By Ashley Hefner, Photographer & Staff Writer
Yifat Bitton, a prominent Israeli lawyer who specializes in sexual assault cases, spoke to Yeshiva University students on Nov. 6 about her investigation of the sexual violence suffered by Israeli civilians on Oct. 7 at the hands of Hamas terrorists.
Bitton told the YU Observer that those who do not believe Israeli women who were sexually assaulted on Oct. 7 are “shielding yourself, not from an Israeli case, but rather, from the reality of the world.” She continued, “If it happened to us, it can happen to you too.”
As a self described feminist, Bitton is the president of the predominantly female Achva College of Education and Science in southern Israel. She was also short-listed twice for the Supreme Court of Israel and specializes in tort law, specifically regarding women’s rights and sexual abuse cases.
“It has nothing to do with Israel, Israeli women, Jewish women,” Biton told the YU Observer. She said that Oct. 7 is “another way” that the world can “be prepared to respond correctly, when such atrocities happen, regardless of where it happens.”
Bitton is also the founder of Tmura, an Israeli anti-discrimination center that advocates for women’s rights, specifically those who have suffered abuse. Bitton told the YU Observer that sexual violence “is something we are all exposed to as women.”
In her lecture to YU students on the university’s Wilf campus, she told attendees that after Oct. 7, Jewish and Israeli women “feel betrayed by our feminist allies.” She continued, “I’m part of the feminist, universal community of women who’s been fighting for women everywhere and against sexual violence regardless of who does it to whom, when and where.”
Bitton coined the term “raid terrorism” to describe the sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas. She said that because terrorists took over southern Israel for hours in addition to committing horrible acts of violence, southern Israel should have been treated as a “crime scene” in addition to having been investigated as a large-scale “terrorist attack.”
Because Bitton believes this form of terrorism is completely novel, she said that first and second responders were unequipped to carefully respond to the crimes committed against civilians, especially in regards to the gathering of evidence of sexual assault. She said that at first, some did not even realize that there was even any indication of sexual violence.
“The mere fact that there were so many women on my screen [referring to social media footage from Oct. 7], as someone who has been an expert in fighting sexual violence for so long, for almost three decades, it immediately worried me,” she said. She told YU students that in that moment she thought, “If Hamas militants are occupying these places, there’s no way that these women will not be sexually hurt.”
Bitton stressed the importance of having more women working as responders in order to offer their perspective on sexual assault on the scene in these difficult cases. She said that men may not be able to see evidence that indicates sexual violence took place, when women may be more aware and sensitive to that specific kind of evidence.
“I think it’s important for women to be in these places because to us it was so clear from the outset that it [sexual assault] was there,” she said. “This is one of the reasons why you need women on the field.”
Bitton emphasized that there are lessons we must learn in the aftermath of Oct. 7. She stressed that the system used to train responders needs great reform that involves teaching them how to gather evidence while also respecting the victims. “My aspiration is that we’ll be able to do that under an umbrella that is an international one that brings considerations and the expertise of people from around the world to know how to tackle this,” she told the YU Observer.
Bitton acknowledged the complete disregard of international recognition given to the victims of Oct. 7 and the utter lack of condemnation for the sexual violence Israelis were subjected to at the hands of Hamas terrorists. She reached out to international organizations like the United Nations, asking about their protocols regarding this issue in a statement denouncing the sexual violence of Oct. 7. After looking at past statements the UN made regarding sexual violence, she quickly realized that Israel was being treated differently.
“Within one day they condemned something in Afghanistan, at the same day it happened,” she said to the crowd of YU students “It took them eight weeks to do that in our [Israel’s] case.”
During her time in New York, Bitton spent a few days lecturing at various institutions and also joined YU students on the Beren campus for Shabbat, where she discussed her career and passion for human and women’s rights, while also getting to know the YU community. She also spoke to two classes, Dr. Joshua Karlip’s Religion Secularism and Zionism class about the history of discrimination faced by Mizrahi Jews and their role in Israeli society, as well as Dr. Nora Nachumi’s women’s studies class about feminism and women’s rights.
Rebecca Henner (SCW ‘26) told the YU Observer that it was meaningful “to see that even as a woman, even as a Jew… she was able to fight those stereotypes and be really successful in her field.” Henner said that she appreciated seeing that Bitton was able “to take her values and the things she wanted to fight for and to integrate that into the things she was good at professionally and use that to really make a difference.”
Bitton said that unfortunately the work she is doing will not erase the tragedy of what happened on Oct. 7, nor will the terrorists who committed these crimes all be brought to justice. However, she stressed that the work she is doing could transform how officials respond to terrorist attacks, especially ones where women are put at risk.
Bitton ended, noting “what we should be doing is be more ready next time,” while emphasizing that “next time hopefully would never happen.”
Photo Caption: Yiffat Bitton speaks to YU students and staff on the university’s Wilf campus
Photo Credit: Ashley Hefner