The report on the horrors endured by hostages held by Hamas, that is to be presented to the United Nations this week, will not cause waves. The Western media reporting on Israel is preoccupied by the IDF's operation in the Adwan Hospital in Jabaliya
while neglecting to focus on the fact that it is a Hamas stronghold. In general, after too many around the world, including in Israel and among women's advocacy groups, ignored the rapes that occurred on October 7 and the testimony of a hostage who revealed she was raped by her captor, it is hard to expect any outrage over the atrocities revealed in the report.
This is the result of racism and a willing blindness. It is no secret that there is continued, systematic abuse of basic rights all over the Arab world. When that is the norm, there is no room for outrage. It is only what Israel does that evokes such a response.
The fact that Israel is expected to hold higher moral values and norms than Muslim countries is not a positive thing because it implies racism. Progressive intellectuals and media outlets are guilty therefore of a racism of lower expectations and that has now spread to large parts of the West.
As to the sexual crimes committed by the Hamas terrorists, the world response spanned from denial to justification. Israel, the argument states, is a colonial power, an oppressor and a racist occupier. Therefore, the murderous attack and the atrocities committed against it, is some king of a rebellion of slaves. That is the prevalent lie in anti-Zionist circles.
It is of course, a refutable theory because rape and enslavement are the hallmarks of Sunni and Shiit Jihad, regardless of Israel. There was a brief recognition of that fact when ISIS terrorist committed such acts on Yazidi women and girls during their rule over parts of Syria and Iraq. Perhaps the same intellectuals will find justification for the ISIS crimes as well. Now two arms of the Muslim Jihad who are fighting against Israel, have been committing such sexual crimes for years.
Amit Soussana speaks to UN on sexual assault in Hamas captivity
An article published in Foreign Policy in 2009, titled The Militarization of Sex by Hanin Ghaddar, revealed Hezbollah's practice of Mutaa, a form of "temporary marriage" only acceptable within Shiite communities, that "allows couples to have religiously sanctioned sex for a limited period of time, without any commitments, and without the obligatory involvement of religious figures." This is a cover for prostitution and is nothing compared to the revelation of Hezbollah's prostitution rings where Syrian women were forcibly abused, as was revealed in 2016.
Other outlets including al-Jazeera reported further on this as late as 2020 in a report titled Syrian Women and Girls Sold for Sex Work in Lebanon."
Hamas is not different. Last October a young Yazidi woman who was rescued from Gaza told of her abduction when she was 11-years-old. She was transferred by her abductors in ISIS to Hamas. "The complex tunnel system is used for smuggling and trafficking in Women, an Israeli researcher wrote, quoting a journalist from Kuwait who observed underage Egyptian girls being brought into Gaza through the tunnels to work as prostitutes.
Despite these facts, members of the media and universities spread lies that Hamas is not like ISIS when all Jihadist movement have made rape and sexual abuse, the norm. These are war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The crimes of ISIS made news. Hezbollah's offenses, less so and as for Hamas, who were no less cruel, there have been no investigative reports, no studies or research because revealing the true face of Hamas would be in contrast, to the prevailing campaign that claims it is only resisting occupation and colonialism.
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Women are being smuggled and sold, from poor areas to richer ones. Egyptian women are sold into Gaza. This proves there was never a siege on the Strip and that the economic situation in Gaza was better than in some parts of Egypt. It could have been better still if funds were invested in development rather than an underground tunnel system. But Jihad where it appears, is the central cause of death and destruction.
Those who are so enlightened in the West, ignore the horrors of Jihad in general and the atrocities of Hamas in particular. They will continue to do so when the report is submitted to the United Nations.