The Academic Engagement Network (AEN) Section for Women Faculty, a group of feminist activists and scholars from across US universities and colleges, issued a statement on Thursday slamming the National Women Studies Association’s (NWSA) failure to support Israeli women and girls in the wake of the Hamas attack on October 7.
The NWSA “has not spoken out against the crimes of rape, murder, and other atrocities perpetrated on defenseless women and girls on October 7, 2023. Further, it did not call for the release of hostages in Gaza, including women, girls, and female infants, who were held in dire conditions by Hamas,” the AEN statement stated.
The AEN also took UN Women to task for not demanding investigations and prosecutions of gender-based violence during the Hamas attack until December 1st – nearly two months after the Hamas rampage.
October 7th attacks expose dark side of women’s groups
The October 7, 2023 massacre of civilians in southern Israel was one of the largest attacks on women in modern history, with gruesome acts committed against hundreds of innocent women and girls who were murdered. Dozens of women were kidnapped and brought into Gaza as hostages – some of whom remain captive.
Violent and sexual crimes committed against victims – such as Shani Louk, who was raped and killed as her body was paraded around a Gazan mob – are among the most barbaric and sadistic attacks on women in recent memory, the AEN said.
“We are dismayed that for over two months, as testimonies from survivors, witnesses, and emergency medical workers and more documented forensic evidence from the murdered victims have been widely reported, the NWSA has chosen to remain silent,” AEN declared.
“The two statements that the NWSA released on October 11 and October 31 condemn Israel’s military response to the Hamas massacre yet fail to denounce the brutality of Hamas terrorists, who were given orders to rape. In them, there is concern for how the war is impacting Palestinian women and queer, trans, and non-binary people, but not a single word in support of Israeli victims or the hostages.
“The NWSA’s first statement unconscionably sought to rationalize and justify the Hamas massacre. The second, by accusing Israel of perpetrating genocide in Gaza, waded into Holocaust inversion,” explained the AEN.
The AEN said that NWSA can amend their neglect and injustice against Israeli female victims by unequivocally condemning the deliberate and premeditated attacks on civilians of all ages and genders, and the mass sexual violence against women and girls, by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023. The NWSA would also need to begin advocating for the 17 young women who remain in captivity in Gaza as well as start undertaking long-term actions – including forming a Task Force to assess and evaluate antisemitism and anti-Israel bias in the NWSA.
“The NWSA’s deafening silence to the plight of Israeli women and girls is inexcusable and a moral stain. It is deeply alienating to many Jewish women academics, including vulnerable non-tenured and contingent faculty and graduate students, who view the NWSA as their intellectual home and are in need of its resources and networking opportunities,” the AEN concluded.