NYT Hamas rapes report exposes hypocrisy of UN, radical Left, rights group

“We Talk About Women Being Raped, Not Men Raping Women.” - Jackson Katz, American filmmaker, educator and author The balaclavas concealing the murderous gaze were missing. The savages had shed the slightest of inhibitions in their bloodlust. Their fiendish eyes, the devilish chortle, and the diabolical intention, coupled with the chants of “Allahu Akbar”, petrified the witnesses as they saw women being brutally gang-raped, tortured and murdered. Maimed, mutilated, shot in the vagina, nails inserted into the groin and thighs, and burned to death, the bodies of around 30 women with their clothes torn off, legs spread and terrible injuries to their genitals were found in Israel on 7 October. The indescribable horror was perpetrated by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists as they launched a three-pronged blitzkrieg in the name of Islamic resistance against the storming of East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) last April. The horrors were revealed in a two-month  investigation by The New York Times based on video footage, photos, GPS data from cell phones, and more than 150 interviews of witnesses, medical personnel and soldiers. Some videos and photos containing graphic details of the frightening crimes were too disturbing to see and comprehend. The terrorists targeted the women, at least, in seven locations as part of a planned gender-based violence. There might have been more rape victims who couldn’t be examined as they were buried quickly per Jewish customs. The year 2023 ended on a gruesome and gory note as the horrid details of the sexual perversion made headlines. However, something more disgusting and abhorrent occurred after the sexual depravity of the monsters—and it continues. Silence and hypocrisy. The United Nations (UN), several countries, global human rights bodies, progressives, Leftists and Palestine supporters rallied for the Hamas terrorists by pathetically justifying the carnage as the pent-up anger triggered by Israeli atrocities. For them, it was Islamic resistance, not savagery. However, a  survey by the respected nonpartisan research group Arab Barometer in Gaza and the West Bank between September 28 and October 8 showed that 44 per cent of Gazans didn’t trust Hamas at all and 23 per cent had “not a lot of trust”. Only 29 per cent trusted the terrorist outfit. Besides, 72 per cent believed that the Hamas government was corrupt. Support for Hamas in Gaza increased only after Israel started pounding the coastal strip indiscriminately, killing women and children. The  Palestinian Centre for Policy Survey and Research found in December that 72 per cent of respondents in Gaza and the West Bank supported the Hamas attack. Still, the percentage in Gaza was less (52 per cent) compared to the West Bank (85 per cent). Undoubtedly, increasing Jewish settlements and settler violence against Palestinians is completely unjustified and should be immediately stopped with a concerted effort by world powers, especially the United States. But does  raping women, inserting objects into their private parts, decapitating and burning them and murdering children and the elderly constitute resistance against Israeli occupation? Condoning such heinous acts or avoiding mentioning them is as reprehensible as terrorism. On 27 October, the  UNGA adopted a resolution calling for an immediate, sustained humanitarian truce leading to the cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas without rejecting and condemning the terrorist attacks unequivocally. The UN “no longer holds even one ounce of legitimacy or relevance”, Israel’s representative Gilad Menashe Erdan said at the UN. “This resolution does not even name Hamas. Why are you defending terrorists that deliberately beheaded children and abducted babies?” he rightly asked. Similarly, on 12 December,  another UNGA resolution calling for a ceasefire neither condemned Hamas nor made any specific reference to it. In fact, two amendments specifically referring to Hamas were voted down by members. “Not only does this resolution fail to condemn Hamas for crimes against humanity, it does not mention Hamas at all,” Erdan said at the UN. The hypocrisy reached its limit when women’s rights group UN Women, criticised for its silence, issued a statement on Instagram on 24 November condemning the Hamas attacks 50 days after the massacre  only to delete it. “We condemn the brutal attacks by Hamas on October 7 and continue to call for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages,” read the initial statement, which was replaced with the demand for the release of the hostages. A day later, UN Women was only “alarmed by gender-based violence reports” and called for “rigorous investigation”. From the start, UN Women’s every public statement focussed on criticising the IDF campaign, the war’s impact on Palestinians and demands for a ceasefire, not the raped and butchered Israeli women. When UN Women deputy director Sarah Hendriks was asked by CNN anchor Bianna Golodryga about failing to “specifically call out Hamas” for the sexual violence despite the “mounting evidence” provided by Israeli investigators, she was only “deeply alarmed at the disturbing reports of gender-based and sexual violence on October 7”. “We absolutely unequivocally condemn all forms of violence against women and girls,” she added without naming Hamas.

