Gaza, patriarchy and whiteness

Recognizing patterns in the US-Israeli governments’ treatment of Palestinians

There are about a thousand caveats I’m tempted to include up front to insulate myself from how readers might respond to this piece. That’s my own whiteness and masculinity at play: wanting to get this piece exactly “right,” seeking only praise and support, and trying to deflect away criticism. As always, I ask for both your generosity and feedback, and I invite any constructive dialogue you want to have on this and any issue.

The world is, and has been, bearing witness to some of the most horrifying atrocities of our lifetimes. An overlooked piece of the dominant conversation – one I hope to contribute to below – is a direct interrogation of how whiteness and patriarchy in the United States and Israeli governments fuel the dehumanizing treatment, mass starvation, and genocide of Palestinians.

Whiteness and patriarchy feed off of both our ignorance of how they operate, as well as our complicity in the systems where they operate. Without a critical analysis of whiteness and patriarchy in the context of major world events, we allow those systems to continue unchecked.

Below are a few ways these dynamics are playing out. I’m choosing to inundate you a bit by breaking down both whiteness and patriarchy in one post. It’s a lot, but I think it’s important to see them simultaneously, not as entirely disconnected layers.

Whiteness encourages us to …

• Ignore race – The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is often oversimplified as a religious conflict (Muslim vs. Jewish), ignoring the clear racial conflict at play between people of color and white people. But these religious identities are intersectional and have extensive overlap with racial groups. The assimilation and reclassification of Jewish-American people into whiteness (in contrast to Palestinian-Americans, whose status as people of color has not changed) further incentivizes the US government’s protection of Jews over Muslims. Christian nationalism takes this a step further, conveniently aligning Judaism and Christianity in opposition to Islam when it serves white Christian interests.

• Justify violence in defense of whiteness – The narrative of “self defense” for Israel at the wildly disproportionate cost of Palestinian lives functions not to seek justice, but to protect those already in power. Since October 7th, 2023, the US government has given close to $20 billion to the Israeli military. Compare that to the $5 billion of aid the US government has provided to Palestinians since 1994. There is no question that the US is invested in protecting whiteness; if you give more bombs than humanitarian aid, you are prioritizing violence.

• Value the status quo – Whiteness seeks to continue whiteness, and therefore defers to the law, the police, and the government, not the people. Palestinian rebellion against Israeli occupation and oppression is seen as the ultimate sin. The apartheid status quo has been normalized, and any attempt to fight back is redefined as violence and insubordination.

• Diminish the humanity of people of color – Every statistic and narrative of genocide and mass starvation in Gaza has been met with deflections about the hostages and Hamas hiding behind civilians. Instead of seeing the shared humanity of two groups striving against systems of oppression, Israel and the United States have elected to use one evil to justify another. Fighting antisemitism does not come with a free pass for committing crimes against humanity in the name of self-preservation.

• Retell history to serve white interests – October 7th as the core reference point misrepresents the full sociopolitical context by focusing on a single horrible incident instead of the persistent state of domination through settler colonialism and apartheid. The US and Israeli governments use this reframing to justify military action. The abbreviated historical timeline also helps England and France (majority white Western nations) avoid culpability for displacing Palestinians post WWII. US avoidance of using the term “genocide” is a callback to when the term was first coined during the Nuremberg Trials: officials avoided using the term to dodge our own historical complicity in the genocidal treatment of Native and Black Americans.

• Use misinformation to hide truth – Since October 7th, the IDF has disallowed aerial photography of Gaza and restricted access to journalists. The few images that have been taken and published show the extent of the devastation – a reckoning with truth that the Israeli government wants to avoid. Obscuring reality, especially when that reality is so grim, functions solely to maintain the current state.

Patriarchy encourages us to …

• Value gender groups differently – In this conflict, officials openly acknowledge that they value human life differently. They’ve normalized willingly sacrificing men to “save” women and children. Civilian lives, particularly those of women and children, are treated as more important. Patriarchy also demeans women and children, observing their suffering from a distance while simultaneously deifying and devaluing men as warriors who can be sacrificed.

