The organizers of this statement are a coalition of feminists who have dedicated our careers to working for the rights of women and girls, especially the right to live free of violence and abuse. We have helped to secure legislation expanding justice for victims of gender-based violence; we have fought to reform our justice system’s treatment of rape victims; we have combated sexual exploitation of the most vulnerable; we have worked day in and out to provide survivors with healing services, housing, and support. We are Jewish and non-Jewish, and in bearing witness to the atrocities inflicted on Israeli women and girls during the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7th, we are united. These women and girls are our sisters, our daughters, our mothers and grandmothers, ourselves. They, with their brothers and fathers and sons, were brutalized on October 7th because they were Jewish. Women and girls were singled out for additional – almost unimaginable - atrocities because they were women and girls.  

We vow that those who perished will not be forgotten.  We demand that those who survived and are held hostage be released.