“Is there a reason [@UN_Women] can’t specifically call out Hamas & the mounting evidence… Israeli investigators have collected… [of] the atrocities they committed on Oct 7?” @biannagolodryga spoke w/ @UN_Women’s @sarah_hendriks about the response to Oct 7. Watch their exchange. pic.twitter.com/azKaScBNgy

— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) November 29, 2023

It took 53 days for UN secretary general Antonio Guterres to condemn the “abhorrent acts of terror by Hamas”. “There are numerous accounts of sexual violence during the abhorrent acts of terror by Hamas on 7 October that must be vigorously investigated and prosecuted. Gender-based violence must be condemned. Anytime. Anywhere,” he posted on X.

There are numerous accounts of sexual violence during the abhorrent acts of terror by Hamas on 7 October that must be vigorously investigated and prosecuted.

Gender-based violence must be condemned. Anytime. Anywhere.

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) November 29, 2023

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Erdan was quick to slam Guterres for ‘discriminating’ between the raped Israeli women and other rape victims. “The Secretary-General’s words only sharpen the fact that when it comes to Israeli women, sexual violence that has been proven by state authorities still needs to be ‘investigated’. For him, when it comes to Israeli women, you can doubt the facts and wait 55 days to call an unknown party to conduct an ‘investigation’,” he posted on X.

The Secretary-General's words only sharpen the fact that when it comes to Israeli women, sexual violence that has been proven by state authorities still needs to be “investigated.” For him, when it comes to Israeli women, you can doubt the facts and wait 55 days to call an… pic.twitter.com/Evntm9jAEg

