Human Rights

Two years after October 7: Silence in the Face of Violence and the Debt owed to Women

October 7 2023 was a celebration day in Israel, marking Simchat Torah, a festival of joy, family and community. Within hours, it became one of the darkest chapters in recent history. The terrorist group Hamas launched a coordinated attack from the Gaza Strip, combining thousands of rockets with incursions by land, sea and air. The terrorists crossed the border and carried out massacres in agricultural communities, kibbutzim, and at the Nova music festival, where hundreds of young people were executed and kidnapped. The terrorists killed more than 1,200 people, took 251 hostages, and 48 remain in captivity. 

The impact was immediate and devastating. Israel, a country with one of the most sophisticated security systems in the world, was temporarily paralysed by the magnitude of the attack. The consequences transcended its borders. The attack on October 7 opened a new chapter in the expansion of global terrorism, amplified hate speech and increased anti-Semitism in universities, parliaments and social media around the world. What began as a physical attack became, in a matter of days, a battle for truth and memory. 

Women as Invisible Victims of Terror

Among the most heartbreaking stories are those of women. The attacks included rape, mutilation, torture and murder with an element of systematic and planned sexual violence. Testimonies, images and reports from the Israel Defence Forces, the United Nations and international human rights organisations revealed crimes reminiscent of the worst chapters in contemporary history. The victims were young women at the Nova festival, mothers murdered in front of their children in their homes, and hostages subjected to abuse during their captivity in Gaza. 

The cases of the women of Kibbutz Be'eri, the young women at the Nova festival, and hostages such as the Argentine Bibas family—a woman kidnapped and murdered in captivity along with her two children—are symbols of the horror and suffering that continues. However, despite overwhelming evidence, international recognition of these crimes has been slow and, in many cases, virtually non-existent. 

The silence of large sectors of the global feminist movements and human rights organisations is an additional wound. For decades, those same voices led the condemnation of sexual violence as a weapon of war in conflicts in Africa, the Balkans and the Middle East. However, when the victims were Jewish and Israeli women, they chose to remain silent or downplay the facts. And that silence was not neutral; it was complicit. This double standard erodes the credibility of the causes of equality and justice that are defended. Remaining silent in the face of sexual violence for ideological, political or religious reasons is a betrayal of the very principle of human rights. 

Truth and Freedom as Universal Rights

According to classical liberalism, there can be no freedom without truth and human dignity. The defence of fundamental rights does not distinguish between religion, nationality or political context. 

October 7 represented an attack not only on the Israeli people, but also on the universal values of freedom, tolerance and coexistence that underpin open societies. To equate a democratic state that defends itself legitimately with a terrorist organisation that uses civilians as human shields is a moral and conceptual distortion. This kind of relativism weakens democracies and strengthens extremism. 

In times of polarisation and misinformation, liberal commitment means resisting the temptation of indifference and simplification. It also means recognising that freedom of expression cannot be an excuse for spreading hatred or denying the facts. Defending the truth is a moral responsibility that every society must have in order to be free.

Memory, Empathy and Action

Two years after the attack, Israel and the world face a test. Keeping the memory of October 7 alive is not a political act, but an ethical duty. It is honouring the victims, accompanying the survivors and demanding justice for the hostages who remain captive. 

In Argentina, the exercise of memory has a particular resonance. This year marked the 31st anniversary of the AMIA bombing, the most serious terrorist attack in the country's history, which left 85 dead and more than 300 wounded. More than three decades later, the lack of justice remains an open wound in our democracy. Remembering the AMIA attack on October 7 is not only an act of empathy with the victims, but also a warning about the persistence of terrorism. Both events remind us that memory cannot be selective and that forgetting always plays into the hands of impunity. 

Since October 2023, following the attack on Israel—and with it, also on the West—the danger remains latent. Not only for Israel and the Jewish people, but also for the Western values that guarantee freedom, plurality, diversity, and tolerance. What happened was a painful reminder that these values are not guaranteed and must be defended, transmitted, and practised every day. 

Remembering October 7 means remembering that human dignity is non-negotiable. It means renewing our commitment to building societies where life and freedom are always stronger than hatred and violence. Silence in the face of terror is complicity. Terrorism seeks to instill fear; freedom demands courage.