2023-11-23 Global women’s rights groups silent as Israeli women testify about rapes by Hamas ¶
Introduction ¶
Despite widespread evidence of terrorists’ systematic acts of sexual brutality on Oct. 7, most worldwide organizations either have no comment or bash IDF’s military campaign in Gaza
As the United Nations promotes an awareness campaign ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on November 25, chilling accounts from survivors and first responders who witnessed Hamas’s October 7 massacre of 1,200 Israelis paint a horrifying picture of systemic sexual assaults perpetrated against women and girls of all ages.
One survivor of the Supernova music festival, where about 360 people were slaughtered, described how she witnessed Hamas terrorists rape an Israeli girl: “As I am hiding, I see in the corner of my eye that [a terrorist] is raping her,” the witness recounted.
“They bent her over and I realized they were raping her and simply passing her on to the next [terrorist].”
These denials of the sexual abuse perpetrated by Hamas have far-reaching consequences ¶
Yet many feminist and women’s rights organizations worldwide have remained conspicuously silent — and some are even questioning the veracity of the accusations.
These denials of the sexual abuse perpetrated by Hamas have far-reaching consequences, including the deterrence of other sexual abuse victims from seeking help.
Among others, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (also known as UN-Women) released a statement on October 13 equating the Hamas brutalities with Israel’s self-defense.
Likewise, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) neglected to explicitly condemn Hamas’s atrocities.
The international #MeToo movement completely failed to mention Hamas or the Israeli victims ¶
And the international #MeToo movement completely failed to mention Hamas or the Israeli victims.
On Wednesday, Israeli women’s rights experts met with UN-Women for the first time to advocate for official recognition of Hamas crimes against women and children on October 7.
It marked the first meeting that the United Nations mission dedicated to upholding the rights of women and children has held with Israeli advocates since the Hamas onslaught.
Following the meeting with Israelis, the UN Security Council met in New York on “The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question.” There, UN-Women executive director Sima Bahous said she was “alarmed by disturbing reports of gender-based and sexual violence.”
In her speech, which focused on the plight of women in Gaza and in the Palestinian Authority, she also condemned Hamas’s crimes inside Israel and promised they would be investigated.
But Bahous’s slim acknowledgment of reports of sexual abuse is unfortunately the exception ¶
But Bahous’s slim acknowledgment of reports of sexual abuse is unfortunately the exception, not the rule.
In one high-profile case of sexual abuse denial, on November 18 Samantha Pearson, the former director of the University of Alberta’s sexual violence center, was fired for endorsing an open letter that denied Hamas terrorists had committed rape.
The letter criticized Canada’s New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh for repeating “the unverified accusation that Palestinians were guilty of sexual violence.”
Orit Sulitzeanu called the failure of groups to condemn Hamas’s abuses against women a betrayal ¶
Orit Sulitzeanu, executive director of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, called the failure of groups to condemn Hamas’s abuses against women a betrayal.
“The very essence of gender equality and women empowerment groups worldwide is to assist victims of such atrocities. A pregnant woman was cut open and her unborn baby was shot. How could anyone stay silent when faced with such horrific acts?” said Sulitzeanu in a conversation with The Times of Israel.
Referring to Pearson’s signing the open letter, Sulitzeanu added that “the denial of October 7 rapes by the head of the Rape Crisis Center at the University of Alberta is unbelievable.”
“Denying the horrific sexual assaults, gang rapes, the sadistic acts of abuse of children and women is simply incomprehensible,” Sulitzeanu said.
“That Pearson chose to take a political stance against the fundamental principles of working with victims — to believe in what happened, understand the difficulty of coming forward and testifying, and acknowledge that the ability to speak up is a time-consuming process — is disheartening.”
Michal Herzog published an opinion expressing outrage and betrayal over the international community’s failure to condemn the gender-based sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas on October 7 ¶
On Wednesday, Israeli First Lady Michal Herzog published an opinion piece in Newsweek expressing outrage and betrayal over the international community’s failure to condemn the gender-based sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas on October 7 .
“A Hamas video from a kibbutz shows terrorists torturing a pregnant woman and removing her fetus. Our forensic scientists have found bodies of women and girls raped with such violence that their pelvic bones were broken,” wrote Herzog
Conclusion ¶
To combat this, Tal Hochman, government relations officer at the Israel Women’s Network, which promotes gender equality in Israel, started a petition supported by over 140 organizations demanding condemnation by all UN bodies of the crimes committed against women on October 7.
Hochman told The Times of Israel that UN organizations’ inertia could encourage Hamas to perpetrate further sexual crimes against the roughly 240 hostages being held in Gaza.
“UN Resolution 1325 specifies that women and children should receive special protection in times of conflict or in captivity.
We need our feminist and human rights allies to condemn those crimes and push for the release of women and children held in Gaza,” said Hochman.
She explained that clear condemnation might have prompted the UN to send task forces to Israel to help document the gender-based violence, collect evidence and help treat the victims.
Elkayam, of the Civil Commission gathering evidence of Hamas’s sexual abuse, reiterated the betrayal she says all women felt from UN bodies’ failure to condemn Hamas’s crimes against women and young girls.
“Their silence is deafening,” Elyakam said.
History will judge their inability to express solidarity with victims of these despicable crimes in a country that suffered its worst attack since the Holocaust ¶
History will judge their inability to express solidarity with victims of these despicable crimes in a country that suffered its worst attack since the Holocaust.