Submission to UNHRC 57th Session: International Community Must Hold Palestinian Perpetrators Accountable for Sexual Crimes against Women
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On October 7, 2023, thousands of Palestinian terrorists poured across the border from Gaza into Israel, slaughtering 1200 people, torturing and maiming thousands, including 36 children who were slaughtered in their homes. Hamas, and other terrorist groups, also kidnapped more than 200 individuals, including women and children.
Survivors of the barbaric attack have reported witnessing the brutal raping of women and Hamas has published horrific images on social media showing members of Hamas engaging in sexual assault. Women and girls were paraded naked through the streets of Gaza while onlookers cheered. In one viral video, the near-naked and bloodied body of an Israeli German woman who was abducted from a music festival who was later declared dead is seen being paraded through the streets of Gaza in the back of a pickup truck. Crowds of Palestinian civilians are seen cheering and spitting on her deformed body while chanting “Allah hu akbar.” According to rescue units, there were “bodies of women and girls raped with such violence that their pelvic bones were broken.” The Israeli Police Chief confirmed that a pregnant woman’s stomach was sliced open and her fetus removed while she was alive, and that women’s breasts were sliced off and tossed around. Testimony from captured Hamas terrorists revealed they were ordered to rape whoever they came across, and found amongst the bodies of Hamas terrorists was an Arabic-Hebrew transliteration glossary with sexual terminology, including “take your pants off.”
Unfortunately, international women’s organizations and the United Nations have said almost nothing on the brutality faced by Israeli women during Hamas’ aggression, war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity.
In June 2024, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC)’s permanent “Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel” (COI) published a report drawing false equivalence between IDF soldiers and Hamas with regards to acts of sexual violence, while simultaneously demonstrating double standards and prejudice against Israel. On one hand, the COI was able to “identif[y] patterns indicative of sexual violence in several locations…and this violence was not isolated but perpetrated in similar ways in several locations and by multiple Palestinian perpetrators.” On the other, despite that survivors of the barbaric attack have reported witnessing the brutal raping of women and Hamas filmed and published horrific images on social media showing members of Hamas engaging in sexual assault, the COI claims, “The Commission did not find credible evidence, however, that militants received orders to commit sexual violence and so it was unable to make conclusions on this issue.”
The COI also falsely claims with no evidence that “allegations of sexual violence on 7 October 2023 have resulted in a sense of emasculation among Israeli men on a national scale, which has supported attempts to rebuild Israeli national masculinity through aggression.” At the same time, when discussing sexual violence allegedly carried out by Israel, the COI claims the IDF’s actions were “intended to humiliate and degrade the Palestinian population as a whole.” Additionally, unlike with Hamas that live streamed their war crimes, in the case of the IDF, “Based on the way in which such acts were committed, including with filming, photographing and posting material online, in conjunction with the many cases with similar methods observed in multiple locations, the Commission concludes that forced public stripping and nudity and other types of abuse by Israeli military personnel were either ordered or condoned.” The COI even goes so far as to claim “specific forms of SGBV are part of ISF operating procedures…leads the Commission to conclude that forced public stripping and nudity and other related types of abuse were either ordered or condoned by Israeli authorities.” In fact, the IDF, like many other security forces, engages in strip-searches in order to ensure detained individuals are not carrying weapons or explosives.
This behavior of ignoring sexual violence of Israelis is not new to the UN. Nearly two months after the brutal rampage and only following widespread condemnation for her silence did the UN Women executive director first mention she was “alarmed by disturbing reports of gender-based and sexual violence,” failing to mention Hamas or Israeli victims.
After only more condemnation and two more weeks did UN Women issue a statement condemning Hamas’ use of sexual violence. Likewise, the UN Secretary General did not condemn the sexual violence against Israeli women until eight weeks after the atrocities. In response to the silence by the United Nations, Professor Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, who served for 12 years on the UN Committee on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, affirmed she felt “completely betrayed” by the international women’s rights organizations for their failure to condemn – or even recognize – the rape, kidnapping and other atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists against Israeli citizens on October 7.
International campaigns were launched and rallies were held to express outrage at the silence by international bodies whose mission was to protect the rights of women. The hashtag “#MeTooUnlessURAJew” spread widely on social media. At a December rally in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, one of the organizers declared, “All murdered, raped, abused, humiliated, mutilated women and all the ones who are still in captivity as we stand here today, and all the survivors, deserve much better than words. We will not tolerate this, and we won’t be silenced. We won’t stop. This act of UN Women will never be forgiven or forgotten.”
The international community must hold Palestinian perpetrators accountable for international crimes against women, including sanctions, prosecution, and punishment. UN officials and special experts, motivated by discriminatory attitudes, must also be held accountable for their shameful silence because the victims were Israeli and Jewish.
