UN fails bias, antisemitism, & sexism test in help for Israeli women
The latest news concerning the United Nations’ response to allegations of rape and sexual abuse of Israeli women hostages and victims of Hamas’ October 7th Pogrom gets more disturbing by the day. As reported by The Times of Israel just a few days ago (“UN sexual violence envoy pulls out of Security Council briefing on Hamas hostages,” Jacob Magid, Times of Israel, May 14, 2024), the UN continues to never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity to show neutrality concerning the Israel-Palestinian dilemma and resulting war.
Pramila Patten, UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict and head of the UN Mission sent to review the Israeli hostage situation and issue their report, withdrew from attending the UN Security Council session. The special session was called by the U.S. Mission to the UN to raise continuing attention to the hostages issue regarding Hamas’ sexual abuses. One unnamed source claimed that her absence was politically motivated since she has faced pressure not to prioritize (my italics) Israeli abductees over Gaza’s Palestinian civilians caught in the middle of Israel’s war against Hamas.
Per the article, U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield has criticized the international community for their failure to pay sufficient attention to the hostages’ ongoing plight, and the October 7 Pogrom crimes perpetrated by Hamas. The goal of the meeting, held last Thursday, May 16 was to pressure Hamas to release the remaining hostages they are holding, “and to identify steps the Security Council can take to address and deter hostage-taking and the related use of physical and emotional abuse and mental anguish as tactics of terrorism.” The session, titled “Condemning hostage-taking in Israel on Oct. 7 as a psychological tool of terrorism,” was cosponsored by several other country missions including France, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Spain.
However, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres continues to dodge and/or ignore calls for a tougher stance regarding Hamas’ actions. Last month, he refused to include Hamas in Patten’s report on organizations suspected of committing acts of sexual violence during conflict. The report noted evidence of sex crimes committed October 7 but did not mention Hamas or attribute responsibility to any group or organization. The ongoing refusal by the Secretary-General to acknowledge Hamas’ role in the heinous attack that began the Israel-Hamas War is cowardly and possibly antisemitic. It is also a clear dereliction of his duty as the UN leader to retain impartiality and fairness regarding international tensions between countries and/or organizations.
Thomas-Greenfield delivered a strong speech at Thursday’s meeting condemning Hamas’ actions and thanking those who spoke regarding their experiences as hostages or family members of hostages. Her statement included the following: “Taking hostages is cowardly—a cowardly tactic designed to instill fear, manipulate governments, and advance nefarious agendas. It violates basic principles of humanity, and it undermines the rights and dignity of those who are held hostage…We also know that Hamas and other armed groups have refused to allow the ICRC medical access to the hostages….The UN Security Council has repeatedly condemned hostage-taking as a clear violation of international law (italics are mine) including in (several resolutions). And in (several additional resolutions), the Council called for immediate release of the hostages. Yet Hamas and other terrorist groups have not relented. So today, let us again demand Hamas release all remaining hostages. Doing so would also open the door to ending this conflict. The only-only thing standing in the way of all of this is Hamas (again, italics are mine). (They) could stop fighting today by releasing the first hostage…once the hostage crisis ends, a key component of the healing process will be promoting justice and accountability for those who see human lives as mere bargaining chips.” Hopefully, this allusion to the ICC regarding war crimes would apply to Hamas and its leaders and not just Israel or Netanyahu.
Greenfield-Thomas also reminded the Council that in a joint statement made last month by leaders from 18 nations, it was emphasized that “The fate of the hostages and the civilian population in Gaza, who are protected under international law, is of international concern.” She added, “We must press the Security Council to speak with one voice, as it has on other aspects of the Gaza conflict and unequivocally condemn Hamas for its terrorism and hostage-taking on October 7. Let’s be honest: the plight of these hostages has not received the attention that it deserves from the UN Security Council (italics mine). That needs to change, and I hope today is the first step towards that goal.” (Remarks by Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield at a UN Security Council Arria-Formula Meeting on Hostage-Taking. NY, NY. May 16, 2024. https://usun.usmission.gov/remarks-by-ambassador-linda-thomas-greenfield-at-a-un-security-council-arria-formula-meeting-on-hostage-taking/).
Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan reminded the council that 132 hostages taken on October 7 are still being held in Gaza and that this was the “first meeting being held by any UN body to focus on their suffering and ways to release them. The hostages are the most urgent and critical humanitarian issue that the council must focus on…..Has the council condemned Hamas and demanded they permit the Red Cross to check on the hostages? Have you imposed sanctions on Hamas leadership until they release the hostages? What action has been taken?” (Michelle Nichols, “Israeli hostage to UN: We can’t normalize this unprecedented terror,” Reuters, Middle East, https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-hostage-un-we-cant-normalize-this-unprecedented-terror-2024-05-16/).
A little background for those who may not remember the initial UN report (you would definitely NOT be the only one). Back in late January/early February, the United Nations finally sent a committee to investigate charges of rape and sexual abuse of Israeli woman hostages by Hamas. This was four months after the October 7th Pogrom, but better late than never. The UN Committee was from The Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict. The United Nations Committee’s findings were then sent to the Secretary General for review.
The Committee’s official visit was to Israel and the occupied West Bank, where they investigated charges of possible sexual abuse of Israeli women hostages and West Bank Palestinian women (all for fairness, mind you). Interestingly, they did not go to Gaza to check on all of the traumatized and devastated women there. The investigators found—surprise!– there might actually be some truth to the hostage and victim abuse allegations. According to several articles in the American Jewish press (including of course this newspaper) and mainstream American media, the committee was charged with exploring possible further actions if their investigations found examples of hostages’ abuse.
However, since the late 1990s the UN has shown its clear bias to third world countries including the Palestinians and to treat Israel as a ‘suspect’ nation. The official investigation document and its reception at the UN indicates that once again the UN has shown its antipathy —especially regarding women in general and Israel in particular. You can access the full Mission Report: Official Visit of the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict to Israel and the occupied West Bank, 29 January-14 February 2024 at this link: https://news.un.org/en/sites/news.un.org.en/files/atoms/files/Mission_report_of_SRSG_SVC_to_Israel-oWB_29Jan_14_feb_2024.pdf and the official UN Press Release on their findings here: https://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/press-release/israel-west-bank-mission/.
The committee notes many of the female hostages were still not ready to be interviewed (what a shock), that some corpses showed signs of sexual abuse but were too badly burned to make a clear decision about that abuse (maybe they should have tried waking the corpses up or have they ever heard of autopsies).
In another example of the UN’s blind-spot, it took about eight weeks for UN Women, a women’s rights group under the tutelage of the UN, to post and then shortly thereafter to delete a condemnation of the October 7th onslaught by Hamas. A Times of Israel article from March regarding the UN mission noted that “The mission team also faced specific challenges in gathering and verifying information on the occurrence of conflict-related sexual violence. The main challenge was the limited number of an access to survivors/victims of sexual violence….While the mission team was able to meet with some released hostages as well as with some survivors and witnesses of the attacks, it did not meet with any survivor/victim of sexual violence from 7 October….The mission team was made aware of a small number of survivors who are undergoing specialized treatment and still experiencing an overwhelming level of trauma.” The article also notes that at the Nova Music Festival site, “there are reasonable grounds to believe that multiple incidents of sexual violence took place with victims being subjected to rape and/or gang rape and then taken as hostages or killed while being raped.” (The Times of Israel. Amy Spiro and Agencies, March 4, 2024, “UN finds evidence of rape on Oct. 7 and after.”)
It took requests from the U.S., the U.K., and France for an emergency session of the UN Security Council to discuss the mission report. In fairness, the Security Council did call for the immediate, unconditional release of all hostages in resolutions adopted last November and December 2023. The special Security Council meeting last Thursday was supposed to consider a US-drafted resolution that includes a condemnation of the October 7 attack by Hamas (itals are mine) “as well as its taking and killing of hostages, murder of civilians, and sexual violence including rape.” The initial report also reported seeing murdered individuals, mostly women, whose bodies were naked from their waist down – and some totally naked – tied with their hands behind their backs, many of whom were shot in the head. On Road 232, credible information based on witness accounts describe an incident of the rape of two women by armed elements. Other reported instances of rape could not be verified by the committee.
The purpose of the visit to the occupied West Bank was to hear the views and concerns of Palestinian counterparts and engage with them on reports of conflict-related sexual violence received by the mandate, allegedly committed by Israeli security forces and settlers. The mission report claimed it was neither intended to, and nor could the mission team, in such a short period of time, establish the prevalence of conflict-related sexual violence during and after the 7 October attacks. The overall magnitude, scope, and specific attribution of these violations would require a comprehensive investigation by competent bodies. One wonders how much more eyewitness accounts and visual evidence the committee could have possibly needed to offer more clarity about the violence perpetrated upon these women and less evasiveness regarding these acts.