— Ambassador Gilad Erdan גלעד ארדן (@giladerdan1) November 30, 2023

Guterres was “merely trying to calm the justified anger of many around the world for his silence and the silence of the UN”, the Israeli ambassador added. It  took 52 days for a UN commission of inquiry probing war crimes in the Israel-Hamas war to announce that it would pass evidence of sexual violence onto the International Criminal Court and called for it to consider prosecutions following Israeli criticism. On the other hand, the UN, human rights organisations, Leftists and progressives never doubted the Palestinian casualty figures provided by Hamas. Whatever the terrorist group says is the gospel truth. The photographic and video evidence showing dead bodies outside Palestinian hospitals is true—but so is the proof of sexual violence provided by Israel. The discrimination between one set of evidence as truth and the other as fake or concocted is appalling and belies logic. The world never demanded proof of the sexual violence committed by the men of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chechen Republic’s head Ramzan Kadyrov against Ukrainian women during the ongoing war. In January 2023, Ukrainian prosecutor Iryna Didenko said that her office was investigating 154 cases of sexual violence committed by Russian soldiers. “Ground forces arrive, and rapes start on the second or third day,” she said. Way back in June 2022, 100 days after the Russian invasion, UN secretary general’s special representative on sexual violence in conflict  Pramila Patten said, “Too often have the needs of women and girls in conflict settings been sidelined and treated as an afterthought.” By 3 June, 2022, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights had received reports of 124 incidents of sexual violence against Ukrainian women, girls and children committed by Russian forces. None of the members, including China—which hasn’t condemned the Hamas attacks as terrorism—except Russia opposed Patten neither demanded specific evidence substantiating the allegations of sexual abuse by Russian soldiers. Dai Bing, China’s permanent representative to the UN, said the “use of sexual violence as a tool of war is a serious crime and any allegations should be investigated in an impartial manner that is based on facts”. However, China has neither condemned Hamas for the terrorist act nor its sexual violence. As Natalia Karbowska, cofounder-director of strategic development, Ukrainian Women’s Fund, said, “Sexual violence in this war is the most hidden crime.” Karbowska’s right because several Israeli women buried after the Hamas rampage couldn’t be medically examined to ascertain whether they were raped, and many others possibly sexually assaulted would remain silent to avoid shame. On the other hand_, the blatant discrimination against Israeli rape victims is disgusting, cringey and outright hypocritical._ In the first eight weeks after the Israel-Hamas war, Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued 51 press releases accusing Israel of “war crimes” with only a brief passing reference to the rapes and murders by the terrorists. More than two months after the Hamas rapes,  HRW issued a press statement on December 12 only calling for an investigation into the sexual crimes without acknowledging the evidence. “New information continues to emerge about the killings of civilians in southern Israel by Hamas-led gunmen on October 7. This includes harrowing reports of sexual violence that demand urgent, careful, independent and credible investigation,” said HRW,  which had mentioned war crimes, including rapes, committed by Russian soldiers. Amnesty International, which documents and mentions rapes committed during wars, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, has been silent on the Hamas rapes till date. Amnesty has issued 29 press releases about Israel’s “ cataclysmic assault on the occupied Gaza Strip”, claims to have “documented unlawful Israeli attacks” and called for such actions to be “investigated as war crimes”. The ‘NYT’ report is a tight slap on the face of Hamas apologists, rape denialists, human rights groups, the radical Left and progressives. But was it even required to prove that the Israeli women were raped? Mounting evidence describing  harrowing stories of sexual violence committed by Hamas had started emerging within days from the Supernova music festival, the main target of the terrorist attacks. Eyewitness accounts of traumatised young women who watched in silent horror the gang rapes, mutilation and murders had already started pouring in. One month after the bloodbath, NBC News reviewed a Hamas pamphlet discovered on November 2 that instructed the terrorists to order Israeli women in Hebrew to “raise your hands and open your legs” and “take off your pants”. NBC News also reviewed the interrogations of five captured Hamas terrorists and six images of naked or partially naked female bodies, seven eyewitness accounts of rape and mutilation and 11 testimonies of first responders. “They had a thing with sexual organs—both in women and men,” a first responder told the police in a videotaped testimony. A videotaped interrogation showed one terrorist saying “to have our way with them, to dirty them to rape them” as a war tactic. Another terrorist admitted to having “having sex with dead bodies”. Even Hamas posted a video on Telegram showing a  young Israeli woman with her hands tied and blood-stained sweatpants at her crotch. The viral video showed her being pushed into a jeep with multiple terrorists amid chants of “Allahu Akbar”. The Washington Post reported footage showing  several women were stripped and an Israeli reserve combat paramedic finding many bodies of  teenage girls with signs of sexual assault. Reuters reported about a Supernova survivor witnessing the  gang rape of a woman and describing it to Israeli investigators, according to footage shown to journalists. Hypocrisy clouded #MeToo.  Graphic details of women and girls with their pants pulled down, blood on their private parts, bruised, scratched and smashed pelvises weren’t enough to move sympathisers of terrorism, who squawked at the rapes of Ukrainian women or Yazidi women assaulted by the Islamic State without demanding video evidence. Would questioning Hamas about the brutal rapes and demanding an investigation betray the Palestinian cause or the right to live of Gaza children and women blown to pieces by relentless Israeli bombing? No. But these double-faced human rights groups and women’s activists dismissed the rapes as a figment of Israeli imagination or dissemination of fake news intended to malign the Hamas ghouls. Their whataboutery aimed to deny the right to justice of the raped Israelis and bolster their claim that the monstrosity was the result of Israeli occupation. Denying the rape and sodomy committed on 7 October will not boost the Palestinian cause. These Hamas sympathisers aren’t a bunch of uneducated street protesters unmoved by facts and guided by disinformation. They are well educated, informed and acutely aware of human rights. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rightly questioned the insincerity of women’s rights groups. “I say to the women’s rights organisations, to the human rights organisations, you’ve heard of the rape of Israeli women, horrible atrocities, sexual mutilation—where the hell are you?” he said at a press conference on December 5. Gal Abdush’s body was found with her dress torn, legs spread, vagina exposed and face burned beyond recognition. Her two children will live with the horror and the same question, “Where the hell were you?” The writer is a freelance journalist with two decades of experience and comments primarily on foreign affairs. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost_’s views._ Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.