30/12/2023
My “Tears” collection began a few years ago. The pain that flowed almost nonstop began to show up everywhere in my art. Sometimes it was literal in my paintings and in my jewelry and at other times it was more abstract, such as in the loneliness, or things that people despise or discard such as banana peels and jellyfish on the beach. Mine were the tears of a woman, the cries of abandonment and invisibility, of empty nests and recovery from a broken relationship.
Today my tears flow once again, tears of anger, of solidarity, of disbelief in humanity.
When I woke up on the Saturday morning of October 7, I did not know that masses of women, just over an hour's drive away from me, were being brutally violated and murdered. As I opened the news, I was met with endless horror stories of what was happening to my fellow countrymen.
And yesterday, The NY Times posted a graphic report of their own research. It includes testimonies of witnesses, survivors, rescue workers and professionals plus photographs and videos taken by the perpetrators themselves as trophies. The evidence paints just a fraction of the picture of the unspeakable brutality by human monsters. I weep for the stories that will never be told because they were silenced, murdered, burned and buried before they could be recorded.
No, it was not only women who were attacked, tortured and violated but the blatant r**e, the burning of children alive in front of their mothers, the pounding of nails into groins, slicing of vaginas, breasts and pregnant bellies, gangs of men passing horribly wounded women between them, ra**ng their mutilated bodies while tearing them apart is a very specific message to mankind. This was not only an act of terror but a declaration that they are here to destroy the beauty of life via the women who birth it.
As I type, I see the softness of my creative, wrinkled hands, my feminine touch throughout my inviting home, the folds on my stomach which carried and nurtured life itself. I come from a woman, I am a woman and I gave birth to women.
The nightmarish evidence of unspeakable evil on October 7, opens our eyes to what is utmost hatred. But I have to ask every one of you, why is there so much disrespect for the feminine surrounding you? How is it still acceptable to objectify, devalue, weaken, disbelieve, make jokes, abuse, belittle and down right ignore the half of our population which is responsible for not only perpetuating life but contributing to the beauty of our world?
And as for the women of October 7 and the ones who are still being violated in captivity, don’t you dare deny them their stories. Do not contribute by being silent either. And if you, in a moment of confusion or misinformation, alluded to the idea that there is any justification whatsoever for what they suffered, recall publically what you said or consider yourself party to one of the most publicly documented assassinations and violation of women in our lifetime.
And don’t be surprised when you look into the eyes of Israeli’s today and you see anger and fight behind their tears because no matter how much people protest, we will not sit here and be slaughtered, bullied, butured, and r**ed, while waiting like sheep for the next Holocaust. We will fight for our right not only to exist but to live and thrive in safety!
