The silence of women around the world to the 7/10 sexual violence on Israeli women is deafening.
By Allan Wolman
The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) emphatically asserts that “All women and girls deserve to live a life free from all forms of violence”. UN Women marked the commencement of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25, extending through to December 10, Human Rights Day, known as the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence.
On October 7, Hamas terrorists callously initiated a savage and barbaric massacre, brutally murdering 1300 Israeli civilians in a horrific orgy of violence.
Despite the availability of forensic evidence, including eyewitness accounts, bodycam videos shared by Hamas terrorists on social media, and detailed reports from medical examiners, UN Women maintained silence, thereby falling short in its commitment to all women for 55 days. The New York Times, often critical of Israel, recently published an in-depth investigation into sexual violence on October 7 by Hamas:
In a CNN interview on November 28 (during the 16 Days), Sarah Hendriks, the Deputy Director for UN Women, refrained from condemning acts of brutality against Israeli women. Michal Hertzog, Israel’s First Lady, pointed out the complete absence of any condemnations of Hamas regarding gender-based violence, stating:
“It is not that condemnations of gender-based violence by Hamas have been weak or insufficient – there have been none at all.”
Hendriks recently removed around 153 anti-Israel tweets from her social media accounts, where she had made strong statements promoting anti-Zionism and accusing Israel of “genocide” since October 7th. A UN spokesperson acknowledged that her actions constituted a violation of her Code of Conduct
The silence of Michelle Obama, whose (“#BringBackOurGirls’) statement in the wake of 276 kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls in 2014, is deafening, but not surprising. The shameful and well-publicized testimonies in congress by the presidents of Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Institute of Technology continue to play out in the media. Linked to these elite college demands for ‘context’ is a bizarre report from the University of Minnesota’s Sima Shakhsari, a candidate for a senior position who has denied that Hamas-led terrorists committed rape and sexual violence during their devastating onslaught on 10/7. As a self-professed rape counsellor, she states:
“I believe the survivors. I am yet to see Israeli rape survivors of Hamas come and speak.”
(Photo: Lev Radin/VIEWpress)
What is astonishing is that in a letter co-signed by more than 700 “concerned South African Jews”, many of whom are women, the best expression they could muster was their “dismay”. Even after 80 days, not a single woman from that group has publicly condemned the violence specifically targeting women, raising concerns about the apparent disregard for the victims and their traumatic experiences by those concerned Jews, seemingly indifferent to gender-based violence against Israeli women. “We believe in the universal values of peace, justice and equality, and condemn in the strongest terms any and all violence against civilians, and against children in particular.”
But no mention of rape and sexual violence on women!
Do they join the Sarah Hendriks and Sima Shakhsari of this world by their complicit silence?
About the writer:
Allan Wolman in 1967 joined 1200 young South Africans to volunteer to work on agricultural settlements in Israel during the Six Day War. After spending a year in Israel, he returned to South Africa where he met and married Jocelyn Lipschitz and would run one of the oldest travel agencies in Johannesburg – Rosebank Travel. He would also literally ‘run’ three times in the “Comrades”, one of the most grueling marathons in the world as well as participate in the “Argus” (Cape Town’s famed international annual cycling race) an impressive eight times. Allan and Jocelyn immigrated to Israel three years ago.
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‘Silence is also an answer’; ‘Silence is betrayal and it is consent’ and “Silence is being complicit’ all apply to the contents of this excellent article. By contrast, Allan Wolman speaks out and says it all about the ‘deafening silence’ and reticence of women – particularly those in public life who purport to uphold women’s rights – in relation to the abominations perpetrated by Hamas on 7th October.