Gisèle Pelicot

You all have heard of Gisèle Pelicot.

She is currently testifying in a mass rape case in France. Raped by her husband and 50 more men, Pelicot insisted that her rape trial be held in public, so that she can change society and expose rape culture. I applaud her. And I beseech every single woman who also applauds her, and there are many, to do right by her. To do Pelicot justice for her bravery. In order to do this, I ask consistency from all of you. Because currently you are failing miserably in real time while Pelicot is enduring her public spectacle. You are failing her, because you are still failing women.

You are failing so many women. You are failing every single woman who has yet to receive any meaningful widespread public apology for not meeting the standards of the perfect woman you espouse. You are failing every single woman who has gone up against a powerful man, and who has been overlooked, and humiliated, and failed by the justice system. You are failing every single woman who has been burned at the stake. You are failing every single woman that you continue to doubt.

You are failing every single woman in places your agenda doesn’t urge you to care about. You are failing every single woman in Kabul. You are failing every single woman in Tehran. You are failing every single woman in Sudan. You are failing every single woman subjected to an Islamist regime, including in Lebanon, in Syria, in Yemen, in the West Bank, in Gaza. Women who with their children are used as human shields, are bought as wives, and sold as sex slaves.

And, of course, you are failing every single woman of October 7; raped and murdered. You are failing the THIRTEEN women still held hostage in Gaza. You are failing Romi Gonen, 24; Naama Levy, 20; Liri Albag, 19; Ofra Keider, 70; Shiri Bibas, 33; Inbar Hayman, 27; Emily Damari, 27; Karina Ariev, 20; Agam Berger, 20; Doron Steinbrecher, 31; Arbel Yehoud, 29; Daniella Gilboa, 20; and Judy Weinstein Haggai, 70. You are failing every second of time that passes while they remain in the hands of their rapist captors.

Pelicot walked to take the stand yesterday in Southern France, willing her strength to grow with every footstep and she said:

“It’s not for us to have shame, it’s for them.”

She went on: “I want all women who have been raped to say – Madame Pelicot did it, I can too. I don't want them to be ashamed any longer.”

I have made this point until I’m blue in the face. To every single woman I once stood beside in years of activism. My sisters. The shame is also yours. Shame on you for remaining silent. Make this hero’s wish come true right now, and speak. Speak for every women. Speak for us. Speak for my sisters.

I have a lot of admiration for Pelicot. But the truth is overt and clear. All rape victims can't do what Pelicot is doing, particularly Jewish rape victims of October 7 and the female hostages in Gaza, who are being actively ignored every single day by the same people who are championing Pelicot.

I care about Pelicot’s heroism as much as I care about Amit Soussana’s. How many of the feminists can say that? How many of them yesterday also saw Amit, our Amit, at the UN, testifying in front of another hostile institution; a room full of anti-Israel haters, and doubters, and power wielders. How many of them watched the courage in her voice as she recounted the abysmal details of what she suffered at the hands of Hamas in Gaza as a kidnapped hostage. With a camera in her face.

It was also televised. Amit testified to sexual assault on camera yesterday in front of the world at the United Nations. At the United Nations! The place where all human rights are supposed to be protected to the highest degree in the world! Pleading with them to help the remaining hostages in Gaza. Amit is fighting for other women right now, just like Gisele.

Amit Soussana. Do they know her name? They must know her name. Their cause lives and dies on it.

I am asking each of you: send this video to one non-Jewish woman that you know today. Do it. Start a conversation. Amit deserves that. You know who else needs that, desperately? The thirteen women who are living in the same conditions as Amit was. There is not a moment to waste.

“They tortured me, hung me upside down, and beat and humiliated me. At any given moment I was afraid for my life,” she said.

Why did Amit have to testify for herself in order for the UN to even entertain believing her? Why? She fought off 10 men valiantly, when she was dragged kicking and screaming into Gaza. We saw the video almost a year ago of this lioness in the daylight of the desert, fighting them off for dear life. Amit, 40, a lawyer.

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My advocacy has always been consistent.

