Leigh-Anne Palter

#infrastructure advisor and corporate director. Passionate advocate of #reconciliation, #diversity, community and urban gardening. Opinions are my own.

[Leigh-Anne Palter @lapalter]

@TheJenRollins This is NOT the same woman I started following over a decade ago. Your courage and hard work have paid off and it’s showing right down to your hair! You and your girls deserve every bit of happiness.

[Leigh-Anne Palter @lapalter]

@marnipanas This sickens me. I’m so very sorry.

[Arsen Ostrovsky @Ostrov_A]

Last week, I wrote an op-ed about the silence of women's groups & int'l organizations, in the face of the mass rape and sexual assault of Israeli women by Hamas terrorists on Oct 7.

Sadly, not a single mainstream publication was willing to publish it. So I am posting it here!

***

Me Too, Unless You’re a Jew?
By Arsen Ostrovsky

As a father of girls, I have no more sacrosanct duty in life, than the protection of my daughters, and as a human rights lawyer, I have proudly stood with women, advocating for greater equality.

Yet I have been utterly devastated at the abject silence and cold indifference of international organizations and women’s rights groups, following the unprecedented massacre perpetrated by Hamas against Israeli women and girls.

A devasting picture is rapidly emerging of horrific mass rape, torture and mutilation inflicted by Hamas terrorists upon young children, girls, women, even babies and the elderly.

One Israeli morgue worker said how there is evidence of widespread rape of so brutal that the terrorists “broke their victims’ pelvis – women, grandmothers, children.”

In another instance, first responders found a pregnant woman who was murdered, shot in the head, with her stomach cut wide open and her unborn baby still being connected to the umbilical cord.

In Kibbutz Be’eri, a place I visited personally a number of times following the massacre, a paramedic recounted how he found the bodies of two teenage girls in a bedroom, still lying in a pool of blood. They were raped, beaten and executed by Hamas. However, the paramedic was still unsure if they were raped first or executed and then raped.

Young girls, the bodies mutilated, paraded like trophies on the streets of Gaza.

There are countless more stories like this of the most unimaginable evil.

In addition, there are now also at least 240 hostages, that Hamas is holding captive in Gaza. At least 100 of them are women and young girls, with one even reported to have given birth, while in captivity. Thankfully some of them now are reportedly being released.

Yet despite this overwhelming evidence of the brutal, heinous mass rape and assault against Israeli women and kidnapping of young girls, the so-called enlightened voices of the west and self-proclaimed feminist groups, have been virtually silent.

Where is UN Women’s agency, the primary UN body tasked with ending violence against women? Silent.

Where is the Women’s March, which started to support women’s rights and create awareness against sexual abuse, harassment and rape of women? Silent.

How about members of The Squad? They don’t waste a breath to preach about Palestinian women’s rights, but are conspicuously silent here.

What does their silence convey?

Are the rights of Israeli women and girls not deserving of their attention? Is the kind of abominable behavior by Hamas to be condoned or excused? Or is it really ‘Me Too’ … unless you’re a Jew?

In case it needs to be reiterated, rape and sexual assault in armed conflict is a grave war crime under international law. The Geneva Conventions clearly state that “women shall be especially protected against any attack on their honour, in particular against rape … or any form of indecent assault,” while the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court deems the rape or sexual violence against women in armed conflict, both a war crime and crime against humanity.

That is why we made rape and the sexual assault against women, a pivotal part of our war crimes claim against Hamas, submitted last month to the International Criminal Court.

But the world has been mostly silent about these heinous Hamas crimes against girls and women.

Worse yet, some have even sought to perversely ‘contextualize’ it.

In an essay titled ‘The Compass of Mourning’, published in the days immediately after the Hamas massacre, Judith Butler, a leading American philosopher and gender studies scholar, claimed that Hamas’ actions need to be looked at “in context”.

No. There is never a ‘context’ to the wanton rape, defilement and sexual violence of women, full stop.

