Female voices in times of war: The Hispanic Israeli perspective

Since October 7, Israel has been in the media spotlight around the world as it fights back following the barbaric attack by the Hamas terrorist group. 

Woman have an important role in narrating this conflict to the global public, and "Female voices in times of war" lends the microphone to four women — mothers and professionals — who identify as Israeli and Hispanic. 

Keren Noemi, Alejandra Barav, Patricia Ashkenazi and myself have launched a podcast, Israelíntimas, to speak about the media, its influence around the world, social networks, female activism and the importance of a future of coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians. 

We also held a panel about these topics to open the 2024 cultural agenda of the Cervantes Institute in Tel Aviv. i24NEWS' Spanish-language program "Ñews24" was present at the event, hosted by Cervantes Institute director Francisco Lopez Tapia.

The Cervantes Institute is a public institution created by Spain in 1991 for the promotion and teaching of the Spanish language, as well as for the dissemination of Spanish and Latin American culture. It has headquarters around the world, including New York, Rio de Janeiro, Sydney, New Delhi, Milan, Paris, Istanbul, Beirut, Tel Aviv and Amman.

Europe has had a heavy presence in the war Israel is fighting against the terrorist group Hamas. Last November, one-and-a-half months into the war, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited the region, meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. His press conference at the Rafah crossing on the Egypt-Gaza border calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, on the eve of the release of the first group of hostages, led to a diplomatic backlash from Israel. Narrating the war in Spanish makes an important difference, and for Mercedes Cosmelli, Interior Attaché of the Spanish Embassy in Israel, the conference was "a way of experiencing the conflict and being able to contribute a grain of sand to the people who do not participate 100% and are residing in this country."

Further afield, Latin American countries have also taken a position on the war. Countries like Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, Bolivia, Mexico, have not condemned the terrorist group Hamas, and at the same time, they have not voiced moral support for Israel. On the other side, the countries that have condemned the October 7 massacre include Argentina, Costa Rica, Uruguay, and Panama. The ambassador of Panama in Israel, Adis Urieta, commented at the conference that the narrative in Spanish from Israel is very necessary in order for the Hispanic world to know the truth and understand the war. 

As a journalist for i24NEWS, the only international television channel in Israel with a program in Spanish, I have the opportunity to broadcast the tragedy that Israel has experienced since the war's start. I am Sephardic and Israeli, and at the end of the day, when the cameras go off and when the rocket alerts sound as I drive down the Ayalon highway on my way home, I am the mother of two children who are eagerly awaiting my embrace. I arrive in my city of Ra'anana, see Maya and Ariel, and think of those broken toys in Kibbutz Nir Oz where a family was massacred. I can only thank God for life, and for the opportunity to not only report on the events, but to be able to communicate it to a Hispanic audience 548 million people around the world who are part of the Judeo-Christian culture, with professionalism and from the experience of Jewish mother. 

I studied journalism in Venezuela, in Spain, and in Morocco — where my family origins are from. I lived there for five years, working as a journalist. The nomadic life of a Jew in the twenty-first century ended when I immigrated, ten years ago, to Israel, my home, to take on the most significant role of my career thanks to i24NEWS: being the female voice in Spanish in times of war.