~ the un statement u linked here is a request for cooperation from the zionist entity to conduct a full investigation into potential acts of sexual violence on october 7, based on a preliminary report. if you actually look at the report (which is linked on the webpage u posted), you will see for example item 48, "there was a lack of access to first-hand testimonies of survivors/victims of sexual violence. while the number of survivors/victims remains unknown... the mission team was not able to interview any of these survivors/victims."
[since the zionist entity p much never cooperates with any un request to anything, it is unlikely that the un's request to investigate further would ever be granted.]
the claims about "dozens" of survivors/victims of sexual assault on oct 7 are clearly taken from the bogus "reporting" by the nytimes and other amerikan media. when the nytimes hires a white nationalist who has zero journalism experience to do a story on supposed widespread sexual violence on october 7, and when this "reporting" is then circulated and repeated all over the amerikan media, this needs to be called out for the bullshit propoganda that it is.
as i said, we all live in a world that normalizes gender violence, and no organization is immune to being influenced by that. eg, anyone who has been around certain sections of "the left" has probably encountered someone talking about an SL policy to execute members of its army found to have committed an act of sexual assault. i do not have historical knowledge abt that but the normalization of gender violence is a reality that every org faces everywhere, and a situation where hostages are taken presents greater opportunity for sexual violence.
at the same time, every indication suggests that to whatever extent some ppl did sexually assault israeli settlers on oct 7, it does not come anywhere close to the systematic abuse torture and rape of palestinian political prisoners by israeli pigs, see eg
https://www.btselem.org/publications/202408_welcome_to_hell
this is not to say that any instances of sexual violence on oct 7 dont matter, but it is important to contextualize the forces involved. patriarchy is everywhere and the normalization of gender violence is something we all have to deal with, but hamas is not the source of that normalization. there is zero indication that sexual violence was a 'primary characteristic' of the october 7 prison break, but it unambiguously is a primary characteristic of israeli pigs' treatment of palestinian political prisoners.
~ we do not have sufficient access to the facts to be able to evaluate the strategies or tactics of the october 7 prisonbreak. i mean one could take a pure pacifist position and j say all violence is "wrong" in any situation and palestinians "should" just lay down and allow themselves and each other to be wiped off the earth, but this sort of moralization is obv inherently removed from the actual material situation, and it also comes from a specific class position ie that it is not you, your family and your people who are facing genocide. no one is treating deaths or hostage taking as something to drink champagne over but it is not possible to resist a genocide with no casualties. in the words of fanon, "National liberation, national renaissance, the restoration of nationhood to the people, commonwealth: whatever may be the headings used or the new formulas introduced, decolonization is always a violent phenomenon".
hostages werent taken on october 7 for no reason just to take pleasure in violence, it was (presumably) a tactical choice eg aiming to make a prisoner swap for at least some portion of the thousands of palestinian political prisoners who are tortured and raped on a daily basis. also perhaps hoping that it would place some limitations on the military retaliation by the zionist entity since even if the settler society does not as a whole give two shits about palestinian genocide, there is concern from the families of the hostages and so on. to be clear im j listing these as examples of tactical considerations in relation to your 'objection' to taking hostages. whether a prisoner swap could in fact have been on the table, whether the presence of hostages would actually limit the genocidal retaliation in any way, any future prediction is always somewhat speculative and its even more absurdly speculative for us to talk about from thousands of miles away. but for us to be taking positions on what tactical and strategic options we think were and werent available and dictating what this or that portion of a prisonbreak should or shouldnt have done, in a context where journalists are effectively banned from gaza like, we are j in no place to make any of these sorts of evaluations.
also even if we were in a position to evaluate any such thing it literally means nothing because we have no influence on the strategies/tactics of the palestinian resistance, its just posturing and presenting ourselves as the "moral high ground" or whatever. what we do have (some) influence over is 1 our own governments providing the weapons for the palestinian genocide etc 2 the ideological side, 'the discourse' etc and 3 how palestinians, arabs and muslims are treated within our own societies (including on smogon).
and tbc i can 'agree' (but my opinion means nothing) that there is some 'validity' to "ethics of war" type issues, and for example criticism of the orientation of "total war" employed by european nations in wwi and wwii & was then carried further in the genocides in korea vietnam cambodia committed by the us imperialist army. but, the particular boundaries of "war ethics" type issues cant rly be determined externally, only the palestinian resistance is in a position to meaningfully evaluate if there are certain tactics that 'cross a line' or etc. maybe u think thats problematic bc then no one can "hold them accountable" or w e but in reality thats true regardless, euroamerikans moral posturing and giving platitudes about war ethics does nothing other than propogate a fantasy world in which white humanist moral philosophy and UN reports and declarations are determinative factors in the palestinian genocide and/or in the resistance to that genocide.
