CMHR event to focus on Hamas sexual violence against women in terror attacks

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This article was published 22/01/2024 (627 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For Gail Asper, the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel struck close to home.

“The daughter of a friend survived the attack on the music festival, hiding under the bodies of others in a bomb shelter,” she said, noting that only seven out of 30 in the shelter survived — two of the dead were her close friends, and a third was taken hostage.

“By chance she made it. She could have been raped and murdered,” Asper said, adding the young woman is “traumatized beyond belief and will never recover.”

That woman’s experience, along with the sexual violence experienced by some Israeli women during the attack, led Asper to say yes when asked to be moderator at “Hear Our Voices: Sexual and Gender Based Violence in the October 7th Hamas Terror Attacks,” an event on Wednesday sponsored by Jewish Child and Family Service and the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg.

The event, which will be held in person at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and live-streamed, starts at 7 p.m.

It will feature Ayelet Razin Bet Or, an Israeli women’s rights expert and former director for Israel’s Authority for the Advancement and Status of Women in the Ministry of Social Equality.

Hamas militants launched a series of co-ordinated armed incursions from points in Gaza into Israel on the morning of Oct. 7, beginning with the launch of an estimated 3,000 rockets that was followed by a massacre that killed several hundred people at an outdoor music festival. Dozens of others were taken hostage at the site. The assaults continued for hours in several Israeli kibbutz communities, where civilians — including children and the elderly — were executed at gunpoint, burned alive, raped and taken hostage.

In total, 1,200 Israelis were killed and another 250 were taken hostage and transported to Gaza.

“I’m doing this for my friend’s daughter’s sake, and for all the other women killed and injured in the attack,” said Asper, a well-known Winnipeg lawyer, philanthropist and member of the Jewish community.

“I feel I have an obligation to help share the story.”

For Asper, the event is an opportunity for Winnipeggers and others to “understand the horrific violence committed by Hamas against women and girls… the level of viciousness was overwhelming. The world needs to know what Hamas did, condemn them and hold them accountable.”

The event will deal with “a very dark, ugly and brutal topic,” she said. “It’s not for the faint of heart, but we can’t shy away from it.

“We need to shine a light on what happened, on the shocking level of violence and misogyny against women… not just the Jewish community, but everyone. We all need to be witnesses by not forgetting the victims and their grieving families.”

Speaking from Israel, Razin Bet Or said her appearance in Winnipeg will be an opportunity to dispel “any doubt about the sexual abuse” experienced by an estimated 50 women during the attack.

“People need to wake up and realize this happened, as hard as it is to comprehend,” she said of the reports of rape, sexual assault and genital mutilation that came from firsthand and eyewitness accounts, and from first responders.

“It’s not easy for people to hear, but it’s important for all to know. This story needs to be told, we can’t look away from it.”

What was personally devastating for Razin Bet Or was what she felt was a lack of support from the worldwide feminist community.

“My heart was broken, it rattled my identity as a Jew and a feminist,” she said, adding she hopes representatives from Winnipeg women’s organizations will attend.

“I thought I shared something with the worldwide sisterhood, with all women around the world. But many have turned their backs on us… it was very disappointing.”

For her, the event in Winnipeg is an opportunity for people to “learn the facts, the story about the atrocities and the gender-based war crimes” committed on Oct. 7.

“Women’s bodies were part of the battlefield,” she said. “It demands a response.”

Admission to Hear Our Voices is free, but attendees must register and are invited to make a donation to support Jewish Child and Family Service. People who attend in person will be required to show government-issued identification; security will be provided at the event. To register, for in-person or online, go to wfp.to/jXH.

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