#MeToo - Unless you’re a Jew: ‘Where the hell are you?’
Published in The Australian Jewish News
December 7, 2023
WARNING: Graphic content – sexual violence
It’s an image forever seared into our minds: a young girl, bound and barefoot, pulled from the back of a black Jeep to cheers of “Allahu akhbar”.
Her long hair is in the tight clasp of a gun-wielding Hamas terrorist.
Her grey pants are blood stained.
Her face, arms and ankles are bloodied too.
“This is how we discovered that my cousin Naama had been kidnapped,” Sydney’s Zack Shachar told The AJN.
“It’s how everyone in the family found out. It’s just unbelievable … Terrible,” his voices trails off.
Naama Levy, 19, had been staying on Kibbutz Nahal Oz when Hamas’ October 7 rampage began.
At 6.56am she sent a message to her mother Ayelet on WhatsApp: “We’re in the safe room … I’ve never heard anything like this.”
And then, silence – until the release of a video showing the teen entering Hamas captivity.
It went viral worldwide. But there have been no further updates to Naama’s whereabouts or condition since.
“Her mother is having a really hard time. She’s crying, and she doesn’t know what to do. Like any other parent, she wants her daughter next to her,” shared Shachar, who migrated from Israel with his wife and children 14 years ago.