My fellow women’s rights warriors around the world: In the years to come, you will have a lot of explaining to do about your behavior on and in the aftermath of October 7.
That was the day that Hamas terrorists committed heinous sex crimes against women and girls as part of their massacre of 1,200 innocent Israelis.
What will you say? That you were silent? That you sided with the rapists?
Know that the history of the atrocities, as well as your response to them, will be written in the blood of those women whose bodies and souls were desecrated.
Perhaps you think the tears and blood that drenched the soil where they were defiled and slaughtered have dried and can be forgotten. But this isn’t so. Those are still fresh and remain as evidence of every moment that they suffered, even if you choose to ignore the horror.
Do not imagine for a second that the sounds of their last breaths will not be heard because of your deafening silence. It is a grave mistake on your part to disregard their pain and the testimonies of those who witnessed it.
Feminist orgs used to be a source of inspiration
I am writing these words as a leader in the struggle for women’s liberty and equality. Feminist organizations used to be a source of light and inspiration, giving me the strength to keep fighting for a better world. But that sense of sisterhood and support collapsed when I needed it most.
On October 7, when those organizations should have led the outcry over Hamas’s use of rape as a weapon in its well-planned genocidal act of mass murder, they opted instead to look the other way. It was a blatant example of the lowest form of political hypocrisy, passing judgment on the victims rather than on the victimizers based on their country of origin and religion.
Is the blood of Israeli or Jewish women any different from yours? Were their screams, cries, and pain of no concern to you? How can you be indifferent to the plight of young women – mercilessly hunted down at a peace-and-love-themed music festival – whose brutal rapes were either documented by gleeful Hamas predators or witnessed by survivors?
Did you ever stop to consider how you would react if you, your sisters, mothers, or daughters were attending a party that suddenly turned into the scene of mass rape by monsters and your testimony was treated as a figment of your imagination?
You would be shocked, as you should be now. It is your duty to use your voice.
Has the Western world, which so proudly bears the flag of democracy, liberalism, human rights, and protection of the weak, lost its way to hate-based politics? It turns out that feminist organizations have certainly done so.
Maybe at this point there are no reliable such organizations. Maybe it’s time for them to replace their leadership with politically unbiased people whose sole purpose is to protect women everywhere, regardless of race, ethnicity, or religion.
This is a call to women around the globe to demand that feminist organizations fulfill their original purpose: to fight for us. We don’t want groups sullied by politically stained agendas.
It is long overdue for women’s rights organizations to denounce the atrocities of October 7 and do everything in their power to seek the release of our hostages – both female and male – held by Hamas in Gaza.
The writer is an Israeli women’s rights activist.