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Feminists across America sign letter accusing Israel of ‘weaponising the issue of rape’

Hundreds of prominent activists and academics including Angela Davis signed the open letter penned by Jewish feminists

March 8, 2024 16:25
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Demonstrators hold placards during a rally organised by the Rape is Rape committee to "denounce the silence of international and feminist organisations" on rapes committed during the attack of October 7. (Photo by Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP) (Photo by DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images)

ByEliana Jordan, Eliana Jordan

2 min read

A group of US-based anti-Zionist Jewish feminists have instigated an open letter accusing Israel’s government of exploiting acts of sexual violence committed on October 7 for political ends.

Hundreds of professors, rabbis and feminist activists from within and beyond the Jewish community are listed as signatories, including renowned American academic Angela Davis.

The letter states that in its “current war against the people of Gaza, the Israeli government has chosen to weaponise the issue of sexual violence for political outcome”.

Many signatories have “worked on or researched the issue of sexual violence for decades,” according to the letter’s introduction, and have found that history is “replete with examples of rape charges being wielded by stakeholders in armed conflict to render the ‘enemy’ more monstrous”.