South Africa should use its relations with Hamas to end abuse of hostages - opinion

I listened, mesmerized, to Aviva Siegel, a South African who was taken hostage with her husband, Keith, on the 7th of October. Released after 51 days in captivity, she had personally witnessed the sexual abuse by the Hamas captors who ripped them from their homes on Kibbutz Kfar Aza and forced them to live in tunnels in Gaza, deprived of food, water, and even oxygen. In her distinctly South African accent, she shared how the Hamas captors had sexually violated fellow hostages.

Her story is just one piece of the evidence collected by Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, chair of the Civil Commission on October Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children, and Orit Sulitzeneau, the executive director of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel. They were speaking to our group at the Conference of Presidents during my recent visit to Israel. Cochav is creating an archive of evidence of rape and sexual abuse based on video footage, mostly recorded by Hamas, forensic evidence, and witness testimonies like Aviva’s. They both provided input for the recent UN report on sexual violence. Orit also published a harrowing report from the Rape Crisis Centers that was covered in the international media.

Sadly, many of the victims cannot report their abuse as they are either no longer alive or still held hostage.

Yet even with this unequivocal evidence and following the report by United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, that she and her experts found “clear and convincing information that sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, occurred against some women and children during their time in captivity,” there is still global silence on the horror that happened and is still happening to hostages in Gaza.

My own government, despite its virulent stance against gender-based violence, has chosen not to condemn or try to stop the heinous rapes and sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas both on October 7 and, now, to the hostages they are holding.

Creating awareness for hostages' plight in South Africa

I returned to South Africa with a determination to create awareness of the horrifying plight of our hostages, who are being held as pawns by a terror organization that revealed its level of brutality and cruelty on October 7 and now has a track record of sexual violence. The images that Hamas released of young women hostages show they have been beaten and abused. Some of them, young women who had gone to enjoy a music concert at Nova, are barely recognizable.

In the lead-up to International Women’s Day, we arranged a march to the constitutional court in Johannesburg, the apex court in whose hands rests the authority to uphold our constitutional values, human rights, and women’s rights, which are some of the key tenants of its mandate. We appealed to our country, which at one time held a global reputation for standing up for the basic rights of those who were voiceless. We called for an end to the silence against this heinous abuse of helpless hostages and for our government to condemn Hamas for its violations of women and demand that it immediately release the hostages.

Besides the imperative to intervene when sexual violence is being perpetrated, we know that until the hostages are released, this hideous war cannot end and the suffering of the innocents in Gaza will continue. All we want is an end to this war; surely, it is time for Hamas to release these civilians.

It was incredibly inspiring to see hundreds of women in our community come out in full force, wearing t-shirts saying “#MeToo_unless-Ur-a-Jew” and displaying their placards at the oncoming traffic, pedestrians, and even the red tourist bus as it passed by. Pausing outside the Constitutional Court, they made sure that the Johannesburg City Council across the road could hear their chants of “Bring back our girls.”

Speeches alongside the Women’s Jail gave a powerful message about the women in captivity in Gaza, who are also being subjected to cruel and torturous treatment.

Miriam Gvaram, deputy executive director of the Survivors of Sexual Violence Advocacy Group, shared her personal account, and we recited the prayer for the release of the hostages and Psalms under, fittingly, the Statue of Hope, a statue of a young girl. We tied a yellow ribbon on her wrists – one of the same yellow ribbons that we wear to constantly remember and pray for the safe release of the hostages.

Alongside the Constitutional Court are images of those who fought for the freedoms and human rights in our country, the names and images of the heroes of our struggle against apartheid, some of them Jewish. We hung our banner of #MeToo_unless-Ur-a-Jew above them, and several of the departing protesters also left poignant placards. We went to the seat of our constitutional democracy to cry out for those who are voiceless in Gaza.

After the protesters left, I returned to the placards and watched as people around the court read them and took photographs.

ALTHOUGH THIS PROTEST comprised mostly Jewish women standing with our sisters in terror tunnels in Gaza, I must also share that the majority of the solidarity events and protests, including, most recently, one outside CricketSA, included Christians and other South Africans who stood by us in opposition to our government’s obsessive hostility to the Jewish state and its refusal to show any balance or play any role in trying to find a resolution to the conflict.

We left the court for our next destination, to deliver a memorandum to President Ramaphosa. The third item in our memorandum was a quote from the UN report on sexual violence that calls on governments to “use all means to exert pressure on Hamas to release the hostages to end not only their captivity but also the sexual abuse being committed against them.” Our government, which holds up the United Nations as a priority in its international relations agenda, has ignored this report.

Yet it is South Africa whose minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor, is on record as having spoken to Hamas leader Haniyeh just weeks after the October 7 massacre, and whose ruling ANC party hosted a senior delegation of Hamas at its headquarters on December 5. Now that the UN has confirmed that the organization seated around the table with the ANC at its headquarters, Luthuli House, and the people on the other side of Pandor’s phone call represent an organization that has committed and continues to commit sexual violence against hostages, it is time for them to use these relationships to end the abuse.

My memories of Friday are of committed and passionate women standing up for women who cannot call out and the yellow ribbon tied to the Statue of Hope. I hope and pray that by the time this article is published, our hostages will be safely back home with their families and that the people of Israel can begin healing.

The writer is the national director of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies.