First Lady Michal Herzog: Silence from women in UN is 'deafening'

• Published date: 08 March 2024
• Author: TAMAR URIEL-BEERI
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Slowly but surely since then, the evidence has been mounting that could no longer be ignored, forcing international human rights and women's organizations to recognize the suffering that Israelis of the South endured

Israeli women have been at the forefront of presenting the realities of the Oct. 7 atrocities on the global stage, and no one has been a more prominent advocate for Israeli women than First Lady Michal Herzog.

"The relentless work that Israeli women and Jewish women around the world are doing is having an effect, and it's causing some change in the way human rights organizations, especially the UN, look at what happened on Oct. 7," Herzog told the Magazine in an interview at the President's Residence on the occasion of International Women's Day, which is marked today.

"It took eight weeks for UN Women to put one phrase of condemnation together – and not a very deep condemnation," she said.

The interview was conducted prior to the report released this Monday by Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten, who confirmed that she and her team had received conclusive evidence pointing to sexual violence, torture, rape, and necrophilia against Israelis on Oct. 7.

At the time, Herzog had expressed confidence in the report's revealing, as it ended up doing, the truth about the Oct. 7 massacre.

"We had a very emotional meeting here at the President's Residence," she said, referring to Patten and her team. "We also gathered a group of leaders from NGOs in Israel who deal with women's matters and gender-based issues, as well as jurists specializing in international law. We had a very emotional meeting because, as we told her, we felt betrayed."

Herzog explained that the "deafening silence, especially by UN women, but also other human rights organizations" had left Israeli women feeling abandoned, but that Patten's voice "and the expression of solidarity on her part was very important for [them] to hear. So it was a very emotional meeting with her."

While Patten was understanding of the Israeli suffering that had occurred, her report did mention that they had not spoken directly with sexual violence victims, though they had received reliable evidence that it had occurred and that those victims who would not speak with Patten and her team were undergoing intense psychological treatment for the most acute symptoms of trauma.

"We have to give them time," Herzog said when asked what Israel can do to allow...