The message leading Western feminism is sending to Palestinian women is loud and clear: your suffering does not matter.
In our current era where digital platforms wield unparalleled influence, X – previously known as Twitter – is the closest thing we have to a global public square. Within this vast marketplace of ideas, a subset of Western feminists have unilaterally assumed leadership roles, fashioning themselves as the gatekeepers of who is a real “feminist” and what truly constitutes “feminism”.
Since October 7, these “leading feminists” have been bombarding this all-important digital landscape with posts vociferously condemning the Hamas attack on Israel, while excusing or simply ignoring the ongoing collective punishment of more than two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip that followed. Some even attempt to frame Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment and total siege of the tiny enclave, which already claimed the lives of over 5,000 men, women, and children, as acceptable retaliation for Hamas’s actions and lawful “self-defence”.
Western feminism’s apparent indifference to statements like that of Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, likening Palestinians to “human animals”, is deeply alarming.
If your western feminism does not make you stand up for a people who experienced little other than ethnic cleansing, oppression and occupation since 1948, who have been trying to survive under a crippling blockade for 17 years, who are being defined as “human animals”, and who are now facing what can only be described as a genocide, then what it is for? If these realities do not encourage you to take a stance, it’s hard to imagine what will. Are Palestinian women somehow not women enough to be deserving of your feminist advocacy?
I hope this weighs on your conscience: By endorsing Israel’s right to “defend itself” at any cost, you’re condoning violence against women and children – the very demographic you claim to champion. By ignoring the plight of the Palestinian people, by trying to brand as “anti-Semitic” and “anti-feminist” everyone who dares to support their struggle, you are making it evident that not all lives – not all women – hold the same value in your eyes.
Your message to the women trying to survive under Israeli bombs, women cradling the corpses of their murdered children, is loud and clear: you do not matter.