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that both women and men experienced sexual violence on October 7, based on discussions with forensic experts who worked with the bodies, first responders and Israeli investigators.
Images provided by first responders and reviewed by the Journal showed the genitals of men and women had been mutilated, and included a photo of a woman with a knife and nails in her crotch area and another whose breast was almost entirely sliced off.
The Journal also reported at least three survivors of sexual assault on October 7 have come forward to Israeli investigators. Hamas has denied accusations of rape and mutilation by its fighters.
The October 7 attacks triggered Israel’s war against Hamas in which more than 27,000 people in Gaza have been killed, the majority women and children.
For Sandberg, the reports of sexual violence drew her back to the public spotlight after stepping down from her post as chief operating officer at Facebook parent Meta Platforms in 2022. In late January, she said she would be stepping down from the board in May.
She’s still not ready to speak about work. She declines to answer questions about the role social media has played in spreading misinformation about October 7 or other questions that weren’t directly about the documentary she’s working on.
Before joining the film, Sandberg had already spoken out about sexual violence on October 7 in an opinion piece for CNN in which she called out the “deafening silence” over the issue. She went to the United Nations in December to urge the body to condemn the violence.
Sandberg says she thinks the polarising nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has led too many people to shy away from condemning the way Hamas used sexual violence as a tool of war.
“No matter what else you believe about the tragedy of lives lost in Gaza, no matter what else you believe, we have to believe that rape is wrong,” Sandberg says.
The film is tentatively titled Screams Before Silence. Sandberg is working with Israeli production firm Kastina Communications to produce the documentary as quickly as possible. Filming has been running from 8am-9pm every day. Most shots are of Sandberg sitting on a chair across from survivors or witnesses. She says she cries during much of the shooting, and often ends up hugging and crying with those she is interviewing.
Kastina, which has produced popular Israeli TV shows such as the first season of Fauda, is involved in eight additional films on the war. Some have been shown on local Israeli TV channels. Screams Before Silence will mostly be in English, and Sandberg and the producers are hoping they can find an international distributor.
Sandberg’s name was first raised as a partner for the documentary by Joey Low, one of the film’s investors. Low asked former US ambassador to Israel Tom Nides to introduce Sandberg to Kastina chief executive Meny Aviram in early January. Aviram says Sandberg agreed to be a part of the film after five minutes speaking on the phone.
“To get someone like Sheryl to lead it is something we never dreamt of,” Aviram says. He hopes that her leading the film will make people around the world more inclined to listen.
Sandberg says being in Israel, speaking to witnesses and seeing the destruction in the kibbutzes has changed her.
“This is the most important work of my life,” she says. “Everything I’ve learned and experienced, I really believe brings me to this moment.”
The Wall Street Journal