Women’s Rights Advocates Refuse to Condemn the Palestinian Cohort

Since the latest outbreak of the Israel-Palestine Conflict on October 7^th, the state of Israel has been relentlessly accused of systematically oppressing and abusing Palestinian women and girls.

For example, various UN representatives and women’s rights advocates, such as Reem Alsalem, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, and Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territory, recently issued an official statement wherein they claimed that the state of Israel has subjected women and children in Gaza to an “Onslaught of violence…” and that “…[Palestinian] women are being targeted by Israel with…vicious, indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, seemingly sparing no means to destroy their lives and deny them their fundamental human rights…”

Unfortunately, despite the fact that they claim to care deeply about the plight of every beleaguered woman and girl in Palestine and around the world, the overwhelming majority of all women’s rights advocates and organizations have refused to hold the Palestinian government and Palestinian organizations, such as Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, at all accountable for the horrific human rights violations and abuses that they have callously inflicted upon women and girls in Israel and Palestine alike.

Firstly, countless avowed women’s rights advocates and self-professed feminists throughout the international political system have all elected to ignore the depraved violence and sexual abuse, as well as the innumerable human rights violations, that Israeli women have been forced to suffer as a result of Hamas’ attacks on October 7^th.

For example, Amit Soussana, one of the hostages that Hamas captured on October 7^th, recently confirmed that, during her time as Hamas’ captive, she was consistently subjected to dire human rights violations, and routinely forced to endure various grotesque forms of rape and sexual assault, as well as innumerable savage beatings.

Furthermore, the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, recently confirmed that “…conflict-related sexual violence [including rape and gang-rape] occurred in multiple locations during the 7 October attacks…” and that “…sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment has been committed against hostages and…may be ongoing against those still held in captivity.”

In addition, Special Representative Patten reported that Hamas terrorists even raped dead bodies and that “The mission team also found a pattern of victims, mostly women, found fully or partially naked, bound, and shot across multiple locations…such a pattern may be indicative of some forms of sexual violence, including sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.”

And yet, virtually every women’s rights advocate and organization has completely ignored the horrific violence, sexual abuse, and innumerable human rights violations, that Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations have meted out against Israeli women since October 7^th.

Moreover, the overwhelming majority of all women’s rights advocates and ‘Palestinian allies’ have refused to address or even acknowledge the fact that, for decades, Palestine’s leaders and governmental organizations have mercilessly oppressed and abused Palestinian women.

For instance, Palestinian leaders and organizations, such as Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas, and the Palestinian Authority, have explicitly divorced Palestinian women from various fundamental human rights, such as ‘personal liberty’ and ‘freedom of expression’. In addition, Palestinian women are unable to travel freely within Palestine or to exit the Palestinian territories without the oversight and express permission of a male guardian.

Furthermore, Palestine’s governing regime and its overarching organizations have permitted sexual assault to become rampant in Palestine, and girls of all ages are routinely brutalized and forced into marriages against their will. Incredibly, over 20% of all Palestinian girls are forcibly married well before the age of 18, and 38% of married women in Gaza have been sexually abused by their husbands.

In fact, women and girls in Palestine are frequently the subject of ‘honour killings’ and are often savagely murdered, simply because they have somehow violated their familial honour or disregarded the dictates of their patriarch in some way. Verily, from 2015-2020, the total number of femicides in Palestine increased by more than 100%, and Palestinian society itself recently erupted into an uproar after Sabreen Yasser Khweira was gruesomely tortured and murdered by her husband after years of horrific physical and sexual abuse.

However, despite the glaring human rights violations and horrific abuses that Palestine’s leaders and governing organizations have consistently inflicted upon Palestinian women and girls, women’s rights advocates and organizations throughout the international political system have all utterly refused to admit or acknowledge that, for decades, Palestinian leaders and organizations have savagely oppressed Palestinian women and fundamentally violated their most basic human rights.

Unfortunately, although they profess to care deeply about the plight of women and girls everywhere, it is clear that the overwhelming majority of all women’s rights advocates and organizations have elected to ignore the profound violence, abuse, and human rights violations that Palestinian organizations and leaders, such as Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas, and the Palestinian Authority, have consistently meted out against women and girls in Palestine and Israel.

And yet, until women’s rights advocates and feminists everywhere begin to themselves earnestly discuss and openly condemn the abuses that Palestine’s leaders and governing organizations have brazenly inflicted upon women in Palestine and Israel alike, it is, sadly, readily apparent that women and girls of all ages will inevitably remain brutally oppressed and constantly at-risk within Palestine, Israel, and the Middle East.