The government is “sifting” the declarations of all feminist associations linked to the bloody Hamas attack in Israel on October 7 and is threatening to remove subsidies “at the slightest ambiguity,” Minister Aurore Bergé said on Sunday.
“I asked that all financially supported associations be scrutinized.
If there is the slightest ambiguity about comments that were made on October 7, it would not be normal for these associations to continue to receive subsidies from the government,” declared Aurore Bergé, responsible for Equality between women and men and the Fight against Discrimination, on Radio J.
“On behalf of the government, I asked that we look at the declarations of all feminist associations linked to #October7 and what followed because I refuse that the State financially supports associations which do not would not know how to characterize what… pic.twitter.com/GeakY9VEcf
— Haziza Frédéric (@frhaz) February 11, 2024
“I refuse that the State financially supports associations which cannot characterize what happened,” added the minister, against a backdrop of accusations of double standards targeting a part of the feminist movement to which it was accused of denying or minimizing the violence committed against Israeli women by Hamas men.
“Being a feminist means supporting the women who were mutilated on October 7”
Aurore Bergé declared having made this request “this week” to the administration from which she expects a return “in the coming days”.
“Being a feminist means saying things, being a feminist means supporting the women who were mutilated on October 7,” explained the minister.
Also read: Hamas sexual violence on October 7: behind the scenes of a long, painful and difficult investigation
“If the tragedy that occurred on October 7 against women had occurred elsewhere, would the reactions have been stronger?
Unfortunately I fear that might have been the case,” she continued.
Since the bloody attack launched by Hamas against Israel on October 7 and the Israeli reprisals, the Nous tous collective, and more broadly feminist associations and figures in France, have been criticized for "silence" on the information and testimonies reporting of rapes committed by Hamas men.
After the November 25 march against violence against women, the collective and other associations defended themselves by claiming to fight for “all women” and condemned “unambiguously the sexual and sexist crimes, rapes and feminicides committed by Hamas, who particularly targeted women, LGBTQIA+ people and children.”