The destruction of Gaza from a patriarchal critique perspective

17 August 2025

Ever since studying political science (with a focus on women's studies and international politics), I have been concerned with the situation in Palestine and would like to analyze it here briefly from a patriarchal critique perspective[1]. Gaza can serve as a classic example of what the implementation of the dystopian idea of a patriarchal civilization looks like in reality.

The total destruction of Gaza symbolizes the delusion that a supposedly “true creation” can only come about through destruction. In Greece, for example, the pre-Hellenic matriarchal culture was wiped out and replaced by the Hellenic culture, with the denial that any other culture had existed before.[2] Similarly, this happened to Palestine a hundred years ago. In 1922, the League of Nations, in its mandate for Palestine, erased the Palestinian people's right to their land (Khalidi 2020, p. 46) by denying their historical connection to it. They simply no longer appeared in the document.

Since 2023, a “tabula rasa” has been created in Gaza – “mortification,” as Claudia Werlhof calls it. Because a patriarchal “new creation” can only come about through prior destruction. In this way of thinking, it is considered legitimate to wipe out the local population, who are declared non-human. They are not even given the opportunity to flee to a neighboring country.

The patriarchal delusion continues in the reversal of real conditions. It is claimed and implemented in reality that peace is obsolete and that total perpetual war (also in other parts of the world) is the norm. Words are reinterpreted: “security” means war. At universities, “security studies” are on the rise (e.g., at the University of Central Florida).

The method of destruction is technology, in this case the war machine, which is equipped with the most sophisticated technology. Israel is one of those countries that, for the sake of “security,” has been developing the relevant technology for decades—in cooperation with American and European universities and corporations—and is now a world leader. Militarized violence is being refined and air defense platforms, drones, targeting tools powered by artificial intelligence, surveillance technology, etc. are being perfected and sold all over the world. This also includes unimaginable things such as military vehicles firing stones at the population (Farhat-Naser p. 79).

The violent occupation of Palestinian territories has - furthermore and incredibly - become Israel's biggest business. According to UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese, the military-industrial complex is the backbone of the Israeli economy (Albanese 2025, p. 7). She calls this the “economy of genocide.”

The key to understanding patriarchy is therefore violence in all its forms (cf. Johann Galtung 1996), which is inherent in politics, economics, family, and religion. Claudia Werlhof (2009) argues that global politics is a system of war that can only establish itself internally and externally through violence and coercion. Sometimes this violence is only latent, but in the case of Palestine – Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank – it manifests itself in the most cruel ways. Also the war that is not declared as such – that is, the daily torture and humiliation even in so-called times of peace – is described in her writings by Sumaya Farhat Naser, a peace prize winner living in the West Bank.

The 100-year-long Palestinian tragedy (Rashid Khalidi 2020) has reached a terrible climax. In the current situation (August 2025), the masks have fallen. Politics is exposed for what it is: the completely unscrupulous rule of political elites and corporations (Francesca Albanese 2025).

The patriarchal principle of “divide and rule” has been evident in Palestine for 100 years, perfected by the British colonial rulers and adopted by the Israeli government and army (Khalidi 2020, 22, 56). Until now, the aim has been to prevent the Palestinian and Israeli civil societies from uniting at all costs.

And also the whole world has been divided into those who are supposed to sympathize with Israel. They have been trained to believe that any criticism of Israel's politics and army is anti-Semitic. On the other side were those who called colonialism what it was and stood up for the Palestinian people [3]. To do so, they were labeled anti-Semitic; American Jews who voiced criticism were branded “self-hating Jews.” This division is the result of sophisticated methods of psychological warfare. The narrative was maintained through decades of tactics to influence all relevant institutions—politics (AIPAC, etc.), business, and academia (invitations for professors to visit Israel, etc.).

And, of course, the divide and rule tactic includes the very obvious division of the territory of Palestine itself: building walls, urban sprawl to make a Palestinian state impossible, roads only for settlers, checkpoints only for Palestinians, etc. In addition, the flow of information between Israel and the Palestinian territories is deliberately blocked.

In a patriarchal delusion, Gaza is to be destroyed and replaced by a “modern Western city”; videos showing what this is supposed to look like are already circulating. The “new creation,” i.e., the establishment of the 371 illegal colonies and settlements (so far) in the West Bank (Albanese 2015, p. 14), the construction of roads  [4]and infrastructure created solely for the settlements, is happening steadily with the help of numerous international corporations. The marketing of these properties, which are illegal under international law, takes place in Israel and the US.

The exploitation of all natural resources in Gaza, the maritime areas, and the West Bank (water etc.) for the benefit of the colonial state of Israel is a fundamental principle of patriarchy. It is also practiced by all European states, for example, toward the African continent (rare metals etc.).

The central principle of patriarchy is the rejection of responsibility towards all living beings, so in this case, all murdered people are referred to as “collateral damage of the war against Hamas.” This justifies the ongoing genocide of the entire population of Gaza.

Matricide (Tazi-Preve 1992) – the core of patriarchal endeavors – means the extinction of all life. Women cannot carry pregnancies to term, they die in childbirth, women and children are murdered and mutilated en masse, mothers are robbed of their children and their dignity, entire genealogies are wiped out. Reproductive genocide illustrates that the natural production of offspring by the mother is only considered valid if it is accomplished by the “right” ethnic group. But even there, the mother is disregarded in favor of the supposedly superior intellectual and technical new creation currently being promoted in the form of transhumanism. The creation of cyborgs, the normalization of surrogate motherhood, etc., is the delusional implementation of the supposedly “real” creations, created by the minds of the “father” technicians and scientists.

In patriarchal logic, the destruction of Gaza and genocide make perfect “sense.” This worldview loves death and hates life. This logic also fits in with a deadly economy in which “war is business and business is good.” But women have always known that murder does not create new life and that technologists, politicians, and the military are in fact “fathers of nothingness” (Claudia Werhof).

Literature

• Albanese, Francesca. 30.6.2025. From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.
• Bunzl, John. 1983. Israel und die Palästinenser (Israel and Palestinians). Die Entwicklung eines Gegensatzes. Austrian Institute for International Affairs. Vienna: Wilhelm Braumüller Verlag.
• Farhat-Naser, Sumaya. 2022. Ein Leben für den Frieden (A Life for Peace). Lesebuch aus Palästina. Basel: Lenos Verlag.
• Galtung, Johan. 1996. Peace by Peaceful Means. London: Sage.
• Khalidi, Rashid. 2020. Der Hundert jährige Krieg (The hundred years`war on Palestine). Eine Geschichte von Siedlerkolonialismus und Widerstand. Zürich: Unionsverlag.
• Tazi-Preve, Irene. 1992. Der Mord an der Mutter (Matricide). Das gewaltsame Brechen der Macht der Mutter als konstitutives Merkmal des Patriarchats. Diplomarbeit. Universität Innsbruck.
• Werlhof, Claudia. 2009. Capitalist Patriarchy and the Negation of Matriarchy: The Struggle for a “Deep” Alternative. In: Vaughan, Genevieve (Ed.). Women and the Gift Economy. A Radically Different Worldview is Possible. Toronto: Inanna, p. 139-153.