Rom Braslavski, a clear picture of the non-Jewish world’s failure
When I think of Rom Braslavski, two words come to my mind: abject failure. Those words, of course, do not come to my mind because of Rom himself — who ought to be lauded as a hero. But as a gentile who considers myself an ally to the Jewish people, I have found that in his face, I see the clearest picture of the non-Jewish world’s failure to live up to the promise of Never Again.
Sexual torture of young men during global conflicts is unfortunately not a new horror. In 2020, Human Rights Watch published a report detailing sexual violence committed against men and boys in Syrian detention centers as a form of torture. In 2018, the Women’s Refugee Commission released a report unveiling conflict-related sexual violence being committed against Rohingya males in Myanmar. Last year, The UN’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten published a report alleging that “clear and convincing” information was found that that sexual violence was committed against the hostages in Gaza. This report however, did little to change the reality that swaths of people, many of whom call themselves human rights activists, brush off stories of sexual violence against Israelis as inherently untruthful.
This hypocrisy has been called out frequently over the last two years, specifically in regard to the people who cry “Believe Women!” not including Jewish women in that cry against sexual violence. But with the revelation of male victims of sexual violence like Rom, the truth must be faced more fully. The non-Jewish world has not just written Israeli women off as untruthful; they have made it as clear as it has been in some 80 years that to be Jewish is to be seen as inherently dishonest. And by allowing themselves to think this, people grant themselves an escape from responsibility. For if they can convince themselves that an atrocity like Rom’s torture never happened, then there is no reason to sound the alarm.
But perhaps even more devastating is the fact that they don’t even have to deny it happened to get themselves out of accountability to the label they placed on themselves of “human rights activists”. Even if by chance the horrible thing happened, it can’t be labeled as an atrocity if committed against someone who, for the crime of being an Israeli Jew, “deserved it.”
The same moral rot can be seen in discussions around the intifadas. We are told that chants to globalize the intifada aren’t calls for violence, as the literal translation for intifada is uprising. But when the people making these claims are confronted with the reality of the second intifada which murdered Israeli men, women and children in suicide bombings, they don’t falter. Instead, they just as confidently insist that there is no problem with chanting to globalize that kind of violence, because Israelis deserved it anyways.
This eagerness to explain away Jewish suffering did not emerge out of nowhere. Its roots stretch back through decades of normalization of Jewish suffering in the Levant, and around the world, as understandable collateral to resistance.
And now, we must bear witness to the tree those roots have produced, whose branches hang heavy with the bitter fruit of moral failure. Organizations that promote co-existence receive comments of praise on their posts about the horrific suffering of Palestinian civilians, but when the same organizations post about the suffering of Israelis they’re jeered at. After the Capitol Jewish Museum shooting this past summer, major gun reform organizations like Everytown had to disable the comment sections on their posts memorializing Yaron and Sarah. This, because their posts received 1000s of comments telling them that their young lives weren’t worth memorializing, and that if they didn’t want to get shot, they shouldn’t have associated with the Israeli embassy.
Rom Braslavski’s brave testimony is not just about one man’s horrific ordeal. It is a mirror held up to the world of human rights activism that pats itself on the back for standing up for dignity, while at the same time distancing themselves from the suffering of Jews. A mirror that the activists who declare “Never Again for anyone!” will avert their eyes from, because to look at it would mean facing the truth. That when they cannot stand up against the sexual torture of hostages because the victims are Israeli, they have failed at what they frame as their higher call as justice seekers.
The essence of their failure is that it was not a fluke. It was a deliberate choice to abandon Jews, over and over and over again for the sake of convenience. It was a deliberate, cowardly choice to prioritize preserving their reputations within activist circles rather than risk being treated as a pariah for defending the humanity of Israelis.
To Rom, I believe you. To those who can’t say those same five words I only say this. If your commitment to human rights collapses on itself the second an Israeli victim comes knocking, an inspection of its foundation is in order.
