BBC and other mainstream media have been strongly condemned for their silence over the sexual violence inflicted by Hamas and the lack of outrage over the 136 hostages still being held.
Several hundred people gathered outside the BBC’s headquarters in central London on Sunday, holding posters with the faces of hostages and the words “BBC, The Guardian, Channel 4, Sky: Your silence is loud” alongside Israeli and Iranian flags and Union Jacks.
A human installation of around 20 women and a few men wearing light trousers stained with fake blood around the crotch region, their faces covered with bruises using stage makeup, were bound and joined together by rope.
Demonstrators shouted: “Rape is not resistance!”, “Bring them home!”, and “Am Yisrael Chai!” outside the broadcaster’s offices in Portland Place.
Women with bloodied trousers, fake bruises and bound by rope protest outside BBC's offices in Portland Place, February 4, 2024
Orit Eyal-Fibeesh from Human Chain, a grassroots group, which organised the event, said: “It has been 120 days since October 7. There are still 136 hostages held in captivity… [We] stand before you today deeply troubled by the lack of attention of the heinous crimes [committed on October 7]. It is truly astonishing that acts can be overlooked by mainstream media.
“The suffering is swept under the rug because of convenience or politics. Rape is rape. Violence is violence. [Everyone has] a moral obligation to speak up.”
Ayelet Razin Bet Or, former director of the Authority for the Advancement of the Status of Women in Israel’s Ministry of Social Equality, said that on October 7, women’s bodies “became part of the battlefield”, adding: “The raped, the murdered, the kidnapped, the women whose childhood was taken away from them, we are here to make their voices heard.”
She said: “In the face of terror, silence is complicity. This is not only a betrayal of Israeli women; it is a betrayal of humanity. If we cannot agree that rape is wrong, we have accepted the unacceptable.”
'BBC, The Guardian, Channel 4, Sky, your silence is loud' poster outside BBC offices, February 4, 2024
A small group of anti-Israel protesters attempted to interrupt Razin Bet Or, but were drowned out by her and other demonstrators singing Israeli songs. The counter-protesters were kept at bay throughout the rally by a strong police and CST presence.
MP Nicola Richards, who last week hosted events in the House of Lords to listen to women on the frontline in Israel dealing with October 7 victims, called her generation’s silence on this issue “a blind spot”, saying: “For everyone who said these events never happened, they are doing the work of Hamas. For everyone in my generation who stays silent, they are doing the work of Hamas. I am here to tell broadcasters to tell these facts.”
Richards, who is co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism, said: “Women were raped and shot before, during and after being raped. Women were shot in their vaginas. Hamas dehumanised women and men.”
She read out the names of the 14 women and girls still held hostage, including Liri Albag, who turned 19 on the day of the rally.
'BBC, The Guardian, Channel 4, Sky, your silence is loud' poster outside BBC offices, February 4, 2024
Liat Kurdy, co-founder of Jewish Kurdish Association, said: “The [BBC’s] journalists saw the footage showing the reason why Israel had to defend itself, just like any other state would do. This did not stop the BBC continuing to show Hamas propaganda, a terrorist organisation banned in the UK. Shame on you BBC for losing sight and standing on the wrong side of history.”
She pointed out that when Yazidi Kurdish people were murdered and raped by Isis in 2014 and thousands of their people taken hostage, when the Americans launched airstrikes in retaliation,“no one told [the Americans] to stop fighting or called it a ‘genocide’. Why are they claiming it’s a genocide now?”
Joan Ryan, a former Labour MP, who resigned from the party to protest against its antisemitism during Corbyn’s leadership, said: “Hamas’ hatred for Jews and hatred for women combined to atrocious effect on Oct 7. What I am finding hard is the indifference. Where is the revulsion? Where is the outrage? Why has the media failed to give this the prominence that it deserves? Jewish lives and Jewish women don’t count. Today we are here to make it clear that Jewish lives, Jewish women do count.”
The former chair of Labour Friends of Israel, paid tribute to the “strong heroic women of Israel who have spoken up against the crimes of Hamas, who have ensured that the crimes were documented and have ensured that even if there is never justice, they will not be silenced”.
'Rape is not resistance' protesters outside BBC's offices in Portland Place, February 4, 2024
Ryan told of how she had previously visited some of the kibbutzim that were attacked, describing them as “peace-loving communities”. She said: “More than anyone else, they reached out to the people of Gaza.”
Giving an impassioned speech, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, deputy mayor of Jerusalem, said that when Russia attacked Ukraine, the “civilised world stood with people who had been attacked. Israel gets attacked, and the very next day, there are marches around the world blaming the victims for being attacked.
“The BBC can’t even say Hamas are terrorists even though the UK government calls them terrorists.”
Describing anti-Zionism as “just another iteration of the age-old hatred of Jews”, she added: “The difference today is that we have a country, an army, and there is a price for Jewish blood.”
Acknowledging the support from non-Israelis and non-Jews, Hassan-Nahoum thanked in particular “our Iranian brothers and sisters, the only people of the Middle East who have the courage to stand up”.
