The ceasefire in Lebanon had barely taken effect when Hezbollah terrorists committed a despicable act: they opened fire on United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) soldiers. In this grave incident, a French soldier, Sergeant Florian Montorio, was killed. This is the same France that opposed the campaign against Iran and reportedly paid Tehran to secure safe passage for its ships through the Strait of Hormuz, only to receive gratitude in the form of bullets from the regime’s Lebanese proxy.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres offered a rather vague response. “I strongly condemn Saturday’s attack on Unifil,” he said. A polite, formulaic condemnation – carefully stripped of the one detail that matters: who did it and what ideology drove them. Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shia terrorist organisation, went unmentioned.
This was no oversight but part of a pattern. The very institutions and individuals who claim to defend human rights, women’s rights, morality and justice have long since abdicated responsibility when the culprits don’t fit the narrative. Instead, they offer a theatre of hypocrisy and craven appeasement.
This weekend, the Daily Mail published harrowing testimonies from Gazan women who, for the first time, spoke about sexual crimes committed against them by Hamas. These were not Jewish women – who have been largely ignored by international aid organisations – but the terrorists’ own wives, sisters and daughters. Rape, sexual coercion in exchange for food or aid, underage pregnancies, and abuse of children have all surged since the war began. Hamas gunmen seize supplies, profiteer from them, and prey on the most vulnerable women and children.
And who enables this? International aid organisations. UN Women – the agency ostensibly dedicated to fighting violence against women – responded with silence. Other aid organisations kept quiet as well, seemingly too afraid of Hamas to speak out. Another moral collapse, filed away under “too inconvenient”. What Guterres and these organisations refuse to acknowledge let alone confront is that within radical Islamist movements, violence against women is not incidental but embedded. Women’s bodies are treated as spoils of war. Those indoctrinated to view women as lesser beings will ultimately treat their own women the same way they treat the enemy population.
Which brings us to the farce of the Gaza “aid flotillas”, now entangled in their own allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse of power. The accusations centre on a senior figure – a married man, board member of aid organisations, and vocal supporter of Hezbollah and Iran – who allegedly exploited his position. Greta Thunberg was among those who participated in that flotilla. But we have yet to hear outrage from her.
None of this should surprise anyone paying attention. Those who romanticise or legitimise groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah or the Muslim Brotherhood often display a corresponding erosion of basic moral standards – especially regarding women.
Behind the humanitarian branding lies something far less noble. Not genuine concern for the people of Gaza, and certainly not for universal human rights, but a singular obsession: hostility to the Jewish state. If Israel is harmed, the mission is accomplished. If Gazans suffer as collateral damage, they are quietly ignored.
As minister for social equality, responsible for women’s rights, I stood before the UN countless times, calling on the institution to shed its moral cowardice and begin defending all women, irrespective of politics or geography – the women of Iran, Gaza, and yes, those of Israel who were horrifically violated on October 7.
But the noise from “spontaneous” demonstrations at Columbia University and across the Western world – chanting for intifada and the eradication of Israel – was loud enough to silence them.
May Golan is the Israeli minister for social equality and women’s advancement
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