Israeli Hostage - I hope she can deal with her mental wounds

[mids2019]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68891217

I am glad at least some journalists have not forgotten what the Hamas hostages went through and this woman's experience is terrifying. It is incredibly brave for her to speak out and I think the narrative that hostages were and are being treated well needs to end.

Let's hope the remaining hostages get home 🇮🇱

Pardon? What misinformation? I'm commenting on the interview and what she said?

Most women have never been in her situation. Having seen what happened to other women, she would be afraid. The searches the Hamas thugs carried out on her person must have been terrifying. And then the staring. She was alone and helpless. yes, I see what she means. These thugs were keeping her aware that they could do what they liked.

IThink moran is credible. She hasn't been primed by a journalist or persuaded to do some propaganda against Hamas.
She spoke of rape being a.bigger word, meaning that is more than forced sex, it is the experience of being vulnerable to men who can and have done what they like. The staring at her was awful too and deliberately intimidating.
I liked Moran and wish her well. I hope she never reads the doubters on here.

I hope she never reads the doubters on here.

No one is doubting her and some of you are being rude to @AdamRyan

Rape isn't a "big" word. It has a very specific definition which doesn't include a man (even a terrorist) staring at you menacingly.

Moran suffered an unimaginably terrifying ordeal but she wasn't raped so it's odd that she should use that word especially as she is so articulate.

I think it may very well be a hostage may not discuss every aspect of an ordeal and that is perfectly proper. I think the allusion to searches is revealing and suggests some form of implicit assault.

I think one of the problems currently for the hostages speaking openly about their experiences is that some will feel they are not entitled that space because of the current conflict in Gaza and somehow because of the civilian death in Gaza their narratives have lost impact which is terrible in reality.

The hostage stories are important and it is also important to prevent the stories being labelled as Israeli propaganda. The interview is by independent journalists and in no way is it being orchestrated by the Israeli state.

it seems the hostages have become an uncomfortable reality for those that protest for the Palestinian cause.

I also think that Hamas are desperate to limit stories of rape and sexual assault of women by Hamas operatives as with Gaza being Islamic the crimes are not only hideous but severe crimes from a religious perspecrive.

The group probably want to garner sympathy from the general Muslim world so stories about assault and rape will take away from that. I guess Hamas and it's supporters want the world not to hear of this or at least minimise it.

I think if you’re delivering a message then the time and the place you do it will depend on how well received it is. I’m inclined to be generous in my interpretation of what any of the actual victims say when they say it. This is what I’m trying to say.

She wasnt raped. Her to phrase this as akin to rape is changing the narrative of what rape is defined as. She lived with daily silent threats and silent aggression from her captors with their staring etc etc she should never have used the word . Its twisting what they actually did do.
The poor woman im not doubting how terrifying it was for her and how awful hammas are.
On both sides their are unbelievable atrocities against hostages . No side is winning on PR.
But the difference in fatalities on both sides speaks volumes to joe public

Rape has a specific meaning in law, yes, but Moran is trying to express something powerful in a language that’s not her own.

Rape is about power. She was entirely powerless, having to play along with her captors for her survival, while they threatened her with rape and murder, intimately searched her, and passed her between groups of men.

I understand why captor’s eyes boring into her for prolonged periods will have felt to her like rape.

And I won’t cavil about her choice of words.

What Moran experienced doesn’t change because of Israel’s assault on Gaza. What Palestinians women experience isn’t changed by what Moran experienced.

It’s wrong to use one to undermine the other.

Let me be clearer:

I am getting “a female hostage held captive by a terrorist group for 54 days who says she was not raped should not therefore be allowed to use the word “rape” in relation to anything she went through in that period” vibes from your post, @AdamRyan

Your dry critique of the way she expresses her trauma is appalling. I stand by what I said yesterday about Moran’s right to express her trauma however she wants - and this is the case for any woman of any religion or ethnicity.

Her experiences are appalling and I hope she is supported to heal and rebuild her life.

