Women's Groups Silent As Rape Is Used As an Act of War

(Laurent Gillieron/Keystone via AP, File)

The United Nations is useless. In case you needed another example of that statement, look no further than the silence from the organization as women’s groups document the use of rape as a weapon of war. Israeli women were raped by Hamas during the October 7 attack. The silence of the United Nations has been deafening.

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For example, Sarah Weiss Maudi, a senior diplomat and legal adviser in Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, recently said that women’s rights groups and Israeli officials have documented the stories of women in Israel who were raped by Hamas and shared graphic documentation with the United Nations and groups that claim to protect and empower women. Weiss Maudi said they have received nothing but silence. “Their silence is so deafening that it’s sickening.”

Weiss Maudi, who last year became the first Israeli representative to serve as a senior adviser to the president of the 77th Session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, said that U.N. bodies, particularly U.N. Women, whose specific mandate is to champion the rights of women regardless of race or ethnicity, have simply refused to acknowledge that atrocities were committed against Israeli women – and young girls – despite much of it filmed by Hamas, and other Palestinian terrorists from Gaza, themselves.

More than 1,200 people were killed in the mass terror attack, which took place in more than 20 Israeli communities, army bases, and a mass music festival. A further 240 individuals, including women and young children, were kidnapped back to Gaza. While no victims of sexual crimes have yet to come forward directly – mainly because they were murdered, kidnapped, or are still reeling from the trauma, the Israel Police said last week that it had collected some 60,000 videos, including footage from the terrorists, victims, first responders, and CCTV, showing these gruesome crimes. Some disturbing eyewitness testimonies of gang rapes and other sexual acts have also been documented, the police said.

“What I don’t understand is that we provided very graphic and descriptive evidence of rapes, including gang rapes and the remains of semen on young girls, it was not good enough for the U.N.,” said Weiss Maudi. “Yet data provided by the Hamas Ministry of Health is accepted and quoted without any verification at all,” she added.

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Most of the raped women and girls were murdered. However, not all were and the organizations and U.N. agencies that have lectured anyone who would listen about sexual violence against women and girls are suddenly silent. They are hesitant to speak out. Why is that? Do the lives of Jewish women matter? The United Nations is routinely dismissive of Israel and its Human Rights Council often votes against Israel, but this is unacceptable.

Where is the U.N. Women agency? On its website, there is a reference to the October 7 massacres but that’s all. It mentions the “devastating impact of the crisis in Gaza on women and girls.” And, it mentions a two-day trip to Egypt by executive director, Sima Bahous. She called for “immediate and unhindered humanitarian access,” to Gaza. No mention of Israeli women and girls.

Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, chair of Israel’s newly formed Civil Commission on October 7th Crimes by Hamas Against Women, said the reaction of international women’s organizations was “deeply surprising and feels like a betrayal.”

“Instead of taking care of ourselves and focusing on helping our victims and survivors, we are busy fighting these reactions and trying to prove that there were numerous cases of rape or women killed, their bodies mutilated, in the most horrible of ways,” she said, adding, “Gender-based violence is more than just sexual violence.”

Elkayam-Levy, also a legal expert at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told Fox News Digital, “We have been struggling for weeks to get any recognition. Not only are they not responding or condemning what happened, they are now asking for us to provide more proof for the allegations.”

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Politically active celebrities are among those who give cover to the silence. On Monday’s episode of The View on ABC, Whoppi Goldberg said that she could understand why the U.N. agencies are hesitant to address the rapes and violence against women and girls. She suggested they didn’t want to “exacerbate” the situation. Exacerbate the violence when the perpetrators are Hamas animals? Are you kidding me? At least the token conservative on the show broached the subject in the first place about the silence by groups like those at the U.N. and the #MeToo movement. Alyssa Farah Griffin said what many women, myself included, have been thinking as she demanded they get involved

“I am still devastated — we’re two months since this war has been underway — by silence from women’s groups in this country about rape being used as an act of war in this attack,” Griffin said.

Griffin cited a recent video posted by Sheryl Sandberg, who wrote an op-ed for CNN that called the “silence” on Hamas’ sexual violence “deafening.”

