"Where the hell are you?" asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of human rights groups and women's organizations that have maintained a nauseating silence about the use of rape by Hamas as a weapon of war.
"I say to the women’s rights organizations, to the human rights organizations, you’ve heard of the rape of Israeli women, horrible atrocities, sexual mutilation? Where the hell are you?”
Netanyahu met with the families of freed hostages, where he heard stories of horrible atrocities committed by Hamas against Israeli women.
“I heard heartbreaking stories of abuse,” he said. “I heard, as you have heard, about sexual abuse and unprecedented cases of cruel rape.”
U.S. President Joe Biden also called out the international community for maintaining its silence in the face of horrible atrocities.
“Reports of women raped — repeatedly raped — and their bodies being mutilated while still alive — of [women's] corpses being desecrated, Hamas terrorists inflicting as much pain and suffering on women and girls as possible and then murdering them. It is appalling,” he said.
You should be aware that the following accounts of some of the atrocities in the New York Times are extremely graphic.
The body of one woman had “nails and different objects in her female organs.” In another house, a person’s genitals were so mutilated that “we couldn’t identify if it was a man or a woman.”
Simcha Greinman, a volunteer who helped collect the remains of victims of the Hamas-led Oct. 7 assault on Israel, took long pauses as he spoke those words on Monday at an event at the United Nations.
“Horrific things I saw with my own eyes,” he said, “and I felt with my own hands.”
“The world can’t just look away at what’s going on. It’s on all of us — government, international organizations, civil society and businesses — to forcefully condemn the sexual violence of Hamas terrorists without equivocation. Without equivocation, without exception,” Biden added.
But "the world" is looking away. And the silence is sickening.
Related: Some Investors May Have Had Advance Knowledge of Hamas Attack and Raked in the Profits
It took eight weeks for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to issue a condemnation of Hamas for committing sexual atrocities against Israeli men and women. Then, 57 days after the brutal Hamas attacks, the women’s rights group UN Women released a statement condemning the events of October 7.
“We unequivocally condemn the brutal attacks by Hamas on Israel on 7 October. We are alarmed by the numerous accounts of gender-based atrocities and sexual violence during those attacks,” the statement continued.
Women weren't the only Israelis targeted for rape.
Some of the recently released hostages shared testimonies of sexual abuse during their time in Gaza, participants said.
Separately, a doctor who treated some of the 110 released hostages told the AP that at least 10 men and women among those freed were sexually assaulted or abused, but did not provide further details. He spoke on condition of anonymity to protect the hostages’ identities.
There is testimony by dozens of women of horrific abuse and rape, but some left-wing Americans are demanding more proof of the rapes of Israeli women.
Briahna Joy Gray, a former Bernie Sanders press secretary, not only wants more evidence, but she claims no female victims have given testimony. CNN writer Jean Philipovic had a terse response to that point.
Yes it is generally the case that if you kill your victims, they can't testify against you. https://t.co/dOke8wCYP4
— Jill Filipovic (@JillFilipovic) December 5, 2023
And what about rape kits, Zionists?
“Believe all women” was always an absurd overreach: woman should be heard, claims should be investigated, but evidence is required. The same is true of the allegations out of Israel.
— Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) December 5, 2023
But also, this isn’t a “believe women” scenario bc no female victims have offered testimony. https://t.co/a3Ku6gzY8L
The pertinent fact is that the UN took nearly two months to mention the sexual violence against women. And the statements rang hollow for the women who have virtually been abandoned by those who claim to represent their cause.
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