Families lost loved ones that day, when more than 1,400 Israelis were killed, but many Israeli women escaped with their lives but not their innocence.
Few of those women are talking public about their traumatic experience, Joel Rosenberg, best-selling author and publisher of All Israel News, said on American Family Radio Tuesday.
“The Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Ardan, has really been scorching the UN and particularly the women’s rights council (known as The Commission on the Status of Women). They’re saying nothing -- nothing about the torture, rape and sexual brutalization of Israeli women by Hamas on Oct. 7,” Rosenberg told show host Jenna Ellis.
“Why does that not rise to a war crime? Why does that not rise to something that women's rights councils all over the world, whether they're on the Right or the Left of the center and especially at the U.N., why does it not matter? Is it only non-Jewish women that if they're raped that's a bad thing?” Rosenberg asked.
According to All Israel News, Erdan told the U.N. that Israeli girls were found “without tops, without underwear, without any clothes on.”
“Sadly, the very international bodies that are supposedly the defenders of all women showed that when it comes to Israelis, indifference is acceptable. To these organizations, Israeli women are not women, the rape of Israelis is not an act of rape. Their silence has been deafening!” Erdan stated.
The news outlet reported that U.N. Sec. Gen. Antonio Guterres began to show interest in an investigation into the brutalization of Israeli women as Monday approached, and Israel’s mission to the U.N. was scheduled visit U.N. headquarters in New York.
Last Monday, on Nov. 27, Guterres wrote on X, “There are numerous accounts of sexual violence during the abhorrent acts of terror by Hamas on 7 October that must be vigorously investigated and prosecuted. Gender-based violence must be condemned. Anytime. Anywhere.”
Erdan ripped Guterres, saying: “Two months after the massacre and the rapes, the UN remembered to propose an investigation? And by an antisemitic body? The only investigation that should take place is into the shocking silence and indifference of UN Women in the face of the rape and crimes of sexual violence committed against Israeli women.”
A horrific eyewitness account
Rosenberg said there is at least one eyewitness to some of these atrocities.
“I'll just give you one case," told the radio program. "I won't give it graphically, but an Israeli man that was in one of these communities along the border, he hid under a group of dead Israeli bodies, bodies of his friends and colleagues, for hours so that Hamas terrorists wouldn't find him. But as he hid, he witnessed one of the women in his kibbutz being raped seven or eight times and then shot and killed."
Rosenberg said the Hamas rapes violate accepted international rules of war and should thus be treated as war crimes.
The U.N. has been slow to react but support for the Israeli women has come from both sides of the political aisle, including by Hillary Clinton. She has made several public statements since Oct. 7, Rosenberg said.
“It’s an interesting alliance suddenly of conservative voices, men and women, along with liberal voices, men and women, including Hillary Clinton saying sexual violence is always wrong. Rape is always wrong, and it's wrong whether it happens domestically or internationally. And it's certainly wrong in the case of the war crimes that Hamas has committed,” Rosenberg said.
Where there’s very little talk of Hamas raping Israeli women is in the national media, he said.
“If it was Harvey Weinstein, we’d talk about it," the author complained. "If it was Bill Cosby, yes, and it was right to talk about those, but why isn't the world's media giving saturation coverage to these atrocities against Israeli women?
There is silence on Capitol Hill too, particularly from U.S. House members known as “The Squad,” an informal group of eight Democrats. The most well-known from news coverage tend to be Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Rashida Tlaib of Minnesota.
Tlaib has embraced the pro-Palestinian “River to the Sea” slogan – which basically calls for the extermination of Israel – that drew a censure from the House in November.
“Why aren't Rashida Tlaib, AOC, Ilhan Omar and others in The Squad who are women, why aren't they willing to forcefully speak out and denounce rape, sexual brutalization as well as beheading and setting people on fire the way they would if it wasn't Israelis?" Rosenberg demanded. "There's only one explanation for a group of high-profile women, progressive advocates for women's rights issues to be silent on this. That means they see Jewish Israeli women as deserving this."
