Tear feminism out of the hands of the colonizer: Our statement debunking the claims of mass rape used to siphon off support from the Palestinian resistance
Note: The following statement is posted on behalf of the Interim Revolutionary Feminist Committee — Southern California Chapter. It’s original home can be found on the IRFC Substack, linked here.
We are the Southern California chapter of a proletarian feminist organization militantly committed to building revolution around women’s emancipation and towards dismantling imperialism, capitalism, and the sexual commodification of women and gender-oppressed people.
We are writing in response to the unsupported allegations of mass rape which have been circulating across traditional media and social networks, which we believe are a direct attempt at weaponizing feminism against the Palestinian struggle for national liberation.
These claims are unsubstantiated and based on no real evidence
Even Zionist media sources, such as The Times of Israel, have stated that there is no conclusive evidence that even a single case of rape or sexual assault has occured at the hands of the Palestinian freedom fighters, much less that it has occurred en masse. In an article posted on October 8, 2023, they reported that such cases are only “suspected.” They state that these “concerns of sexual assault” stem from two sources: (1) a video of a woman with blood on her shorts and (2) an image of a woman lying in a truck. While images coming from a warzone are shocking for mostly everyone, absolutely none of the videos released show any conclusive evidence of sexual assault and nor do they reasonably point to the likelihood of sexual assault occuring. Out of many possible explanations, the imperialist and Zionist media has chosen to speculate that these are evidence of sexual assault. Why? In order to organize masses of people into their narrative that Palestinian freedom fighters are evil, monstrous, terrorists. (Not entirely irrelevant, but still important to note, is that the first video actually appears to show the woman being passed off to an ambulance or medical vehicle.)
Another Zionist news source, Tablet Magazine, posted a story alleging that “women have been raped at the area of the rave next to their friends bodies.” Yet, they only attribute this quote to a source called “one survivor” and failed to provide any substantive evidence for these claims. This story by Tablet Magazine was then cited in The Atlantic to substantiate their claim that “many of the women executed at the festival were raped.” Yet this single, alleged source remains unidentified, with absolutely no information on their identity, and there is absolutely no corroborating evidence to substantiate this claim.
Given the lack of any evidence, it is clear that the sharing of viral images alleging mass rape of settler women is a propaganda tool aimed at demonizing the Palestinian resistance in order to garner support for the Zionist project of building an ethnostate on top of the genocide and displacement of millions of Palestinians.
These unsubstantiated claims overshadow the history of sexual violence imposed on Palestinians and others by the Zionist entity
In July 2023, the Zionist entity came under criticism for passing a law that allowed Jewish settlers to have a “lesser punishment for rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment than Palestinian citizens.” Even one of the Zionist politicians acknowledged that this law would “not prosecute Israeli officials harassing Palestinian women at checkpoints, nor Shin Bet interrogators who harass them during interrogations.”
The Zionist entity has a long history of sexual violence against Palestinian women. One Zionist soldier was convicted of raping a Palestinian woman, sexually assaulting other Palestinian women and men, and extorting them to demand sexual favors. The occupation put a “gag order” on the case in order to prevent news outlets from reporting on it.
Staff Sgt. Omer Tabib, a 21 year old occupation soldier, was killed near the Gaza Strip in 2021. Only a year earlier, he was bragging about committing sexual violence against Palestinian women. In August of 2019, Tabib posted a photo on Twitter along with a caption that read “I took this puff right after I raped a Palestinian lady.”
Palestinian women visiting one of the thousands of Palestinians detained by the Zionist entity have documented cases of the Israeli Occupying Forces subjecting them to sexual violence, including sexual harassment, forced nudity, and forced touching. Palestinian women detained by the occupation often face even worse violence.
Some stories were documented by a report submitted to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in 2005. One 25 year old Palestinian woman, named Samira Hadar Mahmoud Algenzazra, was arrested in 2002, where two female occupation soldiers forced her to open her blouse in front of a group of boys, threw a copy of her Quran on the ground, and then blindfolded her with her hands tied behind her back. When she was later interrogated, the occupation forces threatened to rape her and torture her loved ones if she did not confess. Another woman, Kahara Sa’adi, was arrested in her home, beaten in front of her four children, and detained in a solitary cell for over 115 days after a 9 day interrogation. In Israeli prisons, she also faced rape threats, along with threats of beating and retaliation against her family. Yet another woman, Suheir Issan Abd’Alrazek Alhashlamon, who was only 26 at the time, was threatened with rape, beating, and prolonged solitary confinement by the Zionist occupation.
When the Zionist entity recently arrested a 16-year old Palestinian girl, the adult male soldiers flirted with her, sexually harassed her, and threatened to retaliate by arresting her family. Another Zionist officer ordered the search of a Palestinian woman’s genitals and, in return, got promoted despite being under investigation for rape.
Zionist sex crimes are not limited to women. In 2010, a 15-year old Palestinian boy came forward stating that the Israeli Occupation Forces attached a car starter cable to his penis and threatened that he won’t be able to have children once they’re done with him. This is only one of many countless stories. According to a study based on the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) between 2005 and 2012, thousands of Palestinian men were tortured by Israeli Occupying Forces and a significant amount of these cases were involved sexual torture and sexual violence. Palestinian men and boys alleged that Israeli Occupying Forces subjected them to forced nudity, sexual harassment against them and their family members, physical sexual assault, kicking and pressing of their genitals, simulated rape, and actual rape by a blunt object. Another man was forced by Zionist border patrol to have sex with a donkey.
In 2023, a report was released that unveiled a stunning 86% of Palestinian children detained by the occupation are beaten, 69% strip searched, 42% injured at the point of arrest, and many who face violence of a sexual nature, such as being touched and hit in the genitals, before being placed in small cages. Of course, this narrative also comes at a time when five Israeli settlers are set to plead guilty to gang raping a British woman after abducting her in Cyprus.
Tear feminism out of the hands of the colonizer
While we can recount the many instances of Zionist settler sexual violence against Palestinian women, this brief but horrifying overview is sufficient to show that sexual violence is part and parcel of the Zionist entity. The allegations of rape at the hands of Palestinian freedom fighters are unsubstantiated and we refuse to allow the imperialist media to weaponize feminism at the service of a genocidal settler-colony.
In times like these, where a revolutionary movement or movement for national liberation makes a significant advance, the imperialist media will respond swiftly with their well-funded propaganda networks in order to siphon off support. They will often try to pull on the sympathies of left-leaning people by alleging violence against marginalized groups, such as women. We have to remain steadfast in our commitment to the cause of national liberation and proletarian revolution and we must debunk imperialist propaganda step-by-step.
We call on all organizations and people who struggle for the emancipation of women to stand with the Palestinian resistance and explicitly denounce the weaponization of the women’s movement — a liberatory politics — against the oppressed fighting for their freedom.
Free Palestine!
Long live the struggle against Zionism and imperialism!
Tear feminism out of the hands of the colonizer!
The Interim Revolutionary Feminist Committee
Southern California Chapter
9 October 2023
