Editor’s note: The following article includes extremely graphic descriptions of sexual assault and war crimes. The subject matter also is controversial in that the leadership of Hamas has denied its agents engaged in sexual assaults and other watchdog groups have questioned the validity of these claims. However, the preponderance of evidence now coming to light and reported by major U.S. media outlets affirms the horrific reality described here. BNG’s commitment in the current war is to tell this story from different perspectives.
Misogyny and cultural “norms” subjugating women are widespread in much of the Islamic world. These include female genital mutilation, forced marriages, persecuting women for not dressing according to strict Islamic standards, “honor killings” and much more.
It’s no surprise then, but shocking and horrific nonetheless, that one “weapon” in Hamas’ inhuman massacre of more than 1,200 people in Israel on Oct. 7, brutalizing thousands and kidnapping more than 240, including young children and elderly women held hostage in Gaza, was the raping of Israeli women in the process.
Underscoring that these are not individual criminal acts but part of something that was widespread and deliberate, it’s been described as a sexual pogrom.
Jonathan Feldstein
Adding insult to the injury, groups and people that should be advocating for women’s rights — and under any other circumstance would be calling out such criminal behavior — have turned a blind eye to the forensic evidence, eyewitness accounts and confessions of Hamas terrorists as if the victims and sexual crimes didn’t matter just because they are Jews. The evidence is clear. Medical examiners have reported some of the rapes were so violent that the women’s pelvises were crushed.
A growing chorus has condemned ignoring these crimes, some even denying that they happened, using the hashtag, #Metoo_unless_UR_A_Jew.
If the crimes happened to anyone else in the world, women’s groups, human rights organizations, the United Nations and others would be decrying it. But the silence to these crimes that depict a depraved pattern of sexual violence used by the terrorists against their victims is criminal in and of itself.
If Hamas’ goal was to murder as many as possible, how did the terrorists allow themselves to stop for a gang rape? How is rape in any way part of any “resistance” that Hamas claims and the Islamic world celebrates? How did those fighting for the “resistance” ever think this was acceptable? How could any one of the Islamic terrorists be aroused when inflicting such horrors, much less multiple gangs of them?
“If Hamas’ goal was to murder as many as possible, how did the terrorists allow themselves to stop for a gang rape?”
The answer is simple. It was premeditated. It is inhuman evil Islam at its worst. It’s the marrying of worship of massacring Jews with the overall repression of women. It’s a marriage made in hell.
This inhuman behavior does not stop at the borders of Gaza. It is at the core of how the Iranian Islamic regime treats women, and it trickles down to other adherents of the “religion of peace.” This is documented widely, including in the book “A Love Journey With God” by my friend Marziyeh Amirizadeh. If not for public outcry after her arrest and death sentence for converting to Christianity in Iran, she’d likely have experienced much more of the suffering many Iranian women who she knew in prison did, including the raping of virgins before they are executed as executing virgins goes against what some consider “Islamic values.”
The threat of raping Jewish women in support of Hamas’ inhuman behaviors also made it to the celebrated halls of Ivy League colleges. Last month, Patrick Dai, a junior at Cornell, was arrested on federal charges of posting threats to “kill or injure another using interstate communications.”
In public online posts, Dai threatened to “shoot up” a campus building targeting Jews, said he would “stab” or “slit the throat” of Jewish men and rape or throw off a cliff Jewish women on campus.
Other than the threatening remarks being horrific enough, it’s impossible to imagine how anyone could allegedly advocate for the Palestinians in upstate New York by threatening to rape Jewish women. It’s obscene.
The raping of truth also comes from women who are charged with protecting women from sexual violence. The University of Alberta fired Samantha Pearson, the head of the campus sexual assault center, who signed an open letter denying Hamas terrorists raped women during the Oct. 7 massacre. The letter censured Israel for repeating “the unverified accusation that Palestinians were guilty of sexual violence.”
“Naturally,” antisemites around the world, including women who never would question the allegations of rape by anyone else, are challenging the facts specifically because Israel is sharing these. Fortunately, non-Israelis have witnessed and reported on this reality. After witnessing the gruesome evidence of rape, filmed and broadcast by the terrorists themselves, journalist Jotam Confino wrote what he saw: “Two dead women lying on the grass at musical festival — both with no pants on. One has her panties taken half off. The other doesn’t appear to have any on at all.
He saw an “eyewitness describing how she saw a woman being raped by several Hamas terrorists, pulling her hair as they raped her and took turns. One of them cut her breasts off; the others played with them like a toy. The last terrorist to rape her shot her in the head and continued to rape her until he finished.”
Most of the most horrific documentation has not been widely released out of respect for the victims, and because this is part of ongoing investigations and likely additional criminal charges. But the terrorists’ confessions alone are abundant.
One terrorist was asked during his interrogation: “And why take the kids and babies?” He replied, “To rape them.” Another terrorist also confirmed babies were abducted and raped.
These captured terrorists were not acting as “freelancers.” There’s documented evidence of Hamas commanders issuing specific orders to the terrorists who perpetrated the massacres not only to kill and kidnap as many Jews as possible, but to rape and sexually mutilate Israeli women.
“Rape and sexual assault as a tactic in the context of terrorism and war is a war crime.”
In any other circumstances, where women ranging from babies to the elderly had been the victim of such ferocious, repeated sexual attacks, the #MeToo masses would have swung into full action. Yet that’s not happening. U.N. Women, which published numerous articles decrying the situation of women of Gaza, has ignored crimes against Israeli women. There has not been any recognition of Israeli women who were burned alive, beheaded, raped, had their breasts cut off, had their babies cut out of their stomach or been violently kidnapped.
The silence of those who purport to fight sexual violence on behalf of all women everywhere has been deafening. It’s especially problematic in light of Nov. 25 being United Nations-designated International Day for the Prevention of Violence against Women.
Rape and sexual assault as a tactic in the context of terrorism and war is a war crime. The Geneva Convention requires “women shall be especially protected against any attack on their honor, in particular against rape or any form of indecent assault.” The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court states that “rape, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy or any other form of sexual violence” is a crime against humanity.
In numerous previous wars, crimes against women were a cornerstone of international criminal indictments and prosecution of men responsible for orchestrating and participating in rape. Based on the silence of the world about these heinous Hamas crimes against women and girls, it is unimaginable that any special prosecutor will be enlisted to protect Israeli and Jewish women. The International Criminal Court historically has been so biased against Israel, as happens in many rape cases, it’s not impossible to see the ICC even blaming the victims. Maybe for dressing too provocatively.
Jonathan Feldstein is president of the Genesis 123 Foundation. He was born and educated in the U.S. and immigrated to Israel in 2004. He is married and the father of six. He is a leader working with and among Christian supporters of Israel and shares experiences of living as an Orthodox Jew in Israel through his work, writing and as host of the Inspiration from Zion podcast.
Major U.S. news coverage of sexual assaults of Israeli women:
Washington Post: Israel investigates an elusive, horrific enemy: Rape as a weapon of war
Reuters: Israeli forensic teams describe signs of torture, abuse
CNN: Israel investigates sexual violence committed by Hamas as part of October 7 horror
Newsweek: The Silence From International Bodies Over Hamas’ Mass Rapes Is a Betrayal of All Women
MSNBC: How feminists have failed Israeli victims of sexual violence
Related BNG articles:
WWJP? A checklist for testing the Christlikeness of your pastor’s ‘sermon’ about Israel | Opinion by Brad Bull
Violence begets violence: Hamas’ Pyrrhic victory | Opinion by Raouf J. Halaby
In this war, there are no ‘good guys’ | Analysis by Mark Wingfield