Israeli expert urges Korea to take 'stronger stance' on recognizing Hamas's sexual violence victims

Diplomacy

Published: 06 Mar. 2024, 19:24

Israeli expert urges Korea to take 'stronger stance' on recognizing Hamas's sexual violence victims

Ayelet Razin Bet Or, a leading Israeli expert on women's rights and gender equality, speaks to the Korea JoongAng Daily during an interview organized by the Israeli Embassy in central Seoul on Tuesday. [PARK SANG-MOON]

A prominent Israeli legal expert on women's rights who currently leads an advocacy group committed to exposing sexual war crimes by Hamas called on Korea to "take a stronger stance" at the global level to ensure that all victims of such violence are afforded recognition.

In an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily on Tuesday that was organized by the Israeli Embassy, Ayelet Razin Bet Or said that Korea “has an important role in setting a standard” for how international institutions, such as the United Nations Security Council and UN Women, should address allegations of sexual violence committed by Hamas and other groups during their attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7.

Before Oct. 7, Bet Or headed the Authority for the Advancement of Women under the Israeli Ministry of Social Equality and represented Israel on gender equality issues at various international gatherings and commissions. She began volunteering at the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel in 2004 before serving as a criminal prosecutor in the State Attorney’s Office.

During her visit to Korea, Bet Or is scheduled to meet with officials from Seoul’s Foreign Ministry, members of the National Assembly and representatives from the National Council of Women, to convince Korea to use its influence as a current member of the Security Council and the third-largest funder of UN Women.

On Monday, a UN investigative team dispatched to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories released a report that found grounds to support allegations that Hamas committed sexual violence during its attack. The report also concluded that some hostages had been sexually abused in Gaza and examined accusations that Palestinians had been abused in Israeli detention.

The following is a transcript of the Korea JoongAng Daily’s interview with Ayelet Razin Bet Or. Comments have been edited and condensed for clarity.

What is the purpose of your visit to Korea, and who are you planning on speaking with during your stay? What is your mission here?

My mission as an expert here and everywhere I go in the world is to tell the gender-based violence aspect of the Oct. 7 attacks and the situation faced by hostages. My group — named Dina, after a biblical character who was raped — was very much involved in coordinating different components of the visit by the United Nations investigative team so that all available evidence could be presented for recognition.

Korea has a very important role as both a member of the Security Council and one the dominant funders of UN Women, which has been actively dismissing Israel’s claims and thus betraying their role as the official agency responsible for all women’s health and welfare. Their director and whole organization is biased against Israeli women and their testimonies.

As the third largest funder of the agency, Korea has an important role in setting a standard regarding how UN Women treats all women in the world. Korea should also make sure this story is heard at the table of the Security Council. This advocacy is not for Israel or against Israel, it’s to combat these kinds of war crimes and abuse of women.

You have said previously that you felt “betrayed” by the reluctance of international women’s organizations to speak out about Israeli women who were sexually abused during the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7 last year. To what do you attribute this perceived reluctance?

Oct. 7 shattered many pieces of my identity — as a mother, an Israeli and as a Jew — but especially my identity as a feminist. I truly believed that women around the world share in sisterhood and solidarity. I’ve protested for Yazidi, British, American, Ukrainian and Iranian women, but this sudden silence from organizations, leading activists and UN agencies comes across as a betrayal to me as a feminist and as a professional.

I think one reason for this denial is antisemitism, which I don’t know how to beat. When the terrorists themselves live broadcast what they did and people say it’s AI-generated or that it’s been edited, I don’t have the expertise to beat that. The second reason that I believe is behind the skepticism is ignorance. That’s why I have a lot of hope that this UN report will shift the opinion of professional agencies and the public. No one can accuse the UN of being biased for Israel.

The report establishes in a very clear way that many incidents of sexual assault and gender-based violence did occur and writes in detail about different events and what evidence there is for each event. When I give briefings, I tell people, “Learn the facts and know them so you can beat this ignorance.”

Can you disclose how many people has your advocacy group determined were victims of sexual violence perpetrated during the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7 last year or during their captivity? How many survivors or families are you currently representing?

It is hard to state numbers because we will probably never know what really happened because many victims’ bodies were burned, which destroyed forensic evidence, and also because Judaism requires burial to happen as quickly as possible. When medical staff were sent in to take bodies away, they also had to work as quickly as possible in what was still a war zone. But even though a lot of evidence is now lost or inaccessible, we have enough to understand what happened.

I don’t feel comfortable giving an exact number because there are tens of bodies that I’ve seen from footage and pictures that have blood in the pelvic region and chest. I can talk about at least 20 survivors of sexual assault who are not hostages who have come forward, but again, these are the people who reached out. I do not know, and perhaps we will never know, how many people identify themselves as sexual assault survivors. With regards to hostages, I don’t know, and I couldn’t say even if I knew the numbers.

But the UN report has given the highest level of confirmation that there are hostages among the 134 people held in Gaza by Hamas over the past 151 days who are undergoing sexual assault in different variations. There are 14 women alive as far as we know that are currently captives. There is also testimony from hostages who came back from captivity that men are also undergoing different kinds of gender-based violence and sexual assault.

How did you determine sexual violence occurred in the absence of forensic evidence?

