Feminist Silence: Hamas's Sexual Violence

by Nils A. Haug

• In November 2023, it was reported that the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, Reem Alsalem, notwithstanding overwhelming evidence to the contrary, claimed the evidence against Hamas "was 'not solid' enough to warrant a statement" -- to which London's Victims' Commissioner, Claire Waxman, replied: "How can we talk about eliminating violence against women and girls if we are tacitly saying its acceptable to rape Jewish ones?"
• Alsalem, from Jordan, claims the charges against Israeli forces are "reasonably credible," but refuses to divulge the source. In reality, no credible or proven instance of this behaviour by Israel's forces in Gaza since October 7 has been publicly recorded.
• "Organizations that fight for LGBT rights condemned the country that allows freedom, and marched for a terrorist organization that punishes gay people with death." — Jared Kushner, townhall.com, March 7, 2024.
• "Above all, we must at all times remember what intellectuals habitually forget: that people matter more than concepts and must come first. The worst of all despotisms is the heartless tyranny of ideas." — Paul Johnson, historian, thepublicdiscourse.com, January 23, 2023.
• Early women's liberation movements, forerunners to present feminist activism, were founded to proclaim women's rights to social equality. Radical feminism, as a narrow expression of the original movement, fails spectacularly in exemplifying society's moral and ethical precepts. Its advocates appear to prioritize narcissistic, egocentric identity ideologies over the sanctity, dignity, and ontological security of the individual woman.
• "We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." — Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, December 10, 1986.

For all advocates for women's welfare, especially in the area of sexual violence, the crucial concern at this time should be the terror perpetrated on defenceless females of all ages through acts of sexual depravity, torture, and death by Hamas in Israel on October 7. Pictured: A demonstration outside of United Nations headquarters in New York City on December 4, 2023, labeled "#MeToo unless you are a Jew," protesting the UN's silence about sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas terrorists against Israeli women and girls. (Photo by Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)

In November 2023, the UK Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy penned a poem, "We See You," celebrating the triumph of female soccer players. Success of women in traditional men's sports is certainly something to celebrate. Even so, a Poet Laureate's task is surely also to reflect deep contemporary issues affecting the nation. Duffy, a devoted feminist, gender activist, and supporter of the oppressed, has yet to address the most seminal issue of the moment for women's welfare: the horrific and systemic gender-based violence suffered by innocent Israeli girls and women, many raped to death, abused, tortured, massacred, with their sexual organs carved from their bodies by Hamas murderers on October 7, 2023. Perhaps she still might comment or pen an emotive poem, perhaps not.

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