Since the latest outbreak of the Israel-Palestine Conflict on October 7th, the state of Israel has been relentlessly accused of systematically oppressing and abusing Palestinian women and girls.

In fact, numerous political pundits have used International Women’s Day as the impetus to attack the state of Israel for the abuses that Palestinian women have allegedly been forced to endure since the latest outbreak of the Israel-Palestine Conflict on October 7th.

For example, various UN representatives and women’s rights advocates, such as Reem Alsalem, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, and Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territory, recently issued an official statement wherein they claimed that the state of Israel has subjected women and children in Gaza to an “Onslaught of violence” and that “[Palestinian] women are being targeted by Israel with … vicious, indiscriminate, and disproportionate attacks, seemingly sparing no means to destroy their lives and deny them their fundamental human rights..”

Unfortunately, despite the fact that they claim to care deeply about the plight of every beleaguered woman and girl in the Gaza strip, the West Bank, and around the world, the overwhelming majority of all women’s rights advocates and organizations have refused to hold the Palestinian government and Palestinian organizations, such as Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, at all accountable for the horrific human rights violations and abuses that they have callously inflicted upon women and girls in Israel and Palestine alike.

Firstly, countless avowed women’s rights advocates and self-professed feminists throughout the international political system have all elected to ignore the depraved violence and sexual abuse, as well as the innumerable human rights violations, that Israeli women have been forced to suffer as a result of Hamas’ attacks on October 7th.

For example, Amit Soussana, one of the hostages that Hamas captured on October 7th, recently confirmed that, during her time as a Hamas captive, she was consistently subjected to dire human rights violations, and routinely forced to endure various grotesque forms of rape and sexual assault, as well as innumerable savage beatings.

Furthermore, the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, recently confirmed that “conflict-related sexual violence [including rape and gang-rape] occurred in multiple locations during the 7 October attacks” and that “sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment has been committed against hostages and … may be ongoing against those still held in captivity.”

In addition, Special Representative Patten reported that Hamas terrorists even raped dead bodies and that “The mission team also found a pattern of victims, mostly women, found fully or partially naked, bound, and shot across multiple locations … such a pattern may be indicative of some forms of sexual violence, including sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.”

Moreover, the overwhelming majority of all women’s rights advocates and ‘Palestinian allies’ have refused to address or even acknowledge the fact that, for decades, Palestine’s leaders and governmental organizations have mercilessly oppressed and abused Palestinian women. For instance, Palestinian leaders and organizations, such as Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas, and the Palestinian Authority, have explicitly divorced Palestinian women from various fundamental human rights, such as ‘personal liberty’ and ‘freedom of expression’. In addition, Palestinian women are unable to travel freely within Palestine or to exit the Palestinian territories without the oversight and express permission of a male guardian.

Furthermore, Palestine’s governing regime and its overarching organizations have permitted sexual assault to become rampant in Palestine, and girls of all ages are routinely brutalized and forced into marriages against their will. Incredibly, over 20 percent of all Palestinian girls are forcibly married well before the age of 18, and 38 percent of married women in Gaza have been sexually abused by their husbands.

In fact, women and girls in Palestine are frequently the subject of ‘honor killings’ and are often savagely murdered, simply because they have somehow violated their familial honor or disregarded the dictates of their patriarch in some way. Verily, from 2015-2020, the total number of femicides in Palestine increased by more than 100 percent, and Palestinian society itself recently erupted into an uproar after Sabreen Yasser Khweira was gruesomely tortured and murdered by her husband after years of horrific physical and sexual abuse.

Unfortunately, although numerous political pundits have used International Women’s Day as the impetus to attack the state of Israel for the abuses that Palestinian women have allegedly been forced to endure since the latest outbreak of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, it is clear that the overwhelming majority of all women’s rights advocates and organizations have elected to ignore the profound violence, abuse, and human rights violations that Palestinian organizations and leaders, such as Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas, and the Palestinian Authority, have consistently meted out against women and girls in Palestine and Israel.

Although they claim to care deeply about the plight of every beleaguered woman and girl in Palestine and around the world, the overwhelming majority of all women’s rights advocates and organizations have refused to hold the Palestinian government and Palestinian organizations, such as Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, at all accountable for the horrific human rights violations and abuses that they have callously inflicted upon women and girls in Israel and Palestine alike.

And yet, until women’s rights advocates and feminists everywhere begin to discuss and openly condemn the abuses that Palestinian leaders and governing organizations have inflicted upon women in Palestine and Israel alike, it is, sadly, apparent that women and girls of all ages will inevitably remain oppressed and at-risk within the territories, Israel, and the Middle East.

READ MORE:

No Woman Left Behind: The Global Feminist Betrayal of Israeli Victims

How Hamas War Will Change Israel

 William Barclay is a political theorist and private consultant, as well as a contributor for Young Voices. William’s work has been published by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Palgrave-Macmillan, The Hill Times, and the Journal of Liberty and International Affairs, among others. Follow him on Twitter/X @WillBarclayBBC.