The sexual violence progressives selectively ignore

There has been a lot of condemnation of violence against women in the last few days.

And rightly so. Who can doubt we as a society have a big problem when a man goes to a shopping centre and deliberately kills women because they are women? Who can doubt we as a society have a problem when young men think of themselves as "incels" - as men who are involuntarily celibate, and who blame women for not granting them the sex to which they feel they are entitled.

Nobody in their right mind could doubt any of that.

But there seems to be a blind spot among people who think of themselves as "progressive" and on the left when it comes to Hamas and sexual violence against Jews.

A student at the ANU went on the radio on Monday evening and said: "Hamas deserves our unconditional support."

Unconditional!? Hamas, those gallant freedom fighters who are friends to women and gays!

I've met the student who said that - Beatrice Tucker - and they seem friendly and certainly highly intelligent. It's true they do raise their fist while chanting "from the river to the sea" - the slogan for "Abolish Israel" - but apart from that they seem likeable.

But let me remind you of what Hamas perpetrated on October 7, even beyond the simple indiscriminate murder of Jews (which previous generations of the left would have deemed abhorrent in itself).

"There are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence - including rape and gang-rape - occurred across multiple locations of Israel and the Gaza periphery during the attacks on 7 October 2023," a United Nations report said.

Before Hamas apologists say, "Ah but that's just Israeli propaganda", let me point out it was written by outsiders who went into the country after the massacre and talked to non-government sources, including women running rape-crisis centres who were overwhelmed by the horror of what they were seeing before their eyes.

Much of what happened is unspeakable - literally so.

And it has been unwatchable, which may be part of the difficulty in our over-sensitised times. Television producers won't display the horror of war in the way they would 40 years ago, and that may lead us not to fully understand its true horrific nature.

But that's only part of the reason. There is a section of the left which has long had a soft spot for terrorists. In the United Kingdom, the defenders of the Irish Republican Army would refuse to criticise the most horrific car bombings of public places.

They gave "freedom fighters" a free pass.

But Hamas should not get that free pass.

In February, the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel published a report. I should warn you its contents are horrible.

Much of what it said about the manner of rape really is unprintable but the broad conclusions are still shocking: "Hamas's attack included violent attacks of rape, accompanied by threats with weapons, and in some cases targeted towards injured women. Many of the rapes were conducted by Hamas terrorists in groups. Often, the rape was perpetrated in front of an audience - partners, families or friends - in a manner intended to increase the pain and humiliation of all present.

"Hamas terrorists hunted down young women and men who fled the Nova festival, and according to testimonies, dragged them by their hair while the victims were screaming. The actions targeted women, girls and men. In most cases, the victims were murdered after or even during the rape."

Imagine the endless ABC programs if Israeli soldiers had done the same. Imagine the angst among well-off white liberals. Imagine the demonstrations. Imagine the tent protests at the ANU.

But instead, there is a silence.

I have a Jewish friend who is genuinely frightened. She never thought she would see the rise of anti-Semitism in her lifetime. The Holocaust, we thought, had banished it after the centuries where killing Jews was part of life in parts of the world.

Now, I'm not so sure.

Steve Evans is a reporter at The Canberra Times.