Feminism and Palestine

As we witness the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank, we are constantly asked to center Israeli suffering instead. I want to talk about the once-again-being-highlighted ask coming from liberals and Zionists — that we center the sexual violence committed against women by the attackers of Oct 7.

When this ask comes from those with a clear history of feminist commitment, I am inclined to take this request seriously and not dismiss their concerns. Whatever qualms some anti-Zionists might have about distrusting the details, it is not reasonable to deny or obscure that sexual violence was a part of Oct 7 attacks and that these incidents were horrifying and deeply misogynist. At least, it’s not unreasonable to ask this of privileged, white women like myself, who have never had one half of their identity leveraged against the other, as many feminists of color are currently experiencing.

What is also reasonable, however, is to get clarity on exactly what Zionist feminists would have anti-Zionist feminists do. Would the statement as written above, in their mind, count as “showing up” (so many of these questions are framed as, “where are American feminists?!”) If so, then we can stop this discussion right here and consider the matter resolved. But it’s fairly clear that this is not usually the case. The real request seems to be a centering of what happened on Oct 7, and this is where we run into problems.

The problem with requests such as these is that they position themselves as decontextualized requests for moral outrage. That all feminists should be outraged about rape is something all feminists absolutely agree on. So by asking, “where are the feminists?!,” such rhetoric implies that anti-Zionist feminists are either insincere in their beliefs and commitments, or that they are morally compromised and blinded. And yet, neither Zionist nor anti-Zionists public responses can possibly exist outside of the larger political context. As private individuals, we can express horror at violent and misogynist acts at the moment we learn of them. But once we turn to any public pronouncement, we know whatever we say will be leveraged in the larger struggle in Palestine.

The clear truth of the matter is that centering — not merely acknowledging, but centering —  the horrors of Oct 7 (sexual or not), cannot but help feed into the machine that is currently destroying the homes, bodies, and lives of millions of Palestinians. Anyone with even a cursory knowledge of Israel and settler colonialism should be well aware of how deeply decades of anti-Muslim propaganda has dehumanized Palestinian people (and particularly Palestinian men) in the eyes of the Western world. At this crucial moment, with open calls for genocide in both Israel and the United States, it is simply impossible to responsibly center the atrocities of Oct 7. Our horror as feminists will not be used objectively, and will not be used for good. It will be weaponized to further justify the continued killing of Palestinian men, women, and children.

That this larger public discourse exists and is out of our control is a reality that liberal discourse, in general, ignores and denies. If it were a simple matter of refusing to accept that we must tailor our own statements and solidarities strategically to avoid additional harm, this would be one thing. But what becomes so galling is how those making these calls are nearly never lacking their own commitments in the larger political context. Follow a tweet about the failure of American feminists to center the Oct 7 crimes, and you will almost certainly see a feed filled only with stories that center Jewish and Israeli suffering. It is this that makes the blood boil; to ask that we feel horror at the violence of Oct 7 is a human request that could come from a place of good faith. But to do so while being silent on, or actively minimizing or denying, the ongoing genocidal situation in Gaza exposes that the request was made not so much out of commitment to women, but commitment to a settler project.

And in either case, if our loyalties are to women first rather than humanity in general, might I add that most of those doing the dying in Gaza are either women or children. The United States has repeatedly vetoed a UN resolution that calls not only for an immediate end to these war crimes, but the immediate release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas, as well. Since the end of the brief cease fire weeks back, it has been rumored that Hamas does not want to release the remaining women hostages for fear of their horrifying tales of sexual abuse. (Whether or not this is true is not relevant to my point; I’m assuming that Zionists would believe them to be true.) One would assume, then, that a feminist praxis would prioritize whatever would compel or pressure the United States to get behind a total ceasefire and hostage release. But this is not what we see from the majority of feminists requesting the centering of Hamas’ crimes.

Then again, such a failure to acknowledge honestly their own political commitments should not be surprising given the politics of liberal or Zionist feminists. Not wanting to be associated with the right wing or the ugliness that is settler colonialism, they cannot take up the unequivocal mantle of support for anything and everything Israel does, particularly under its current government. And yet neither can they prioritize the ending of the war on Palestine, given that ultimately, they identify with the settlers. So, rife with contradiction and unable to face their commitments squarely, the only maneuver remaining to them is to critique the left for insufficiently centering the positionality they most identify with. Because they’re not honest enough with themselves to grapple with these problems, they instead lash out at those they thought were similarly aligned, resolving the conflict of their own commitments by accusing anti-Zionists feminists of betrayal.

It’s a thoughtless response at best, and a cowardly one at worst — and more to the point, it will not help protect any women in the future, of any ethnicity, anywhere.