Sickeningly, there is now also a rape-denial movement growing as well. The director of the Sexual Assault Center as Canada’s University of Alberta, for example, was just fired, after the director signed an open letterdenying that women were raped and sexually assaulted during the Hamas terror wave.

What kind of message does it send when these so-called women’s groups and UN agencies are silent as Israeli girls are raped in the beds of their homes or women’s organs are mutilated?

How can one have such callous indifference, as children and elderly women are taken hostage and held captive in the dungeons of Gaza?

And what of those supposedly enlightened and educated voices, who seek to ‘contextualize’ toddlers being ripped apart from their mothers arms or the gang rape of women by sadistic Hamas monsters?

Are you really saying that the life of an Israeli girl or woman is worth less? Shame on you, your hypocrisy, and worst of all, the attempt to justify the unjustifiable.

History will forever record your silence, indifference and utter irrelevance.

[Leigh-Anne Palter @lapalter]

@JeffTetz 😂 smart kid!

[Leigh-Anne Palter @lapalter]

@jewishmemequeen Jane

[Leigh-Anne Palter @lapalter]

We’ve got this! Only one question, #wherestheafterparty 🏆🏆🏆

[Calgary Surge @CalgarySurge]

All in this together. ❤️

⏰5 P.M. MDT.
🆚@sss_cebl
📍@LangleyEvents
📺TSN, TSN+, CEBL+ powered by @BetVictor, CEBL Mobile.

#HomeTeam

[Leigh-Anne Palter @lapalter]

Packed & on my way to Langley, BC to cheer on the @CalgarySurge in pursuit of their first @CEBLeague Championship. Let’s goooooo!!!!

[Leigh-Anne Palter @lapalter]

Love to see our ‘hood featured!!! #southcalgary

[The Globe and Mail @globeandmail]

Small-scale retail boosts livability in Calgary neighbourhoods https://t.co/JiXdcYsddY

[Leigh-Anne Palter @lapalter]

@JeffTetz 💯agree!!

[Leigh-Anne Palter @lapalter]

@CalgarySurge Our little #luckycharm 🔥

[Leigh-Anne Palter @lapalter]

Another W on the books for @CalgarySurge - exceptional game team!!! Good luck in Ontario next week 🤞#basketball #supportlocal https://t.co/IoXSfIrL9w

[Leigh-Anne Palter @lapalter]

@UbakaOgbogu @JanisIrwin Agreed @JanisIrwin is a rockstar, an amazing human and an inspirational role model. #abvotes #ABNDP

[Todd Hirsch @theToddHirsch]

1. I have received ZERO compensation for my work with the Alberta NDP.

They asked me for my professional and expert opinion on Alberta's fiscal and economic policy, and I provided it for free.

I respect any political party that seeks expert advice.

...

[Todd Hirsch @theToddHirsch]

2. Contrary to what UCP Leader said about me in the leaders' debate, I actually HAD done my own analysis of the NDP's costing plan. And I endorsed it.

Please RETWEET this as much as you can. My credibility has been attacked and I need to set the record straight.

[Leigh-Anne Palter @lapalter]

@Desiree_Dakin @scotiabank I’m so very sorry for your loss. We left @scotiabank too when they said my mother had to file a power of attorney with them in advance & they wouldn’t accept the general PoA that EVERYONE else was fine with. @RBC on the other hand is a dream to deal with.

[Leigh-Anne Palter @lapalter]

Me too!!

[Leigh-Anne Palter @lapalter]

This!

[Naheed Nenshi @nenshi]

The most common question I get these days is “I’m a conservative but I don’t trust Smith or don’t support the current UCP policies. What should I do?”

I wrote a column about it. https://t.co/9qLaDTJZwF

TLDR: don’t vote UCP in the hopes they will then dump Smith. Won’t work.

[Leigh-Anne Palter @lapalter]

@babiak 😂 sorry 🤢

[Leigh-Anne Palter @lapalter]

@AcrossHerTable @WRPSToday I’m so sorry… 💔

[Stephen Carter @carter_AB]

How does one debate with someone with her own set of “alternative facts”?

Asking for a province.