Scarred, scared
Many articles, opinion pieces, and editorials have been written celebrating International Women’s Month this March, heralding the contributions of women across nearly all fields worldwide.
Still, buried in the avalanche of feel-good stories are the tales of horror regarding the plight of Israeli women, which is largely being ignored by the outside world, particularly the atrocities that had been committed and are being committed against them by the terror organization Hamas.
Recognition and support for Israeli women had been fraught with challenges and systemic biases, Israel’s Ambassador to the Philippines Ilan Fluss, told
DAILY TRIBUNE during a roundtable discussion yesterday. According to the envoy, the events of 7 October 2023, during which Hamas massacred over a thousand people in Israel, marked a significant turning point for Israeli women, with the United Nations taking five long months before grudgingly admitting the horrendous crimes committed against them.
Many Israeli women, according to Ambassador Fluss, have been scarred for life, having faced unimaginable horrors at the hands of Hamas — sexual abuse, rape, murder and mutilation during captivity and in the aftermath of the attacks. Despite overwhelming evidence, their narratives have been met with skepticism and doubt.
For example, the UN’s silence on the continuing captivity of 19 Israeli women is deafening, with fears that many may have already been killed like the 30 other hostages that had been murdered.
According to Fluss, it’s almost a given, a painful fact that the 19, if they are still alive, had met the same fate as the other female victims of Hamas — raped and subjected to the most depraved assaults by their captors.
Hamas continues to hold 134 hostages in Gaza, yet there is a conspicuous absence of support and sympathy from international leaders and women’s organizations for the women captives during Women’s Month. This disregard,
“UN’s silence on the continuing captivity of 19 Israeli women is deafening, with fears that many may have already been killed like those 30 other hostages.