It sounds like Hamas does have a zero tolerance policy on rape if they kill the captor who carries it out. However it's clear that they have a zero tolerance policy on being seen to allow rape also if they kill the victim too. And obviously it does sometimes happen if the consequences for it happening are known.

Being stared at in that way certainly seems like an act of psychological violence.

I'm against the idea that having sympathy for the victims in one side of this tragedy means one cannot feel for victims on the other.

It's awful.

There was obviously a lot of sexual violence committed in October 7th so it would not surprise me if that had continued. I think it is important hostages are allowed the audience for their harrowing stories if they do wish and it is important our media does publish the stories no matter how distressing.

I agree people's experience shouldn't undermine other people's experience and both the Israeli and Palestinian people have suffered enormously.

I stand by what I said yesterday about Moran’s right to express her trauma however she wants

But she wasn"t raped. And her saying that she was undermines the suffering of those women who have been raped.

This is grim. Even though not raped her experience could have included other forms of assault which she does not with to discuss.

It as if not raping a woman somehow adds a legitimacy to the hostage taking? It seems like others were raped and I think attention should be brought into the plight of the hostages many of whom have lost their lives in horrendous ways. We will never hear their stories.

Perhaps @AGlinnerOfHope expresses it better than me.

This is a horrific response and ( like Adam Ryan’s ) I don’t think you are interested in “truth and accuracy “ as much as undermining the account of a hostage’s ordeal.
What does she say that is not true? She makes it clear she wasn’t raped but she has been traumatised by her experiences and she lived with the threat of rape every day . If she chooses to describe that as akin to rape it means she’s trying to express the depth of her feelings of vulnerability and fear . She is not being untruthful but you , in critiquing her words and suggesting they have been put in her mouth by “PR” people (!) are trying to silence her.

This woman clearly went through a horrific, and very specific ordeal, the likes of which the vast majority of us will never comprehend.

However as a SA survivor, I do find it upsetting to have a situation where she wasn't raped or sexually assaulted but felt threatened equated to rape.

It's not rape it's a distinct threat, those that were raped would I'm sure prefer to have just been looked at threateningly. It minimises what rape survivors went through to call it that.

"I always try to explain to people that 'rape' is a really big word," she said. "It's not only the act. Even when a guy stands in front of your door, and you're sitting down, and he's staring at you for 10 minutes straight, five to six times a day, every day, for 54 days. Trust me; that's a rape."
Asked whether she was the victim of sexual assault while held captive, Moran says she was not, but that she has heard from other women hostages that they were raped while in Gaza.”

These were her words - she makes it clear that she wasn’t a victim of sexual assault but the knowledge that the threat was real and ever present for 54 days was a trauma akin to actually being raped.
It is disgusting that you have read her account and your response is that Moran is “minimising rape victims “ by her choice of words.

I am also a survivor of SA and I agree with your post.

I’m very sorry about your experiences.
I can imagine that reading these accounts might be triggering for you.

I don’t think Moran’s intention is to minimise anyone else’s suffering so I don’t think we should be doing that to her.
I think she suffered enormously and being looked at threateningly for 54 days by people who have the power to rape you or kill you if they choose must be very traumatic .
I agree we shouldn’t use the word “rape” to describe experiences that aren’t rape but I think her experience was so extreme she struggled to find a word to express the fear and vulnerability she felt .

@AdamRyan thank you so much your attempt to minimise and derail the thread about this woman’s appalling experience. You clearly have an agenda to push here. I will file it under bollocks.

Im very sorry that this article was upsetting for you and I’m sorry that that is what you have both taken away from the article of this woman’s suffering.
I think Moran gave her account as an honest attempt to describe the terror and helplessness and humiliation she felt in captivity. She used the word because conveyed the trauma of her experience. I don’t believe she meant to minimise the trauma of anybody who has suffered rape. I think she was in terror of rape for every day of her 54 days of captivity and has been scarred by that memory .

@AdamRyan
”It's like every time an Israeli woman is interviewed she has to talk about sexual violence, as if that's the key component of violence against her.”

Your empathy and compassion really shines through here.