When awful things happen to you there are two paths: one of victimhood and one of survival. Blacklisted was #1 in the Substack news chart on Saturday morning. So I want to acknowledge that, and say thank you. Thank you for proving that I wouldn’t remain the victim of those who sought to dissociate from me or to discredit my skills. They dissociate from us because they believe the lies that Jews who fight are bad for their image. They discredit us because they can’t deny us our value. Without you all, I would not be here.
So today was another day in which people who claim to advocate for sexual assault survivors remain silent about Hamas's violence against Jewish women. Women are currently imprisoned in Gaza against their will by rapists. Every second of the world’s silence matters to those women. I’m not even sure how feminists are continuing to justify the averting of their eyes. Truly it boggles the mind. At least we have Gal.
The world is changing before our eyes and those of us who protected evil either by compliance or silence will pay for it. We will not forget them. And neither will history.
Again, if you want to avoid reading some extremely disturbing details, please skip the next few paragraphs. In The Sunday Times this weekend, eyewitness testimony from Yoni Saadon, who was at the Supernova festival, was printed:
“I saw this beautiful woman with the face of an angel and eight or ten of the fighters beating and raping her. She was screaming, ‘Stop it — already I’m going to die anyway from what you are doing, just kill me!’ When they finished they were laughing and the last one shot her in the head. I pulled her body over me and smeared her blood on me so it would look as if I was dead too. I will never forget her face. Every night I wake to it and apologise to her, saying ‘I’m sorry’."
These details tell us more of what happened to Shani Louk, who turned 22 the day of her death. She was at Supernova celebrating her festival with all of her friends. Shani and all of her friends died. We all saw Shani’s body paraded through the streets of Gaza, but her corpse was never found. Only a fragment of her skull.
Saadon continued with more horrible memories:
“They had caught a young woman near a car and she was fighting back, not allowing them to strip her. They threw her to the ground and one of the terrorists took a shovel and beheaded her and her head rolled along the ground.”
Another volunteer, Shari, who helped in the clean-up of the bodies gave testimony:
“Opening the body bags was scary as we didn’t know what we would see. They were all young women. Most in little clothing or shredded clothing and their bodies bloodied particularly round their underwear and some women shot many times in the face as if to mutilate them. Their faces were in anguish and often their fingers clenched as they died. We saw women whose pelvises were broken. Legs broken. There were women who had been shot in the crotch, in the breasts … there seems no doubt what happened to them.”
Video footage was released of Moran Yanai, 40, who was kidnapped from the festival and held captive for 54 days. Hamas found her in a field. The terrorist’s speech in this video translates to: “Here, we caught one of the Jewish dogs and we will take her as a sex slave. No man wants to see what we will do to her here in the fields.” In her release video, which follows, you can see that she can barely walk.
When the Boko Haram abused women in Cameroon, the UN rightfully set up a task force to help the victims. However, in the case of Israel it has taken UN Women 57 to make this statement:
“We are alarmed by the numerous accounts of gender-based atrocities and sexual violence during those attacks. This is why we have called for all accounts of gender-based violence to be duly investigated and prosecuted, with the rights of the victim at the core.”
In the two months it has taken UN Women to "unequivocally" make this statement, the violence against Israeli women in captivity has continued and continues. How many lifetimes is it going to take for them to "unequivocally condemn" that?
It has been revealed too that Women's Affairs Minister Golan May has repeatedly asked Michelle Obama to condemn the October 7 violence against women, and she hasn't even bothered to respond. Seems she and her husband are very aligned on their, uh, mere criticism of Israel.
I didn’t think it was possible to lose faith in the decency of humankind as much as I have in the last weeks. But here we are. What a hopeless time.
Let’s see what Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal has to say about it, eh:
In essence: they were raped, but.
Naama Levy’s mother was interviewed. We cannot imagine the composure she has had to muster to make this plea in this video. Why does a mother have to make this video? The whole world should be making this video. Please share it:
Here is more video testimony from the team who handled the body bags of the women. Again, if the gruesome details are too much for you, skip:
I think about them every day. All of them still there. If they are alive. I can’t imagine what life is like for them every waking moment. Hell. Absolute sheer hell.
Women like Noa Argamani, who was taken on a motorcycle screaming “don’t kill me”.
Women like Doron Steinbrecher who last texted “they’ve arrived. They have me.”
Women like Agam Berger who is a soldier, last seen in a truck in her pyjamas.
Women like Eden Yerushalmi who hid in a car next to the bodies of her dead friends and stayed on the phone with her sister for hours until she said “they’ve caught me.”
Women like Romi Lesham Gonen whose last words were “mummy, I’m not going to make it, I’m going to die”. I saw her father speak last month. I can’t believe he doesn’t have his girl back yet.
There are more.
What’s incredible about this past two months is that there has been barely any time to talk about the psychological and emotional impact on all of us. The people speaking out aren’t doing so to centre our emotions. We’re doing so because our voices are our only fight. We must force the atrocities in their faces. They can eat it.
Closer to home today was more news about issues surrounding Chanukah this year, and public celebrations. A menorah lighting in Williamsburg, Virginia was cancelled because organizers claimed it would send a message that the festival was "supporting the killing/bombing of thousands of men, women, and children.” Ironic given that Chanukah is a festival that celebrates how the Jews overcame their enemies attempts at suppressing us from celebrating our religious freedoms. Anyway, is it too late to buy flights to Israel, or…?
A week or so after October 7 I was given a dog tag and I haven’t taken it off. I will not take it off until all the hostages are back. It may be the case now that the only ones who can get them out are our IDF soldiers. They have one hell of a mission on their hands. But if anyone can do this, it’s them. Bring them home.
I saw multiple cities with the same Hanukah bullshit. Antisemites were "protesting" outside of an Israeli restaurant in Philadelphia tonight, calling for Israel's demise. Because, you know, the falafel guy has anything to do with what's happening across the world. How has everything turned so upside down?
Do you know if we can buy the dog tags to wear?
I can't sleep or focus on anything but these women. I hear nothing from my friends on facebook - one or two whom I have never met have responded - but those who have known me for 40 years - nothing when I post about the women hostages and the atrocities. Now it's time for me to become more active elsewhere, starting with my congressional reps - one a Jew and another a woman.