"There are voices that tell them that it's a joke. The thought that a group of mature boys could think in these days that gang rape is a subject to laugh about really disturbs me because, as they say, in all jokes there's a little truth," said Moran Michel, one of the organizers of the protests, to Israel Hayom.
"It's unpleasant and uncomfortable, but it's time that we begin to deal with things that are uncomfortable, because specifically in this place we're making a difference. So we began a protest against the rape in Eilat two weeks ago and we won't stop until this is treated at the root," added Michel.
One sign referred to gang rapes in Eilat and Cyprus, reading "Ayia Napa - 12, Eilat - 30, 10th [grade] - 100." Another sign read "Silence equals consent."
The boys involved in the incident were suspended. Kfar Saba Mayor Rafi Saar met with girls from schools in the city on Monday and promised to have time set aside in schools throughout the city to discuss the issue.
The municipality will hold a Zoom lecture for parents along with the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel to give them the tools to handle questions from girls and boys and the difference between sexual abuse and healthy sexuality, according to Israel Hayom.
Graffiti was also found at a school in the city on Monday reading "There's no 10th-grade girl who doesn't give, there's no 10th-grade boy who doesn't get."
Saar arrived at the protest on Tuesday and was told "you came to listen, not to speak," according to Army Radio.
Sheli Sever, an organizer of the protest, told 103FM that a graduate of the Katznelson school in Kfar Saba told her that signs such as the ones revealed this week have been put up every year for the past decade. "It's a tradition of the 12th grade."
"Girls are taught to take care of themselves and be responsible, but we forgot to demand responsibility from the boys," said Maya Saad, a counselor for ninth and 10th grade students in the HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed youth movement in Kfar Saba, to 103FM. "We forgot to condemn their actions, we forgot that if we continue to tell girls how to dress so that they will not hurt, we teach the boys that it is okay to hurt. We forgot that discounts are not allowed."