On October 7, 2023, 1,500 Hamas terrorists invaded Israel by land, sea and air, massacring innocent youngers at a music festival, burning people alive in their homes, decapitating babies, and raping numerous women. Simultaneously, Hamas fired thousands of rockets at the Jewish state.
Israeli forensic experts have already confirmed that Hamas is guilty of rape, torture and other crimes against humanity. But despite the clear evidence that these crimes occurred on October 7, there are those who are already beginning to deny the magnitude of what happened, just as far too many people still engage in Holocaust denial. Others try to justify what happened based on Israel’s conduct towards the Palestinians, while still others say that most of the Israeli dead were killed in exchanges of fire between the IDF and Hamas, and that no rape, torture, mutilation and other crimes against humanity occurred. Meanwhile, Hamas has threatened to wage more terror attacks of the magnitude of October 7 and routinely calls for the obliteration of the State of Israel, which makes one ponder whether it is more correct to refer to the October 7 massacre as an act of genocide.
I must stress that this is not the first time that a grave genocide took place while voices abroad tried to deny it. During the Khojaly Genocide, 613 innocent Azerbaijani men, women and children were massacred in one day. However, to date, there are many who deny the magnitude of the Khojaly Genocide, just as people are denying what happened on October 7. Interestingly, Iran played a major role both in supporting the October 7 genocide and in supporting the ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijanis from the Karabakh region and the seven Azerbaijani districts in the 1990’s. It is for this and other reasons that Azerbaijanis have demonstrated strong support for Israel during our war against Hamas, as they remember well what was previously done to them.
Following these developments, the Dona Gracia Center for Diplomacy organized a webinar on “Israel and Azerbaijan against Iranian-backed religious terrorism,” which was addressed by Dr. Mordechai Kedar, a prominent Middle East scholar. He discussed the sexual violence Hamas, a proxy of Iran, committed against Israeli women and girls, stating:
“Sexual violence is not unique to what happened in the Middle East. First World War, Second World War, saw the same things in Europe. Japan was trafficking Chinese women as part of the war against China. There was Rwanda, Darfur and many other sexual crimes against the people who were defeated is a well-known practice in many parts of the world. It is almost a global phenomenon.”
But he added that Iran has turned this into something of an art form:
“We remember the 2009 demonstrations, when students ran on the streets to protest Ahmadinejad. The boys were shot in order to maim and cripple them, while the girls were raped. Not even one of them remained virgin. In Iran, a girl is not supposed to be touched before the wedding, but all of the girls were raped and people could do nothing, for it was done by the government. Ever since then, girls were afraid of demonstrating because they knew what their punishment would be. We saw violence against girls for not wearing the chador. The violence against women became systematic in Iran in order to maim and kill them.”
Dr. Kedar emphasized that the proxies of the Islamic Republic of Iran behave no better, and he cited the genocide in Syria as an example:
“You see the same with the Iranian supported regime in Syria. Ever since the Arab Spring, the Assad regime has systematically humiliated girls and women by raping them. The soldiers are doing it willingly to enjoy the goodies of heaven in this world, and they are supported by the Iranian regime.”
Dr. Kedar noted that the October 7 massacre was also supported by Iran:
“They raped in order to humiliate others and to prove to others that they are superior. They do not care about international law. They do not care about human rights. They do not care about women’s rights. They consider themselves superior and all others inferior. The Houthis do the same thing in Yemen. And you see the same thing in Iraq. Girls and women are raped by the Iranian militias. This is devastating because virginity is important in the Middle East. The Iranians seek to break their soul and to target the most sensitive nerve in Middle Eastern culture, which is virginity. In Iran, I heard they do the same to the Baloch and Kurds. The Persians see themselves as sitting atop the world and they allow themselves to do whatever they like.”
Dr. Kedar stressed that exposing these crimes is an important tool in the public relations battle:
“But people do not talk about this. They talk about the persecution of Azerbaijanis, Baloch, Kurds, etc., but people refrain from talking about sexual crimes, for it is not politically correct. I think this is wrong. Look at the ‘Me Too’ wave. It showed how women were abused and humiliated and targeted for sexual abuse. I think the time has come to expose the Iranian mindset, for if there is something that might bring damage to the [ayatollahs’] image, it is this. If this is exposed, it could make a change. Even those who support intersectionality would not dare say anything positive about sexual offenses. This is why we can use it to bring about a change in the world’s attitude toward Iran.”
Former Israel Consul General Dr. Yitzhak Ben Gad referred to the Hamas terrorists who committed the October 7 massacre as “fanatics that no one wants. We have peace with Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Sudan and Bahrain. But none of them are willing to accept these people.”
Dr. Gad also decried the enormous amount of financial support that went to Gaza with our proper oversight: “Hundreds of millions went to Gaza. Instead of using this money to build homes and factories, Hamas built tunnels to fight Israel. We saw the results on October 7. What happened here with this fanatic people? The policy of Israel now is to destroy Hamas and free the hostages. Whoever attacks us must pay a high price. Look at what they are doing, holding women, children and even infants. I would not even compare them to wild animals, which only attack when they are hungry. These people are killing Jews just for being Jews. And people are finally waking up.”
