Emily
Editor, Senior Moderator
https://forward.com/opinion/571297/israeli-women-rape-hamas-widow/
Israeli women were raped and widowed by Hamas. Now the world ignores and mocks their suffering
In the aftermath of Oct. 7, Israeli women have been considered both ‘unrapeable’ and sexually depraved
Lux Alptraum November 27, 2023
On Oct. 8, 2023 — a day after Israel experienced the most brutal massacre in its history — one of the first accounts of the sexual violence that Hamas waged against many of its victims surfaced. “Women have been raped at the area of the rave next to their friends bodies, dead bodies,” one survivor who’d attended the Tribe of Nova music festival told Tablet editor-at-large Liel Leibovitz. “Several of these rape victims appear to have been later executed,” Leibovitz added later in the piece.
Normally, one would expect a disclosure like this — not just of rape, but of rape followed by murder; rape in the midst of a violent massacre — to earn the victims and survivors sympathy and support. Yet what I saw from many people online was not empathy, but doubt and disbelief.
Over the past month and a half, as the Hamas attack gave way to a brutal military assault on Gaza, battle lines have been drawn in the public discourse. Commentators have been urged to “pick a side,” demonstrating their loyalty to one country’s wounded by ignoring or even outright mocking another people’s suffering. In the midst of this, Israeli women in particular have been hard hit, with their pain at best ignored and at worst turned into fodder for cruel memes...
Israeli women were raped and widowed by Hamas. Now the world ignores and mocks their suffering
In the aftermath of Oct. 7, Israeli women have been considered both ‘unrapeable’ and sexually depraved
Lux Alptraum November 27, 2023
On Oct. 8, 2023 — a day after Israel experienced the most brutal massacre in its history — one of the first accounts of the sexual violence that Hamas waged against many of its victims surfaced. “Women have been raped at the area of the rave next to their friends bodies, dead bodies,” one survivor who’d attended the Tribe of Nova music festival told Tablet editor-at-large Liel Leibovitz. “Several of these rape victims appear to have been later executed,” Leibovitz added later in the piece.
Normally, one would expect a disclosure like this — not just of rape, but of rape followed by murder; rape in the midst of a violent massacre — to earn the victims and survivors sympathy and support. Yet what I saw from many people online was not empathy, but doubt and disbelief.
Over the past month and a half, as the Hamas attack gave way to a brutal military assault on Gaza, battle lines have been drawn in the public discourse. Commentators have been urged to “pick a side,” demonstrating their loyalty to one country’s wounded by ignoring or even outright mocking another people’s suffering. In the midst of this, Israeli women in particular have been hard hit, with their pain at best ignored and at worst turned into fodder for cruel memes...