Men lead new Israeli social media campaign against sexual violence
Video features 15 Israeli male media figures speaking out against sexual assault and urging their fellow men take responsibility
A new social media campaign aimed at Israeli men, urging them to take responsibility in the fight against wide-spread rape and sexual assault in Israeli society, is being led by men.
The one minute video was released on social media on Sunday with the Hebrew hashtag “It’s_My_Problem” in response to the alleged gang rape of a 16-year-old-girl in Eilat in August.
“Violence against women is not a woman’s problem, it’s my problem” say the 15 Israeli male media figures speaking “man to man” in an attempt to get other men to responsibility for sexual violence against women in in the country.
They asked Israeli men to think about all of the women in their lives before informing them that in Israel, one in five women has been raped, one in three has been sexually assaulted and that every woman in Israel has been sexually harassed at least once.
The video continues with the participants highlighting typical aggressive Israeli expressions regarding the opposite sex,”have one more drink…just a kiss, a little one…women don’t give, it’s up to you to take.”
“Sounds scary when we say this together, right?” said an emotional Yossi Marshek. “Imagine how scary this sounds like on the other end.”
Marshek, known for his role in the popular Israeli satire series “The Jews are Coming” brought his young daughter to the set. Producers of the video told Channel 12 News that he was speaking directly to her, which was the reason behind his almost tearful performance.
The video was created solely on a volunteer basis and was the idea of Mordechai Braunstein, an Israeli entrepreneur.
“I have felt for a long time a lack of masculine voices speaking to men in this discourse, so we decided to do something about it and produced a campaign and posted it on Facebook.” Braunstein, told Channel 12 on Monday.
In a Facebook post that shared the link to the video, Braustein wrote: “I can’t explain why I cry every time I see this or why I shed tears on the day we filmed this, something here just touches me deeply. I share this with trembling hands and a beating heart and a prayer that this reaches everyone who needs to hear this.”
So far, the video has been shared over 2,000 times on Facebook and has over 27,000 views on Twitter.