At Tate Modern’s Feminist Art Event, Activists Decry Hamas’ Sexual Violence Against Female Israeli Hostages

On Friday evening outside the Tate Modern in London, activists flooded a feminist art event in protest against Hamas’ alleged use of sexual violence.

The women wore bloodied pants in honor of 19-year-old Naama Levy who was taken hostage by the militant group in Gaza during the October 7 attacks on Israel. They also carried signs with the names and faces of hostages and tied themselves to one another with rope, chanting “Bring her home” and “Rape is a war crime”, the Jewish Chronicle reported.

The activists were stationed outside a Tate event for the art collective Guerrilla Girls and the Russian punk rock resistance group Pussy Riot. The event, organizers explained, “showed the silence and complicity of the international feminist community in the face of the mass rape of women and girls by Hamas”.

The women later entered the museum’s Turbine Hall standing in silence.

The demonstration was intended to raise awareness for Israeli female hostages and to criticize the lack of effort from feminist, cultural, and women’s organizations.

“Most of these organizations have ignored or failed to properly address the violence and sexual crimes committed against Israeli women and girls during the October 7 massacre, while the Israeli hostages are still facing, more than 100 days after, the same violence,” the organizers added.

This is one such effort among others, including a much larger grassroots #BringThemHomeNow campaign focused on bring those who have been taken home and providing support for their families.

Released hostages have reported witnessing sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas, while members of  ZAKA, a ultra-orthodox Jewish human remains recovery organization, reported recovering evidence of sexual violence and rape. A two-month New York Times investigation argued that attacks against women were part of a “broad pattern of gender-based violence” on October 7.