Israeli women’s rights advocates demand UN acknowledgment of Hamas crimes

Ian Miles Cheong
  |   November 28, 2023   |   Be the first to comment

In light of the United Nations' campaign to raise awareness for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on November 25, there are disturbing reports from survivors and first responders about the events of October 7, orchestrated by Hamas, in which 1,200 Israelis were killed. These reports describe widespread sexual violence committed against women and girls during the terror attack.

A person who lived through the tragedy at the Supernova music festival, where approximately 360 individuals lost their lives, recounted seeing Hamas raping 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].”

The statement released by UN-Women on October 13 drew a parallel between the violent actions of Hamas and Israel's measures of self-defense. Additionally, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) did not directly denounce the terrorist acts committed by Hamas. Furthermore, the global #MeToo movement did not acknowledge either Hamas or the Israeli victims in its discourse, the Times of Israel reports.

On Wednesday, Israeli specialists in women's rights engaged with UN-Women for the first time to push for the formal acknowledgment of the crimes committed by Hamas against women and children on October 7. This meeting was the first of its kind between the UN mission focused on protecting the rights of women and children and Israeli advocates since the terror attack.

Following the meeting with Israelis, the UN Security Council met in New York on to discuss the situation in the Middle East and Palestine. During the meeting, UN-Women executive director Sima Bahous said she was “alarmed by disturbing reports of gender-based and sexual violence.”

On November 18, Samantha Pearson, the former director of the University of Alberta’s sexual violence center, was reportedly dismissed following her endorsement of an open letter that denied Hamas terrorists committed sexual violence.

The letter criticized Canada’s New Democratic Party leader, Jagmeet Singh, for repeating “the unverified accusation that Palestinians were guilty of sexual violence.”

Executive director of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, Orit Sulitzeanu, said that the failure of groups to condemn Hamas' abuse against women was 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 stated. “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.”

Ian Miles Cheong

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Ian Miles Cheong is a freelance writer, graphic designer, journalist and videographer. He’s kind of a big deal on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/stillgray

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