The plight of Israeli women who are being held hostage is being ignored by the self same groups who ignored the October 7 gang rapes, mutilation of females’ genital parts and their subsequent murder. Ironically, the silence extends to the abuses and victimization of the over a million Palestinian women in Gaza. All this as hundreds of thousands parade in the streets glorifying the male mass murderers and hostage takers of, women, children, babies and the disabled elderly. (The organizations who fight for gender equality have to have noticed that none of the Hamas Freedom Fighters are women). All this as released Israeli women hostages claim that as they speak, “Women are being raped in the tunnels”.
In the Hamas - Israel conflict there are thousands of victims. There is however a deathly silence from those who purport to oppose violence towards women. Initially there was a two month silence at the evidence of October 7, proudly captured by Hamas, which surfaced immediately on social media. Now, unsurprisingly the vacuum of condemnation continues at the reported sexual violations of hostages in the tunnel empire Hamas has built with money labelled for Palestinian aid. In addition the every day plight of Palestinian women at the hands-of the men of the Strip is overlooked and a romanticized image of the male sociopaths is acclaimed in the streets of the world.
It isn’t enough that the Palestinian women are discriminated against in government, the military, education and job opportunities, they are subject to routine abuse. Jay H. Ell will outline the routine brutality towards Palestinian women before detailing the sickening abuse the Israeli women hostages are being subjected to. The latter plus Hamas’s public bragging of its gang raping, mutilation and humiliation of women lends credibility to what is reported to be happening in the tunnels.
None of Hamas’s actions are surprising. What is shocking is that there is no condemnation of the gender based violence by the organizations that purport to support the victims of such behavior.
THE GENDER BASED VIOLENCE OF PALESTINIAN WOMEN IN GAZA
The Israeli Defense Force, which has to be at least as credible as the Hamas Health Authority has extensive reporting, on its website, on the status of the Palestinian women in Gaza. There is no law in Gaza criminalizing violence against women, including that of a sexual nature that takes place in the family. When a complaint is made to the police it is reportedly largely ignored. There are no published figures as to the number and outcome. The general narrative is that these disputes should be resolved within the family. Where they are dealt with administratively the proceedings are public and the accusers are subjected to shame and ridicule.
Nearly 20 percent of girls between the ages 12 - 17 reported physical or psychological sexual abuse while 50 percent of married women did likewise. One percent of the latter abuses are reported to the authorities. Honor killing is still implicitly sanctioned. Under an almost hundred year penal code if and when men are charged if they can prove that their honor has been impugned the maximum sentence is three years in prison.
As a women’s testimony is only worth half of that of men it stands to reason that they have not much chance of proving allegations. The inequality in law is exemplified by the disparity in sentences for adultery - six months for men and two years for women.
Child marriage is rampant with 13.4 percent of young Palestinian girls under the age of 13 being victims and a total of 29 percent under the age 18.
It is with this as a background and the fact that it took an eternity for the international bodies who fight against violence towards women to mention the desecration of women on October 7, that Jay H. Ell will bring to light most what is going on in Hamas’s tunnels.
THE SILENCE AT THE PLIGHT OF FEMALE ISRAELI HOSTAGES
One might have hoped that there would be a crescendo of world outrage led by Women’s Rights Organizations that the hostages in the Israeli - Hamas war be released. Surely their manifestos would mandate they investigate the plight of women being detained against their will. Rather there appear to be equal numbers of women in street demonstrations in every capital of the world supporting the male Hamas terrorists. Protest at the horror of the women’s plight is non existent.
There is ample of evidence of the atrocities of the hostages as they are being aired in “Hostage Square”, in Israel where there is growing anger and consensus that their freedom is the priority. Released hostages and relatives of those still incarcerated vented their rage in the Israeli Knesset at their plight.
Hostages that were released were witnesses to regular abuses. They claimed that the Hamas terrorists treated the women like dolls. They dress “the girls” in inappropriate clothes and do whatever they want.
A former hostage pleaded, “I can’t deal with it, it’s too hard…. I’m still there. My body is there. The boys also go through abuse - what the girls go through. Maybe they don’t get pregnant……". The hope was that women who were no longer experiencing their menstrual periods were unable to fall pregnant rather than that they already were.
As a women hostage exclaimed while this protest In Israel was occurring women were being raped in the tunnels. The world, particularly the bodies that fight gender based violence, have remained unsurprisingly silent.
THE STATEMENT ON THE VIOLATION OF WOMEN BY BIDEN’S SPECIAL ENVOY TO COMBAT ANTI SEMITISM AND THE PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF THE UN COUNCIL OF HUMAN RIGHTS.
In an op-ed piece in The Guardian following the original violence of women on October 7, Michelle Lipstadt, (Special Envoy), and Michelle Taylor, (UN Human Rights Council Member), stated the following. It is as applicable to the violations in the underground world of Hamas..
“The silence that followed was more than just concerning. It suggests a deeper issue of antisemitism that must be acknowledged and addressed. This apparent reluctance to believe the accounts of Jewish women, a stark deviation from the global commitment to believing survivors and condemning such acts, mimics patterns of Holocaust denial…. Such denial of Jewish women’s experience is a significant anomaly and needs to be called out for what it is….women and girls have suffered horrific sexual violence from Hamas.Where is the outrage”.
And of course it is not relevant to address what the male Hamas “Freedom Fighters” are inflicting on the female population in Gaza.
AT THE END OF THE DAY
The decisions of the International Court of Justice, (BLOG: Iran’s Newest Proxy, South Africa, libels Israel as Genocidal”), demand actions of both parties in the war. Significantly the Court did not demand a cease fire. Israel have to report in a month on their actions they are taking to provide humanitarian aid and to limit civilian collateral damage.
Surprisingly Hamas have been instructed to release the hostages unconditionally. The chances of that happening are between nil and zero. Hamas were not instructed to stop committing crimes against humanity nor were they asked to submit a report as to whether they have stopped raping women in the tunnels. The instruction to Hamas has been barely been reported on nor has there been a mention of the violence towards women that is taking place daily.
Nothing is unsurprising anymore. Certainly not the fact that United Nation Relief and Works Agency, (UNRWA), employees took part in the October 7 barbarism. Hamas military operations have been found in their “shelters”. Are UNWRA workers perpetrators or complicit in the sexual violence? Secretary General Gutierrez has been unsurprisingly silent on this matter.
And where have the UN Human Rights Division been on the abuses of Palestinian women in Gaza - the same place they have been on the October 7 gender barbarism and the rape of Israeli women in the tunnels - silent.
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