Is it too late now to cry out? - opinion

The announcement of two documentaries in production about Hamas’s sexual violence against women in its October 7 attack is an important grassroots effort to raise awareness. Within days of each other, former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg announced she was filming a documentary on the subject, as did Paramount’s Israeli studio. 

But what about world leaders? What are they doing?

Four months after the October 7 attack, Pramila Patten, UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, wrapped up her fact-finding trip to Israel, in which she investigated the systematic sexual violence against girls and women that Hamas perpetrated on that dark day. Patten, who was visibly shaken while visiting the site of the crimes and meeting with survivors, is expected to draft a report on the Hamas crimes for publication later this year.

That visit should have happened months ago. Is it now too late?

It is too late to erase the four months of venomous antisemitism directed at Jews everywhere, while the UN failed to respond to the massacres and sexual violence.

It is too late to spare the Israeli and Jewish victims from bearing the additional deep scars, the insult added to injury, of having had to beg and plead for a response from the UN.

It is too late to undo the cruel spectacle that unfolded at the United Nations New York headquarters on December 4, where, after two months of inexcusable inaction on the part of the UN and UN Women, the Israeli mission to the UN and Jewish groups had to organize for themselves, a make-believe hearing on the systematic and depraved sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas. For those of us present that day, it is too late to erase from our memories either the horrible cries of the victims and witnesses or the world’s deafening silence.  

For all these things, it is too late. But it is not altogether too late.

It is not too late

It is not too late for the world to raise its voice now, to bring some level of healing to the living victims of October 7, and to attempt to reassure the Jewish people that the world will not let this happen again.

It is not too late for the world to cry out for the victims of the horrific crimes committed by Hamas. Our humanity is expressed, not when we bemoan our own pain, but when we share the pain of others. Our sense of justice is manifested, not when we seek justice for ourselves, but when we demand it for others. Basic morality dictates that we look out for each other and not leave the victim to fend for herself. 

As we read in the Book of Genesis, Abel’s blood needed to cry out from the ground only because Cain rejected his responsibility to be his brother’s keeper. When we do our part and cry for the victims, we allow the victims to find peace. It is not too late to do our part. It is not too late to cry for the victims. 

It is not too late for governments, diplomats, and human rights activists to acknowledge and honor Israel’s obligation to not rest until it completely destroys the terrorists who continue to aspire to destroy it, to kill more people, kidnap more children, and rape more women.

It is not too late for the world to realize that calls for a ceasefire and recognition of an unreformed Palestinian state project an unacceptable tolerance for the perpetrators and those who support them. The mere suggestion of this nightmare scenario reawakens the cries of their victims.

It is not too late to forcefully demand of those who aid and abet Hamas and its leaders that they achieve the immediate release of every last hostage, including the 16 women and children Hamas continues to hold. 

It is not too late for the world to recognize the ongoing danger posed by Hamas and its sponsors and partners in the region, in Iran, and around the world. 

It is not too late for all those who engage in the vital struggle for human and women’s rights to raise their voices on behalf of Jewish and Israeli women.  

It is not too late for the UN to act to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah that constitutes its mission: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” 

Those swords will only be beaten into plowshares when Jew and non-Jew, man and woman, will stand up to every evil, advocating for each other and defending and supporting each other, by considering the safety and well-being of every other human being as their personal concern. 

It is not too late for the UN to state clearly in word and deed that the world should not have let this happen and that it will not let this happen ever again.

As long as the world takes such action now, it is not too late.

The writer, a rabbi, is executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, one of the largest Jewish organizations in the US.