From sympathy to feminist solidarity with Palestinian women facing genocide
Ashjan Ajour
This article was published in the International Feminist Journal of Politics, Volume 27, Issue 1 (2025). Available here on the Taylor & Francis platform.
Introduction
In this contribution, I argue that Palestinian women need feminist solidarity, not merely sympathy. Previously, I have written about my family, who, like many others, are enduring the Israeli bombardment and forced displacement as a continuation of a longer historical dispossession of Palestinians since 1948 (Ajour Citation2023). I have described the suffering caused by the genocidal violence, blockade, destruction of hospitals, and lack of medical supplies, which have in effect turned Gaza into a concentration camp.
My family’s experiences – the destruction of their home, multiple displacements, the constant threat to their lives under bombardment – are the reasons why I seek something deeper than sympathy from feminist Western allies. In another article (Ajour Citation2024), I have described my frustration with people simply offering sympathy. Words of sympathy, while compassionate, fail to have any impact on the structural forces perpetuating our suffering. Real solidarity requires actively opposing systems that enable violence against Palestinians. It must question political agendas, resist colonial narratives, and prioritize justice over geopolitical interests.
Western feminists need to understand the historical context of Palestinian oppression to engage in meaningful solidarity, particularly when considering the events since October 7, 2023. This historical context is Israel’s decades-long settler-colonial project, which includes the oppression of Palestinians and their ethnic cleansing. A failure to contextualize the genocide in Gaza against this historical backdrop of Palestinian oppression leads to dehumanizing Palestinians, stripping their suffering from its roots, without recognizing the ongoing dispossession and resistance to it.
The roots of the current violence lie in the Nakba of 1948, a mass displacement that uprooted over 750,000 Palestinians. This colonial violence is inherently gendered, targeting women as the social and cultural anchors within Palestinian society. For Palestinian women, Israel’s colonization involves a cycle of displacement and violence that profoundly affects every dimension of life, including gender roles and family structures. The 17-year blockade of Gaza, cutting off access to food, water, and medical care, is an illustration of colonial repression that falls heaviest on Palestinian women.
In reflecting on the politics of feminist solidarity in response to the genocide and suffering in Gaza, it is necessary to address the challenges that Palestinian women face, both from Israeli violence and from the limitations of feminist solidarity in the West. Palestinian women ask why their appeal for global support is largely met by indifference. How then can Western feminist solidarity address their suffering?
The importance of moving beyond sympathy
Feminist solidarity can operate as a powerful form of resistance against the colonial violence faced by Palestinian women. While statements of support or condemnation are important, they often lack depth and intersectional analysis, failing to challenge the power structures that continue to oppress Palestinians. Real solidarity requires taking a clear stance against the systems that perpetuate Palestinian suffering, which may involve challenging Western media narratives that often frame the Israeli colonial state as the victim. In some cases, the empathy and compassion expressed for Israeli women is not extended to Palestinian women who face an intensive level of genocidal violence.
Solidarity must be informed by a real understanding of the Palestinian struggle and accompanied by tangible efforts to change practices and policies that sustain colonial violence. Expressions of sympathy alone without actions do little to improve the conditions on the ground for Palestinian women and fail to recognize the agency of Palestinian women who have a long history of resisting this violence. Palestinian women need more than mere statements of sympathy, they need feminists to take a clear political stance and actions that address the colonial framework sustaining their suffering. The path toward feminist solidarity involves tangible actions, such as forming alliances with Palestinian anti-colonial feminist activists to ensure that their voices are heard and their experiences acknowledged in discussions of international feminism, allowing Palestinian women to speak directly to their experiences and the change that they need.
The gendered nature of colonial violence and intersectional feminism
Effective feminist solidarity must recognize that Palestinian women’s experiences are shaped not only by gender but also by the intersecting forces of colonialism, nationalism, and racism. This intersectionality reveals multiple forms of oppression that overlap and compound each other, creating a distinctive gendered oppression. For Palestinian women, this plays out not only as the physical dangers of war and mass death due to bombardment but also as gender-specific harms, such as the deprivation of maternal care, the shortage of feminine hygiene products, the unsafe conditions of shelters, and the increased burdens of caregiving. Hospitals in Gaza have been targeted and destroyed by Israeli attacks, creating terrifying environments for women who need medical assistance especially when giving birth or dealing with chronic illnesses. This is a clear example of reproductive violence or “reprocide,” which not only endangers women but also prevents the birth of future generations, as elaborated by Hala Shoman in her contribution below.
Israeli genocidal violence – from killing women and children to restricted movement and limited access to healthcare and resources – renders Gaza unlivable and creates conditions of gendered suffering unique to women who are overwhelmingly the primary caregivers burdened by these circumstances. By failing to recognize this context, sympathy alone risks further dehumanizing women through making it appear as if our suffering is inevitable rather than the result of structural colonial violence perpetrated by imperial Western power that supports Israel. Recognizing this intersectionality, then, is crucial to creating feminist solidarity.
Challenging geopolitical agendas and selective compassion
Western feminism is often hesitant to confront the realities of Palestine due to geopolitical tensions and political alliances or the fear of being accused of antisemitism. This reluctance to take a clear stance over Palestine reflects a selective compassion that compromises the core principles of feminisms. True feminist solidarity cannot waver based on geopolitical considerations, particularly when the suffering of women in Gaza is so clearly rooted in systematic oppression.
There is clearly a double standard at play that undermines the moral foundation of feminist principles when Western feminist movements readily condemn the violence against Israeli women on October 7 but remain silent on the violence inflicted by Israel on Palestinian women every day since (and before). As a feminist movement that claims to address all forms of injustice, Western feminism cannot afford to ignore or minimize the suffering of Palestinian women. This selective empathy dehumanizes Palestinian women and implicitly aligns with colonial narratives that dismiss their suffering as secondary or inevitable. This inconsistency not only reflects a failure to uphold feminist ideals of inclusivity and justice but also perpetuates stereotypes that contribute to the marginalization of Palestinian voices in the global conversation.
Beyond sympathy: a feminist solidarity movement grounded in global justice
Effective solidarity involves rejecting the conflation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism, a common and dangerous misconception that suppresses critical discussion about Israeli violence perpetrated against Palestinians. Feminist solidarity with Palestinian women requires feminist movements to ground their efforts in principles of justice. This means acknowledging that the fight for gender equality cannot be divorced from the broader fight against colonialism. Western feminism must commit to dismantling structures of power that enable the oppression of women globally rather than allowing geopolitical interests to dictate which women deserve solidarity and which do not. Feminist movements have the potential to be powerful agents of change, but only if they are willing to embrace global justice and avoid selective solidarity. By standing with Palestinian women and recognizing their suffering as part of a broader historical and political struggle, Western feminists can make a significant step toward a more effective feminism that honors women’s resistance and agency everywhere.
In conclusion, solidarity with Palestinian women amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza requires a comprehensive and action-oriented approach that respects their agency and dignity. Western feminists must critically assess their movement and ensure that solidarity goes beyond gestures of sympathy. By rooting their solidarity efforts in an understanding of colonial history, intersectionality, and a commitment to global justice, feminists in the West can contribute to the fight for Palestinian liberation. This is a call for action, accountability, and commitment to feminist standards – a global movement for justice honoring the agency and humanity of not only Palestinian women but all women.