• Value intellectualization over emotions – Much of the current discourse is just that: a discussion, a debate, an intellectualization of human suffering. There is a physical and emotional toll on Palestinian and Israeli people – frankly, everyone in the world – and there is a too-often-unacknowledged emotional toll on the colonizers, military, and government officials who repeatedly dehumanize others. Patriarchal masculinity wants to detach us from feeling, to suppress the pain of witnessing mass starvation and the attempted destruction of an entire group of people. This results in escapist expressions of helplessness and debate instead of action. I notice intellectualization in the public discourse as well as in my own white male circles, where we debate the topics, the history, and the facts, rather than sharing our values and examining our collective pain. The whole “it’s complicated” argument needs to stop. Not because there’s an absence of nuance, but because it’s a weak analysis that reinforces complacency over intervention and suggests that the (overgeneralized) two sides are being harmed on similar scales. The longer we intellectualize suffering, the greater the emotional distance we have from the people and the necessary action to stop the suffering.

• Value male decision-making – There is deep trust and deference to the men at the top. Men – most of whom are white – are the decision-makers behind the genocide, from government and military officials to UN leaders. (When I researched this, I couldn’t find a single woman playing a key decision-maker role.) The complacency we are seeing in society reflects, in part, a deference to male leadership. Conversely, notice how Trump cries “DEI hire” whenever a woman (especially a queer or BIPOC woman) is in a leadership role and something perceived as negative happens.

• Value physical over emotional strength – Patriarchal masculinity values physical strength. As we watch images of malnourished boys and men in Gaza, I fear that masculine rhetoric will only worsen – diminishing the humanity of male-embodied people because starvation has physically weakened them. It is much easier to send bombs in and kill your enemies than it is to have the emotional courage to engage in creative diplomacy and peaceful problem-solving.

• Value violence – Settler colonialism and patriarchy seem to go hand in hand. So maybe it’s unsurprising that vengeance and violence have been used to take power from the people. The replacement of diplomacy and peace with suffering, starvation, and mass casualties speaks to a violent default stance. One specific way patriarchy’s obsession with violence shows up is in the film industry. The Director of Tales from Gaza shared at the Blackstar Film Festival that movies depicting the humanity of Palestinians aren’t getting nearly as much funding as those showing the atrocities. Money speaks to priorities. Funding violence over humanity shows how patriarchy is fascinated with depictions of others’ trauma at the cost of truly knowing and caring about other people.

We are coming up on two years of escalated violence and I’ve found it painful and deeply saddening to bear witness to these atrocities. More than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed compared to less than 1,500 Israelis, not to mention the complete destruction of homes and communities and the irreparable state of Gaza. That is not a proportional response or justice-based reaction – it is excessive vengeance in the spirit of erasure, grounded in white patriarchal mindsets and habits.

As we collectively reconcile with the horrors in Gaza and throughout the world, and as we witness ongoing colonization and wars, we are simultaneously responsible for interrogating cultures of domination. We must hone our ability to recognize historical patterns of whiteness and patriarchy in contemporary conflict. What is possible? A deeper awareness, more clarified moral lens, and the motivation to seek a better, more human path forward.

What can you do?

• Sit with the emotional weight of the atrocities. Let yourself cry. Give yourself permission to pause and just feel.

• Invite conversations with people in your network, both those who have similar views and those who have different ones. Ask questions. Share your experience and beliefs.

• Attend protests. Feel a sense of connection and solidarity, in the spirit of keeping your passion flame lit.

• Research and learn. Continue to learn about what is and has been happening through credible sources, including both legitimate news networks and individual stories. You can start with the links in this piece.

• Call or email your politicians.

• Donate money, if able.

• As you engage, think about how whiteness and patriarchy are informing how you and others are showing up.