Why Palestine is a feminist issue: a reckoning with Western feminism in a time of genocide

At the time of writing, Israel has waged a relentless and barbaric war on the Gaza Strip for more than 400 days. No one can say that they did not know. As Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, an adviser to South Africa’s legal team, stated during South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in January 2024, this is “the first genocide in history where its victims are broadcasting their own destruction in the desperate so far vain hope that the world might do something” (National Desk Citation2024). United Nations (UN) officials have described conditions in the Gaza Strip as “apocalyptic” (Nichols Citation2024). The human toll is staggering: at least 43,000 people have been killed, with over 100,000 injured. Thousands more remain trapped beneath the rubble of destroyed homes or places of shelter. Around 90 percent of Palestinians have been displaced, many multiple times. Most live in insanitary, makeshift camps without access to electricity, running water, or toilets. Volunteer doctors returning from Gaza have reported experiences unlike any other, even after working in numerous global conflict zones (see for example Begum Citation2024). Most hospitals are barely functioning, subjected to repeated attacks by the Israeli military. Education has been interrupted for hundreds of thousands of students for a second consecutive academic year. The level of destruction is immense, with around half of the population no longer having homes to return to. Palestinians face starvation and the systematic destruction of almost all means of life (see for example Msuya Citation2024). While the scale of Israel’s ongoing violence is unprecedented, it must be understood as part of Israel’s broader settler-colonial project and the inherent logics of erasure (Wolfe Citation2006) that underpin it.

This is an original manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Feminist Journal of Politics on 6 Feb 2025, available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/14616742.2025.2455477.