You know what you get when you fight fire with fire? An inexhaustible blaze.

But according to Nagla al-Imam, this isn’t true. She believes that fighting Israeli occupation with sexual harassment is actually the key to resisting it. She recently “invited Arab youth to sexually harass and rape Israeli women as a form of resistance”:

Interviewer: Egyptian lawyer Nagla Al-Imam has proposed that young Arab men should sexually harass Israeli girls wherever they may be and using any possible method, as a new means in the resistance against Israel.

[...]

Interviewer: We have with us the lawyer Nagla Al-Imam from Cairo. Welcome. What is the purpose of this proposal of yours?

Nagla Al-Imam: This is a form of resistance. In my opinion, they are fair game for all Arabs, and there is nothing wrong with…

Interviewer: On what grounds?

Nagla Al-Imam: First of all, they violate our rights, and they “rape” the land. Few things are as grave as the rape of land. In my view, this is a new form of resistance.

Interviewer: As a lawyer, don’t you think this might expose Arab youth to punishment for violating laws against sexual harassment?

Nagla Al-Imam: Most Arab countries… With the exception of three or four Arab countries, which I don’t think allow Israeli women to enter anyway, most Arab countries do not have sexual harassment laws. Therefore, if [Arab women] are fair game for Arab men, there is nothing wrong with Israeli women being fair game as well.

Interviewer: Does this also include rape?

Nagla Al-Imam: No. Sexual harassment… In my view, the [Israeli women] do not have any right to respond. The resistance fighters would not initiate such a thing, because their moral values are much loftier than that. However if such a thing did happen to them, the [Israeli women] have no right to make any demands, because this would put us on equal terms – leave the land so we won’t rape you. These two things are equal.

This transcript is from MEMRI, a notoriously anti-Arab news source. However, it looks like al-Imam did all the work for them: she makes herself look worse than any outlet could.

More terrifying is that she is a lawyer and the head of a human rights organization. It’s beyond reprehensible that she advocates sexual harassment as a kind of payback or a solution to a group’s problems, given her position as someone committed to the rule of law and human rights.

How can she advance human rights (which include the safety and well-being of all women) while claiming that Israeli women aren’t entitled to the same safety she wants Palestinian women to have? If someone is trapped in a hole, it’s impossible to shovel oneself out; shoveling only creates a larger hole that is more difficult to climb out of. But this seems to be exactly what al-Imam wants.

Though Israel is no saint in this, al-Imam’s statements do nothing to advance the cause of Palestinians.

This is not the way to end the Israeli occupation and oppression of Palestinians. This is the way to make it worse.

Tags: fatemeh fakhraie