Believe all women - Israelis included

• Published date: 29 March 2024
• Author: TAMAR URIEL-BEERI
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Soussana, a released Gaza hostage, was the first survivor of Hamas's systemic sexual abuse to come out publicly and speak about her plight in an interview this week with The New York Times

She was held by a man named Muhammad in what seemed to be a child's room covered in photos of Spongebob Squarepants. He would grope her, lift her shirt, and at one point, he forced her to commit a sexual act on him. He hit her repeatedly, pointed a gun at her, and made her do it.

There are no words to describe how difficult it must have been to come forward and tell this enormously horrific and traumatizing experience – and to the Times, no less, one of the most circulated publications in the world.

But one of the biggest challenges of coming forward is concern over the response, to be sure, and unfortunately, Israel's opponents did not disappoint.

The nauseating honor given to the photographer who documented abuse

X (formerly Twitter) was filled with talkbacks claiming that Soussana was lying, that the article was sharing Israeli propaganda, and in more extreme cases, arguing that the rape of Israeli women was justified. As a human being on this earth, but especially one with even a shred of empathy, that should have hurt to read. As a woman who knows what it is to face gender biases and sexism, it was nauseating.

Equally nauseating was finding out that one week prior, Associated Press freelance photographer Ali Mahmud won the Team Picture Story of the Year award for his photograph of Shani Louk's half-naked corpse as Hamas terrorists were driving it away on October 7.

The photograph was taken in close quarters. The photographer stood mere meters away from the terrorists and captured the image. Pictures of the Year International, the photojournalism competition that awarded Mahmud, shared the photograph on its Instagram, praising the photographer. Louk's name was not mentioned anywhere.

Mahmud was named in the lawsuit by October 7 victims' families last month against Reuters and the Associated Press, which claimed that they had employed photojournalists who accompanied the Hamas terrorists on their massacre.

These two incidents, one after the other, have brought forth more than anything, that Israeli women have had to put up with some of the worst conditions...