Fury at the BBC and other media for their silence on Hamas rapes
► HUNDREDS OF demonstrators gathered outside Broadcasting House in central London on Sunday, holding posters with the faces of hostages and the words “BBC, The Guardian, Channel 4, Sky: Your silence is loud”.
It came as the BBC and other media outlets continue to be strongly condemned for their silence after the sexual violence inflicted by Hamas on October 7, as well as their perceived lack of outrage over the 136 hostages still being held by the terrorists.
A human installation of around 20 women and a few men wearing light trousers stained with fake blood around the crotch region, their faces covered with bruises using stage makeup, were bound and joined together by rope.
Demonstrators shouted: “Rape is not resistance”, “Bring them home”, and “Am Yisrael Chai” outside the broadcaster’s offices in Portland Place.
Orit Eyal-Fibeesh from Human Chain, a grassroots group that organised the event, said: “It has been 120 days since October 7. There are still 136 hostages held in captivity… [We] stand before you today deeply troubled by the lack of attention of the heinous crimes [committed on October 7]. It is truly astonishing that these acts can be overlooked by mainstream media.
“The suffering is swept under the rug because of convenience or politics. Rape is rape. Violence is violence. [Everyone has] a moral obligation to speak up.”
Ayelet Razin Bet Or, former director of the Authority for the Advancement of the Status of Women in Israel’s Ministry of Social Equality, said that on October 7 women’s bodies “became part of the battlefield”. She said: “In the face of terror, silence is complicity. This is not only a betrayal of Israeli women; it is a betrayal of humanity. If we cannot agree that rape is wrong, we have accepted the unacceptable.”
A small group of anti-Israel protesters attempted to interrupt Razin Bet Or, but were drowned out by singing.
MP Nicola Richards, who last week hosted the House of Lords to listen to Israeli women who dealt with the immediate aftermath of October 7, called her generation’s silence on the sexual violence “a blind spot”, saying: “For everyone who said these events never happened, they are doing the work of Hamas. For everyone in my generation who stays silent, they are doing the work of Hamas. I am here to tell broadcasters to tell these facts.
Women were raped and shot before, during and after being raped.
“Women were shot in their vaginas. Hamas dehumanised women and men.”
Richards read out the names of the 14 women and girls still held hostage, including Liri Albag, who turned 19 on Sunday.
Liat Kurdy, co-founder of Jewish Kurdish Association, said: “The [BBC’s] journalists saw the footage showing the reason why Israel had to defend itself, just like any other state would do. This did not stop the BBC continuing to show Hamas propaganda... Shame on you BBC for…standing on the wrong side of history.”
Joan Ryan, a former Labour MP, who resigned from the party to protest at Corbyn’s handling of antisemitism, said: “Hamas’ hatred for Jews and hatred for women combined to atrocious effect on October 7. Where is the revulsion? Where is the outrage? Why has the media failed to give this the prominence that it deserves?”
In an impassioned speech, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, deputy mayor of Jerusalem, said that when Russia attacked Ukraine, the “civilised world stood with the people who had been attacked. Israel gets attacked, and the very next day, there are marches around the world blaming the victims for being attacked.The BBC can’t even say Hamas are terrorists even though the UK government calls them terrorists.”
Shame on you for standing on the wrong side of history