In general, we use testimonies from survivors that include indications of sexual violence. We have seven eyewitness testimonies of rapes and gang rapes, all of which ended in the murder of the victim. There are two testimonies from released hostages who talked about being touched in their upper body. There is also an officer who testified that every time she was alone with one of the terrorists who invaded her base, he demanded that she take off her clothes and she resisted him. Numerous first responders have also given testimony indicating sexual assault had taken place at the scenes they were dispatched to.

In the three main arenas — the army bases, the Nova party and the kibbutzim — you see the same fingerprint patterns, bodies tied with wires, bodies unclothed or partially naked and bodies that have bloodstains on front or behind the pelvic area.

Now remember, these are three different types of scenes. If you see the same kind of abuse across such disparate settings, you understand that this is not the work of one or two terrorists who were especially cruel. This was premeditated — this is what they came to do. They were heavily drugged to release all inhibition and came with Hebrew phrase sheets that included sentences like “Take your clothes off.”

We also have testimony from medical and mental health professionals who treated survivors who showed strong signs of having undergone gender-based violence. We also have hostages who said they saw or were told of sexual violence by other hostages who are still being held captive.

The United Nations report released on Monday said that the main challenge for the investigative team dispatched to Israel and the Palestinian territories was the “limited number of and access to survivors/victims of sexual violence, and to survivors and witnesses of the Oct. 7 attacks.” Why were they unable to meet survivors or witnesses of the attacks, besides released hostages, and did the Israeli authorities try get survivors to speak up?

It’s important to remember there are several obstacles here. Survivors and eyewitnesses are still in trauma. There are many barriers victims have to cross, both in society and within themselves, before they can even start thinking about coming forward to tell their story. Eyewitnesses are also still in trauma from the Nova party and hospitalized. Many first responders are also military personnel, so they’re now in combat. So there are many barriers to gathering the whole picture together, but we have enough that we know Hamas and others, such as Islamic Jihad, and people dressed in civilian clothes who followed them and participated in this kind of violence.

The largest Israeli police unit that is dedicated to investigating the Oct. 7 attacks and a special unit that works on the sexual crimes were dispatched to now-displaced communities and kibbutzim whose members are currently being housed in hotels and conducted a very sensitive investigation to reach out to victims. There are also trained professionals who deal with sexual assault investigating this. They’re doing the best they can, but the victims may not come forth. I’m hoping the international recognition accorded by this report will reassure victims that they can come forward.

In the short two weeks they had during their visit, the UN team did amazing, very professional work. They visited and revisited many places to reexamine the materials. I do think there is more evidence to write the report in a way that more strongly and definitely assigns the responsibility and premeditated execution for the sexual violence that occurred to Hamas. They’re not looking at this as one would in a criminal procedure, and they state very clearly what they verified and could not verify, as well as their reservations.

Regarding incidents of alleged sexual violence, the report says that “available circumstantial evidence may be indicative of some forms of sexual violence.” Was this circumstantial evidence based on photographs or other kinds of evidence?

Circumstantial evidence is derived from either footage, forensic evidence or testimony. An example of this is the many observations of bleeding pelvises. We don’t know if it’s because this person underwent rape or something penetrated into their intimate parts, or it’s because of shooting directed at the pelvis.

For example, in the case of the soldier hostage Naama Levy, she has a bloodstain at the bottom of her trousers stained with blood as she was brought to the jeep. I don’t know what that’s from. At the beginning, there was the hope that her trousers were stained from sitting on the floor where a massacre occurred. But when you see this in so many different settings, you can’t say everybody sat on blood.

Some of those who have reported on or spoken out about the sexual violence that allegedly occurred on Oct. 7, such as Anat Schwartz, Jeffrey Gettleman — the journalists who wrote the New York Times article, “Screams without words” — and Shari Mendes have faced doubts about their credentials or their credibility. Do you think these people hinder your work in advocating for victims of sexual violence?

First of all, I disagree with this criticism. Shari Mendes is a volunteer who dealt with tens, maybe hundreds of bodies. She dealt with the female bodies. She’s not a medical professional — she’s a religious volunteer who testified about what she saw. If she made medical observations, she’s not doing it to lie. She said she saw many, many shots in the pelvic area and many women with bloodstained underwear. How can that be undermined?

With regards to the New York Times article, there is a correlation between what the UN has now found, what we collected and found, and what the authorities have found. Everything is strengthening each other. The New York Times editor came forward and said there is nothing in the article they do not stand behind now. The demand for evidence is an absurd form of hypocrisy. Nobody asks Ukrainian women to show proof of their sexual assault — we believe them. It’s not the first time ever that women’s bodies have been part of the battlefield.

There are also allegations of serious sexual violence and humiliation and threats of sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners and civilians perpetrated by Israeli security forces. How do you think the Israeli government and civil society should respond to such allegations?

It should be investigated in the most serious and responsible manner. That being said, I saw that one of the accusations is regarding body checks of people taken into custody. This is protocol in every country. It’s not like terrorists invading people’s houses on Shabbat, on a holiday, and demanding they take their clothes off. Every army orders terrorism suspects to take their clothes off, and then they get a suit after they take their clothes off.

Of course, no one shows the suits because it doesn’t fit the narrative. The other accusations should be investigated because such acts are forbidden, and I hope they are prosecuted if true.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]