Truth. Freedoms. Exposing disinformation. Democracy. Fighting all forms of online hate. Protecting women and children. Justice. Safety. Humanity. Regardless of politics. That is why I am non-partisan.

Five years ago I was publicly shamed for being an out and proud Jewish woman. For five years, I have been numb to the levels of public hatred that I have endured; the assaults on my name, my face, my nose, my eyebrows, my hair, my accent, my words, my body, my friends, my lifestyle, me. I barely have the stomach to go back and look at the waves of antisemitism, misogyny and homophobia. I believe this antisemitic hatred is pornographic in nature. There is a sexual perversion to the unfathomable and excessive memefication I have had to live with for half a decade.

Again, to my fellow feminists, please listen to me. Before you were targeted by right-wing grifters on YouTube after the initial success of the MeToo movement, I was already being targeted by the same deplorable abusers on left-wing YouTube. The YouTubers who smeared me and profited from hating me are the same types of incels and bigoted men in their mother’s basements as yours. I have never spoken about them before. I can’t look at their streams, sent to millions, with the non-stop carousel of comments: sick face emojis, eggplant emojis, rape threats, death threats, joke names that they invented for me. Fartlow. Shartlow. Eva Braun.

They are a mirror of your abusers. All of them - regardless of their politics - are engaged in online terrorism. The only difference between your womanhood and mine is that I am Jewish and believe that Israel has a right to exist. Does that make me undeserving of your empathy? Of your solidarity? I was screaming about this phenomenon before it impacted you. Think about that. Think about the value of your Jewish sisters’ experiences.

To all my “sisters” in the fight; why do you not see that you excuse the same vile behavior from the likes of Twitch streamer and YouTuber, Hasan Piker - know on YouTube as HasanAbi – because you see him as a hero of “Free Palestine”? Hasan has been abusing me online for at least three years.

Yesterday Hasan said:

“It doesn’t matter if fucking rapes happened on October 7th. That doesn’t change the dynamic for me. The Palestinian resistance is not perfect.”

He is saying the quiet part out loud. Not only does he say it doesn’t matter if rapes happened on October 7, he is supporting rape. Because Sharia Law supports rape. Islamism supports rape. Jihad supports rape. “Free Palestine” is not a movement for the innocent civilians of Gaza. It is a movement for the usurping of power by Jihad supporters and sympathizers. “Free Palestine” is for global human rights what “MenToo” was for the feminist uprising.

Hasan doesn’t care if Jewish women were raped. See his insane 18-minute misogynistic antisemitic rant from 2021 about me. Here is a clip in which he is trying to infer that nobody would “fuck” me. (How does that saying go…? People in glass houses… (or mom’s basement…))

His YouTube channel is a cesspit of misogyny, homophobia and incel culture. Supported by a stream of comments that bolster his bigotry. This is the soul of the Free Palestine movement.

I’ve never spoken about the trolling in a detailed way. It is difficult for me. Like looking into the eyes of a playground bully, except there are a million of them. It would prevent me from doing this. That’s what it’s designed to do. It’s designed to silence me. Maybe one day someone who isn’t me can look at the freights of abusive content I have inspired in the last five years and do it for me. I can’t look at it.

Do you know who did a Twitch stream with Hasan Piker this week? AOC. She doesn’t care that he welcomes the raping of Jewish women.

Welcome to the Unhinged States of America.

In other surprising news (read: completely unsurprising), Israel has uncovered documents that prove that six Al-Jazeera journalists are Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists. A few of them are snipers; one is the head of Hamas rocket launching unit; and one is the head of their propaganda unit. Al Jazeera is the primary source for Western progressives who wish to consume information about the war in Gaza. Nobody who has been paying the slightest amount of attention is shocked.

I have never been more proud of the women I can actually call sisters. The other day, I wrote about an event I did with Stanford students alongside my friend Sarah Idan, an Iraqi Muslim Zionist. This week, Sarah also spoke at the Nova exhibition in LA. This is a prime example of what ally-ship looks like. Every woman should be doing what Sarah is doing. Listen to her. She’s unbelievable.

A final word to Amit Soussana.

Amit, you are our hero.