Silence is Betrayal

In the early hours of Saturday, October 7, Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, savagely murdering 1,200 babies, children, women, men, grandfathers, and grandmothers in their homes, and taking another 240 as hostages.

Among all the atrocities—documented by the terrorists’ bodycams, by surviving eyewitnesses, and by Israel police investigators —the ones committed against the women and girls were among the most hideous and shocking.

The Israel police, as well as a commission established by the Knesset to investigate crimes against women during the Hamas attack, have gathered extensive evidence of the rapes, gang rapes, and of post-mortem female mutilation.  An IDF spokesperson for the unit responsible for identification and burial of female soldiers told the Daily Mail that “there is evidence of mass rape so brutal that they broke their victims’ pelvises –women, grandmothers, children.”

One surviving eyewitness reported to the Israel Police that she observed a woman being gang raped; during the rape, the terrorists cut off one of the woman’s breasts and tossed it around among the gang rapists. One of those same men executed the woman with a bullet to her head even as he was raping her.

Twenty years ago, Rabbi Harold Schulweis, of blessed memory, and I co-founded Jewish World Watch as the Jewish community’s response to atrocities in Darfur, many of which involved the systematic rape and mutilation of women and girls. At the time, the world’s response to that violence was silence.

We pointed out then that the underlying history and political issues in Darfur, as in most such conflicts, might be complicated, but distinguishing between right and wrong behavior is not. And silence in the face of hideous abuse of women and girls doubles the horror.

Whatever one’s views are on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, what Hamas did on October 7 is not fraught with ambiguity or complexity—the rapes, murders and kidnappings are heinous crimes that should shock the conscience of all human beings.

Yet, even when confronted with such appalling images and information, where is the cry of outrage? Where are the reactions by international bodies, including women’s organizations, to these unspeakable attacks?

Even when confronted with such appalling images and information, where is the cry of outrage? Where are the reactions by international bodies, including women’s organizations, to these unspeakable attacks?

There is only silence from the U.N. Security Council, from the myriad U.N. committees established for the very purpose of calling out conflict-related sexual assaults against women, from the independent international organizations created to promote the safety, well-being, and political rights of women.

It is unfathomable to me why the violated bodies of Israeli women and girls are not being singled out for condemnation of the men who savaged them.  If the world’s institutions created to defend women can’t speak and act here, then what is their reason for existing?

Eight decades after the Holocaust, is the world tired of hearing about savagery against Jews? Or is it that women the world over are so often victims of violence that the gender-directed atrocities of October 7 are just another episode on a list as long as time?

One thing is becoming clear—this palpable silence has unleashed a centuries-old fear among Jews, a fear by now deeply enmeshed in our DNA, that, except for some brave leaders, we Jews may once again find ourselves standing alone.

Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, who directs Israel’s Bar-Ilan University’s Rackman Center on the Advancement of Women and who has represented Israel on the UN Committee to Eliminate Discrimination against Women, told Haaretz: “I feel a strong sense of desertion and even betrayal… [W]hat we are witnessing now, is simple disregard for what happened on October 7.”

Another prominent Israeli women’s rights advocate, Elkayam Levy, said, “All of the agencies that are involved in humanitarian crises should have at least offered recognition and support. We can’t even get them to the first stage of recognition.”

This silence betrays more than Israelis and Jews worldwide; it is a clear betrayal of humanity. I am outraged by the evil acts and outraged a second time over the silence.  If you are not outraged by and moved to speak out against the rape, mutilation and execution of Israeli women and girls, what will outrage you?

Janice Kamenir-Reznik is an attorney and co-founder, with the late Rabbi Harold Schulweis, of Jewish World Watch, an organization founded in 2004 to combat genocide.