Key recommendations from the committee visit included: a) to continue to encourage the Government of Israeli to grant, without further delay, access to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, to carry-out fully-fledged investigations into all alleged violations; b) to urge Hamas and other armed groups to immediately and unconditionally release all individuals held in captivity and to ensure their protection including from sexual violence; c) to call on all relevant and competent bodies, national and international, to bring all perpetrators, regardless of rank or affiliation, to justice based on individual, superior and command responsibility; d) to encourage the Government of Israel to consider signing a framework of Cooperation with the Office of the SRSG-SVC.
Hamas’ sexual abuse of the hostages reveals the depth of their depravity, defiance of civilization norms, and their deep hatred not just for Israel and its Jewish inhabitants but also for democratized, Western-oriented, non-Shariah governments. If the UN wants to help end the current crisis in Gaza, with Palestinians in dire straits, perhaps they should consider putting at least some of the onus and responsibility upon Hamas and not just Israel. Hamas holds the key to the Palestinian predicament and once again proves that they are more concerned with their masters in Qatar and Tehran, and much less concerned with their own Palestinian brothers and sisters.
One must wonder about the passiveness of the Palestinian people, their acceptance of deep oppression that goes back even before Israel was established and when Palestine was under the control of the British. The Jews who came to Israel prior to WWII worked alongside the Arabs, although as their number increased one could understand how the Arabs became nervous about being outnumbered by Jews. To assuage Arab concerns, the British refused to accept European Jews seeking to flee Europe before and during WWII. However, after WWII when many of the ‘surviving segment’ of European Jews wanted to come to Israel the British still did not permit their entry. It is important to remember that many countries still limited entry to Jewish refugees both before, during and after the war. Once Israel was established, it was the one and only outlier country that agreed to take all Jews who wished to come.
How many Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, having faced some of the worst violence and depravity of the Nazis, still managed to reimagine their lives after having lost everything in their prior existence is no small wonder. These were beaten, abused people most of whom lost their entire families, returned to their previous homes to find them either occupied by neighbors or in villages that no longer had any Jews living there. Yet despite great physical and psychological trauma, European Jews managed to make a new life in Israel.
I will not defend the Nakba, Bibi Netanyahu’s extreme version of ‘and eye for an eye’, or the Palestinians’ terrible treatment at the hands of British colonialism. However, why were there no Palestinian leaders to address the difficult situation they were in? Where was the Arab League and other Arab countries after Israel was established to help displaced Palestinians. When leaders finally began to emerge, they were terrorists who were more concerned with damaging existing hegemony and extreme actions regarding eradicating Israel but with little concern or ability for building a new Palestinian nation. And it is important to remember that the UN (with British support) was prepared to partition Palestine with the Palestinians getting more land and the new state of Israel getting less. Yet the Palestinians were urged by Nassar and the Arab League along with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem not to accept the partition. FYI, Ben-Gurion was not happy with the partition either but was convinced to accept it. Fast-forward to 75 years later, and the Palestinians are still stuck without an official state, and divided between Gaza, the West Bank and Jordan.
One glaring example of Hamas’ dedication to terrorism against Israel and their disinterest of working to better Palestinian conditions: instead of pouring money into building massive tunnels and buying large quantities of weapons, Hamas could have taken Gaza’s Mediterranean beaches and built beautiful hotels with that money—the Gaza beaches are supposedly some of the best along the Israel coast. They could have created a tourist industry that would have provided jobs, money and some much-needed personal esteem for the Palestinian people.
The United Nations experts also said that they had “clear and convincing information” that hostages seized in Israel on Oct. 7 had been sexually abused in Gaza, and that they had investigated reports of abuse of Palestinians in Israeli detention. The UN Report “found signs that sexual violence was committed in multiple locations during the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and said that some hostages being held in the Gaza Strip had also been subjected to rape and sexual torture.” They “found reasonable grounds” to believe that sexual violence had occurred in at least 3 locations (“U.N. Team Finds Grounds to Support Reports of Sexual Violence in Hamas Attack,” Farnaz Fassihi and Isabel Kershner, NYTimes, March 4, 2024).
In short, the actions of the UN Secretary-General in particular and the UN in general once again prove the need for the State of Israel, the validity of Herzl’s Zionism (not to be confused with the current government of Israel’s right-wing version) and proves the limited support world Jews have for a permanent, safe place to exist.
What do you think about all this? I would like to hear your thoughts — and might include them in my post.
