“The sniper put a gun to my head. They asked me to take all my clothes off.”
This is just one of the many haunting experiences of sexual violence the women in Gaza faced at the hands of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF).Â
Despite countless eyewitness testimonies of Israeli rape and sexual violence in Gaza, there is next to no coverage of this in the mainstream media. Publications like the New York Times, which was quick to publish a–now widely debunked–“investigation” of “mass rape” by Hamas fighters on October 7, have failed to report on the sexual violence Gazans are experiencing. The New York Times’ silence is evidence that it is nothing more than a puppet for spreading Israeli propaganda.
👉 Send a letter to the editor of the New York Times to demand journalism with integrity!
The IOF has used sexual violence against Palestinians for decades, with rape of Palestinians regularly documented in Israeli prisons, as well as sexual harassment and assaults at checkpoints. Sexual violence against Palestinians is built into the structure of Israel. In Gaza, first-hand accounts detail the experiences of Palestinian women being blindfolded and forced to strip naked before being assaulted and raped by Israeli soldiers. There is no shortage of videos, many by Israeli soldiers themselves, of the IOF detaining, blindfolding, and forcing Palestinian men to remove their clothes.Â
The New York Times has failed to properly report on the IOF’s crimes. Instead, the publication chose to weaponize the narrative of “believing victims” only as a tool to perpetuate settler-colonialism and genocide. To the New York Times, victims are only worth believing when they are white and their stories can be used to murder tens of thousands of Palestinians.Â
👉 Tell the New York Times: No More Colonial Journalism!
The trauma of Palestinians does not stop at sexual violence. Palestinian survivors of rape and sexual assault are forced to live through genocide and occupation. It is our job to uplift the experiences of the people in Gaza facing this violence by the IOF. It is absolutely unacceptable that their testimonies are not valuable enough to the mainstream media to be shared. Visit our Actions for Palestine page to find news sources accurately reporting on Palestine, then share their stories widely. We must refuse to let the world turn a blind eye to this violence.
👉 Keep taking action:
- Source on sexual violence in Gaza.
- Tell Congress: Oppose H.R. 7256!
- Take action daily for Palestine!
- Directly support families in need in Gaza!
- Pass a ceasefire resolution in your city with this toolkit!
- Check out our BDS toolkit!
- Join us on 4/8 for the next Missing Peace Monday Community Call!
- Support our work!Â
Towards Peace,
Nour and the entire CODEPINK team
P.S. Join us for the United National Antiwar Coalition Conference in April!