Does it seem odd than an international organization dedicated to women’s empowerment is silent on the rape, murder, beheading, torture, and kidnapping of Israeli women and children? Odd may be an understatement, considering that the United Nations Women agency continues to double down on its silence: “We continue to call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the immediate release of hostages, unrestricted and sustained humanitarian access,” the organization said today.
Since Hamas invaded Israel on October 7 — slaughtering women, children, and whole families — UN Women has omitted from its public statements mention of justice for Israeli women and children. The organization has instead highlighted the plight of Palestinians; UN Women’s recent “Voices from Gaza” article, for example, profiled a relocated Gazan. The organization publishes these stories to explain why it wants unfettered access into the Gaza Strip to deliver food, water, and fuel, all of which Hamas would likely steal if given the chance. Terrorists aren’t in the business of humanitarianism, and the elderly women in Gaza whose life-support machines need fuel won’t change that.
The developing nature of UN Women’s response is egregious. UN Women waited almost a week to issue a statement on the attacks. By the time it did, we had evidence of Hamas forcing Israeli women with blood-stained pants into vehicles, Hamas terrorists parading around a naked, limp girl in the back of a pickup truck, and Hamas slaughtering 40 babies in their own homes. Knee-jerk reactions to defend Palestinian civilians from an Israeli counter-attack could have perhaps been forgiven (and also corrected) if UN Women hadn’t first witnessed the slaughtered and bloodied women and children lining the streets of Israel. But Hamas’s systemic and deliberate attacks against Israeli women are well-documented, and UN Women’s refusal to acknowledge them is unforgivable.
I asked weeks ago: Where are the women? Hadassah Foundation, the largest Jewish women’s organization in the U.S., responded yesterday:
“It is outrageous that UN Women — an organization that calls itself a ‘global champion for women’ — could issue a statement following the barbaric Hamas terrorist attacks that so callously disregarded the lives and safety of Jewish and Israeli women. In violation of international law, Hamas launched a brutal terrorist attack on October 7, massacring more than 1,400 people, from babies to the elderly. Hamas kidnapped and continues to hold hostage over 200 people, including women and girls, and has circulated footage celebrating violence and the sexual abuse and rape of Israeli women. . . . Hadassah and the Hadassah Foundation call on UN Women to speak out for the protection of Israeli women — who were left out of its previous statement — and to condemn Hamas’ inhuman attacks, denounce rape and call on Hamas to immediately release all hostages.”
Hamutal Gouri, former executive director of the Dafna Fund, published an op-ed today in Fathom that asked UN Women to “gravely condemn the brutal attack and atrocities committed by Hamas to Israeli citizens.” This week, many women’s organizations also signed a letter demanding that UN Women recognize Hamas’s brutal war crimes against Israeli women:
The numbers of those slaughtered are not yet final and continue to rise, and the magnitude of the atrocities is still unfolding.
The terrorists documented their atrocious actions with their phones, and these films show how the terrorists who attacked the music festival raped women whose bodies are covered in blood. The films taken by the terrorists who attacked the villages near the border show terrorists ripping the clothes off the women hostages, spitting on them, and sexually abusing them. Some of the women who were physically and sexually abused were kidnapped and are now prisoners of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, with no medical treatment or hygiene. The full scope of the sexual abuse of the hostages is not yet fully known and should be fully investigated according to international law. Young children were taken hostage, including babies, toddlers, and many children who have already spent more than nine nights held by Hamas and Islamic Jihad in captivity. Some of the children have been separated from their families and are alone, without anyone they know. The thoughts about what these hostages are going through at this moment are heart wrenching . . .We, women’s rights organizations that have operated in Israel in the past decades, as well as women’s rights organizations around the world, cannot remain silent in the face of the suffering of innocent women and children wherever they are and the blatant disregard of the atrocities held by Hamas to Israeli citizens and the decision to ignore the hostage situation by UN WOMEN.
Frankly, that more women haven’t spoken out against UN Women is shocking. The United Nations is a pointless institution, but it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. UN Women, on the other hand, is an independent entity funded almost entirely by voluntary donations — which countries and organizations can take away no matter their U.N. member status. Private businesses donate heavily to UN Women, as do countless countries (the U.S. included). To my knowledge, not one has pulled funding as a result of the organization’s slighted response to terrorism.