“The fact that sexual violence was used against Israeli women and the major women’s groups in this country have not come out and denounced it. This weekend, Sheryl Sandberg put out a gripping video calling for it. That violates every rule of warfare. It is the height of immorality and the fact that the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Women Empowerment has been silent, the U.N. Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women has been silent, and the international MeToo movement has been silent,” Griffin said. .

Goldberg chimed in and suggested that the groups have been silent because they don’t want to exacerbate the problem.

“Perhaps the reason they’ve been silent is for the same reason that you just described,” she said. “Well, they don’t want to exacerbate it.”

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Goldberg argued that the war will end and no one is going anywhere. They eventually have to figure out how to manage to live next to each other. What Goldberg doesn’t mention is that Hamas, the animals who are the rapists and torturers of women and girls, will be destroyed by Israel because that is the only hope of co-existence with Gazans.

Sheryl Sandberg, formerly of Facebook and currently the founder of LeanIn.Org., wrote a compelling op-ed. Her message is that we must put aside the politics about the Israel-Hamas war and speak about humanity. People should be in agreement that rape should not be used as an act of war.

Because no matter which marches you are attending —or if you are attending none at all; no matter which flag you are flying — or if you are flying none at all; no matter what religion you practice — or if you practice none at all, there is one opinion that everyone can agree on: Rape should never be used as an act of war.

On October 7, Hamas terrorists committed unspeakable atrocities that we must speak about — and speak about loudly. Numerous witnesses have testified that sexual violence was widespread on that day, according to reports by Israeli investigators. An eyewitness has recounted the horror of watching a fellow concert-goer being gang-raped, then murdered. Rescue workers have reported recovering lifeless bodies, naked with their legs spread. Yet some are flat-out denying that these atrocities occurred. Even worse, some might actually believe that these women — mothers, daughters, sisters, and wives — ”deserved it.”

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Israel’s First Lady Michal Herzog denounced international human rights organizations for not speaking out. She said the silence is “devastating” and a failure for women everywhere.

“The silence of international human rights organizations, and the unwillingness to believe Israeli women in the face of overwhelming evidence has been devastating,” she wrote.

The Hamas attacks “deeply impacted our visceral understanding of the cruelty of gender-based sexual violence — and our faith in the international organizations that claim to care about women,” Herzog said.

Wednesday also saw US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield rap fellow UN Security Council members for minimizing or ignoring the crimes committed by Hamas, including sexual violence.

“Where is the universal condemnation? And where is the outrage?” Thomas-Greenfield asked during a Security Council session focused on the plight of women in the Israel-Hamas war.

Nearly 50 days after the October 7 massacres, the U.N. Women felt enough pressure to post a statement in social media. And then the organization deleted it.

“We condemn the brutal attacks by Hamas on October 7 and continue to call for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages,” read the initial statement, posted on UN Women’s instagram page. It was soon replaced with a statement that dropped the condemnation of Hamas and only called for the release of the hostages.

The organization claims it deleted the post because hostages were beginning to be released.

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“UN Women social media team had pre-planned days in advance [of] this particular post, but then the news broke on the release of hostages and we really wanted to focus on that,” she said. “UN Women has condemned the attacks by Hamas and the deaths of Israeli civilians from the beginning as well as called for the release of hostages, and we will continue doing so until the conflict ends. We have also called for all allegations of gender-based violence to be rigorously investigated, prioritizing the rights, needs, and safety of those affected.”

The message coming from women’s groups and organizations, especially the U.N., is that all women’s lives matter except for Jewish women. Antisemitism is rampant and those who can make a difference now are cowards.

*** If you made it all the way through that long post, thank you. I can’t shake the stories coming out of the Israel-Hamas war, especially the human interest stories. In order to help save our country and speak out about atrocities around the world, please consider supporting our work here by becoming a VIP subscriber. Go HERE and check out which plan works best for you. There is a very important presidential election coming up that will determine which direction our great country goes. Do we continue with the demise of America, domestically and on the world stage, by the Biden administration, or do we fight to change course and vote in a Republican administration in 2024? Help us fight the good fight here, as we do every day. Thank you for your support. ***

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