Israel - Did UN Women Cover-up Sexual Violence by Hamas on October 7th? : Judith Levine / The Intercept / Fouad Kronfol
An interesting review of the recent up-tick of stories about sexual violence that ,among others, targetted the UN Women agency and has produced much press world-wide, including two of our XUNICEF members who commented about the subject in the Digest, with both supporting the unfounded accusations. I believe we should publish it as it refers to one of our sister agencies and casts serious doubts on the utilization of this narrative to discredit and de-humanize the Palestinian side.
Fouad
https://theintercept.com/2023/12/24/feminism-sexual-violence-hamas-israel/
Here is a summary of the key points from the document:
- On October 7, Hamas militants committed horrific sexual violence against Israeli civilians. The full scale is still being uncovered.
- Some have falsely claimed the October 7 rapes were ignored or covered up by UN Women and others due to antisemitism. There has been no cover-up. Verifying acts of violence during war takes a long time.
- The first criticism of UN Women's statements came from Jewish women's groups. They did not demand accountability from Israel, which was botching investigations into the crimes.
- Right-wing figures like Fox News hosts began portraying the events as UN Women collaborating with terrorists. They demand the UN be defunded.
- Liberal feminists also criticized the slowness to condemn, accusing other feminists of minimizing the attacks. Divisions emerged over recognizing Palestinian suffering alongside Israeli suffering.
- Israeli officials, especially Netanyahu, have exploited the outcry to shift blame away from failures in the investigations and killings of Palestinians.
- The demands for unconditional condemnation of Hamas serve to silence Palestinians and undermine left solidarity. The tribalism of picking one gender over another conflates care for one with debasement of the other.
- Ending the violence requires enforcing human rights law equally for all. Anti-racist, anti-violence feminism recognizes suffering on all sides, as in the "Feminists for a Free Palestine" open letter.
https://theintercept.com/2023/12/24/feminism-sexual-violence-hamas-israel/
There Was No Cover-Up of Hamas’s Sexual Violence on October 7
The right manufactured it, the media and feminists bought in — and Israel is exploiting the outcry.Here is a summary of the key points from the document:
- On October 7, Hamas militants committed horrific sexual violence against Israeli civilians. The full scale is still being uncovered.
- Some have falsely claimed the October 7 rapes were ignored or covered up by UN Women and others due to antisemitism. There has been no cover-up. Verifying acts of violence during war takes a long time.
- The first criticism of UN Women's statements came from Jewish women's groups. They did not demand accountability from Israel, which was botching investigations into the crimes.
- Right-wing figures like Fox News hosts began portraying the events as UN Women collaborating with terrorists. They demand the UN be defunded.
- Liberal feminists also criticized the slowness to condemn, accusing other feminists of minimizing the attacks. Divisions emerged over recognizing Palestinian suffering alongside Israeli suffering.
- Israeli officials, especially Netanyahu, have exploited the outcry to shift blame away from failures in the investigations and killings of Palestinians.
- The demands for unconditional condemnation of Hamas serve to silence Palestinians and undermine left solidarity. The tribalism of picking one gender over another conflates care for one with debasement of the other.
- Ending the violence requires enforcing human rights law equally for all. Anti-racist, anti-violence feminism recognizes suffering on all sides, as in the "Feminists for a Free Palestine" open letter.
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