The UN’s Day to End Violence Against Women and the UN’s women’s envoy who looks away

From the President’s Desk
The Anti-Semite Corner of the Week

Few institutions stage their conscience as theatrically as the United Nations

By: Anat Vidor, WIZO President

On November 25, UN headquarters and landmarks worldwide glow orange for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

There are hashtags, solemn statements and perfectly lit buildings meant to signal global moral clarity.

But the reality behind the lighting tells a different story.

The envoy who looks away

Reem Alsalem, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, is meant to name the unspeakable and elevate silenced victims. Instead she has become known for doubting crimes more than exposing them.

She declared that no independent investigation had found that rape occurred on October 7 and that no Palestinians in Gaza cheered for rape. With a few sentences she dismissed months of testimonies and forensic work and placed Israeli women’s trauma into the category of disputed narratives rather than crimes.

The double standard

When the alleged perpetrator is Israel, Alsalem speaks quickly and forcefully. When the perpetrators are Hamas, she retreats into legalistic minimalism. Same war, same mandate, two different rulebooks.

This is not human rights work. It is narrative management.

The battles she prefers

Alsalem comes from a region where women face forced marriage, honor killings and legal systems that routinely fail them. Yet much of her energy goes elsewhere. She has become a prominent gender critical crusader, focusing on ideological fights in Europe and the United States rather than on women facing life and death struggles.

Her impact on violence is limited. Her impact on controversy is considerable.

Then came October 7, where minimizing the sexual crimes of the day offered her an arena where some audiences would applaud.

The orange theatre

On the United Nations Day to End Violence Against Women, the organization will again light buildings and deliver speeches about solidarity.

But behind the facade sits an envoy who amplifies every allegation that fits a preferred storyline and downgrades any evidence that contradicts it.

The contrast is stark.

The slogan is End violence against women.

The practice is End the credibility of inconvenient victims.

On a day meant to illuminate violence, the United Nations envoy tasked with confronting it is showing how easily the light can be turned off