Silencing the Screams One Year Later

Less than a week before Thanksgiving, Nada flew all the way from Oklahoma to show up next to me for a screening and panel discussion of Screams Before Silence and our film, Daughters of Abraham, at Southern California’s private, liberal arts Occidental College. Hosted by the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, our program was the final installment of the Friday Feminist Film Series focusing on the theme of sexual violence. Moderated by actress Esme Bianco, survivor of sexual assault at the hands of Marilyn Manson, and supported and attended by Victoria Valentino, who blew the whistle on Bill Cosby one decade ago, the series intended to elevate the ongoing, global issue of sexual violence against women and our need to support survivors who dare to speak up. Throughout the semester however, the screenings were sparsely attended despite the celebrity speakers and relevant topics to students of women, gender, and sexuality studies.

In the month leading up to the screening, Department Chair, Dr. Caroline Heldman, shared that the series had been boycotted because of the inclusion of Screams Before Silence, the film produced by Sheryl Sandberg, documenting the sexual violence that occurred on October 7 in Israel by Hamas terrorists, and the subsequent denial that it occurred. Wherever posters of the series appeared on campus, the part mentioning the November 22 event, were ripped off. In our pre-panel prep meeting, Nada noted it reminded her of the ripping down of hostage posters since they first appeared in the weeks following October 7.

Understanding the volatile climate on campus, Dr. Heldman agreed to add Daughters of Abraham, a short film following the journey of Palestinian-American, Nada Higuera, and myself, an Israeli-American. We thought our commitment to connecting and humanizing each other in the midst of violence and war, conveyed in the film, may positively influence others who showed up at the screening, even if they attended in protest.

Remaining hopeful for an opportunity to dialogue around the accusation of Sheryl Sandberg’s film being a propaganda piece, Nada and I prepared to share with a full room of passionate, enraged students about making space for the other side’s pain and suffering. Nada’s own journey of moving through the denial of the October 7 sexual violence, resulted in her realizing that denial did not help Palestinians in their just cause and pursuit of human dignity and self-determination. For the past year, she and I have been saying yes to interviews and sharing our film, with the earnest belief that showing up, together, can set an example for those who feel they must choose a side in this catastrophic time.

Dr. Heldman prepared us for disruption, for a handout requested by students to be disseminated with a list of “lies” presented in Screams Before Silence, but she assured us that the room would be full because the RSVPs were, in fact, coming in. What happened instead was unexpected.

Led by the chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, they employed an alternative tactic to prevent and censor dialogue from taking place. Rather than protesting outside the building, or disrupting the event itself, supporting faculty organized a counter event at the same time, 6pm on a Friday night, on the theme of “Transnational Feminist Solidarities”. The subtext, that coming together in solidarity to witness the experience of Jewish women and sexual violence in the midst of war was not considered a discussion of transnational feminism, did not escape me. But that wasn’t enough. They managed to have one door of the building locked where our event took place. They assembled students throughout parts of the campus to redirect people to their event, under the guise that they were heading to the Friday Feminist Film Series. By the time the misguided realized they were in the wrong place, they felt it would be rude to come late to the screening and discussion. One event attendee, who managed to see through the ruse, shared that the woman she spoke to even had an earpiece through which she was coordinating with others to prevent people from getting to our event.

There were five students who did make it to the Friday Feminist Film Series. Four of them were Jewish. As though two films addressing sexual violence and war weren’t disturbing enough for one Friday evening, what the students had to share was equally unsettling. Through torrential tears, sobs and shudders, the freshmen shared their experience of being silenced and punished on campus for refusing to join Students for Justice in Palestine, for not putting “Free Palestine” stickers on their water bottles and laptop computers, for not donning keffiyehs in solidarity. For refusing to simplify a complex global conflict and rejecting their Jewish and Zionist identities, their college experience is fraught with tension and a sense of insecurity. According to them, this event was the first that took place acknowledging what actually happened on October 7.

In the midst of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, I ask us to bear witness to the continued silencing of those women and men who were brutally violated and murdered on October 7. To acknowledge that, as an international community, we continue to fall appallingly short on our commitment to human rights and dignity. Regardless, we must continue to speak out against the hypocrisy and the censorship, through the tears and the intimidation. We owe it to ourselves and to those whose lives were violently ended.