March 5, 2024 - 5:00pm
The Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians on 7 October were neither antisemitic nor a form of terrorism, but were in fact “armed resistance”, the American theorist Judith Butler claimed on Sunday.
Butler told a roundtable discussion in France, hosted by the political debate show Paroles d’Honneur, that the attacks were “anguishing” and “terrible”, but nonetheless constituted “armed resistance” against state violence and should be treated as such. She also said it was open for debate whether the Hamas attacks had been the right thing to do.
“We can have different views about Hamas as a political party. We can have different views about armed resistance,” Butler stated. “But I think it is more honest and historically correct to say that the uprising of October 7 was an act of armed resistance. It is not a terrorist attack and it’s not an antisemitic attack,” she said. “It was an attack against Israelis.”
She went on: “The violence done to Palestinians has been happening for decades. This was an uprising that came from a state of subjugation and against a violent state apparatus.” The theorist added that “you can be for or against armed resistance. You can be for or against Hamas. But let us at least call it armed resistance. And then we can have a debate about whether we think it’s right or whether they did the right thing.”
Butler suggested that labelling the attacks “armed resistance” rather than terrorism made one subject to accusations of supporting Hamas, clarifying that she personally opposed the methods the group had used.
Hamas killed about 1,200 Israelis in its 7 October attacks, according to Israeli authorities, and witnesses have reported numerous rapes occurring during the massacre.
Butler is a longtime critic of Israel, and has advanced the concept of an anti-Israel Jewish identity. She wrote in October of Hamas’s attacks that “the only possible response to such killings is unequivocal condemnation”, and criticised the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee’s statement blaming the attacks entirely on Israel’s “apartheid regime”.
In the same piece, Butler argued that it was still entirely appropriate to debate the terms of the discussion and to remember Israel’s own violence: “relentless bombing, the killing of people of every age in their homes and on the streets, torture in their prisons, techniques of starvation in Gaza and the dispossession of homes”. What’s more, this violence, she said, “is waged against a people who are subject to apartheid rules, colonial rule and statelessness”.
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SubscribeIf Oct 7 is somehow justified, then how can any human violence be subject to any moral condemnation. These barbarians do not realize they are opening the gates of hell.
Absolutely. If that behavior is justifiable, then why isn’t Israel justified in wiping out the population of Gaza to prevent a reprise? Intentional killing of civilians is either OK, or it’s not.
Just as poisonous, if not more so, are those that continue to give her a platform.
Would she agree that the murder and mutilation of Judith Butler or her loved ones have been a legitimate response had she been in the vicinity on 7 October.
Some people are born loathsome and some people aspire loathsomeness and others have loathsomeness thrust upon them.
She has just justified any action Israel now choses to take
I’m curious about why 10+ people down voted?
They would be the Progressives who feel it was a pretty cool thing to do.
That woman really has some poisonous theories (and on pretty much everything, not just Hamas).
Curious how people can convince themselves of anything when trying to regain some moral ground. The reality is Hamas militants brutally murdered and raped civilians during a ceasefire, that is in no shape or form ‘armed resistance’.
Just build the third temple and get it over with already.
(this is not a reply to Robbie K, I couldn’t figure out how to make a general comment)
Not going to happen: it was tried during the reign of Julian the Apostate, but work stopped when an earthquake accompanied by fire issuing from the earth destroyed the work. This was take as a sign of divine displeasure with the project and the work abandoned. These events were well known in late antiquity and commented on in a homily by St. John Chrysostom.
What is a “theorist” by the way? Do you go somewhere to earn a credential in theory making and does it t takes as long as to become a medical doctor?
Armed resistance?
I wonder what weapons the Hamas Muslims used on the Israeli women.
Having listened to testimony from first responders, and those who retrieved bodies, I could tell you.
Matthew 7:15
Rape is not resistance.
It was a terrorist attack, an atrocious and barbaric terrorist attack. And there cannot be any justification of it. Full stop.
Better she call her theory an anti-Jewish Jewish identity.
An event can be many things at the same time — some of which are contradictory. Hamas murdering civilians in horrific ways is terrorism. Palestinians attacking Israel is an armed resistance. Israel making the bones bounce in Gaza is both disproportional and a defensive response. All true, all at the same time.
After many decades, the conflict has finally erupted into a land grab. Israel will plant its flag and give up very little in future negotiations, assuming the conflict doesn’t ignite regionally. In a regional war, Israel is toast.
No other Arabs are willing to die for the Palestinians. They all hate them. You’ll notice not one Arab or Moslem country has offered to accept refugees from Gaza.
No sensible country would want so called Palestinians after what happened in Labanon and Kuwait.
Wait: they will probably be invited into uk by Labour government…
Palestinians are radioactive. I doubt Israel is going to stop until Gaza is completely bulldozed. It’s the only solution and their timing was perfect with Biden at the helm. Almost too perfect…
That’s true. So far it looks like Israel is winning big. But when the Palestinians are gone, will the Arabs and Persians leave Israel alone? Hard to say.
Far from a land grab, Israel has given up “land for peace” several times since the Oslo Accords of the 1990s. It hasn’t worked.
“Land grab” in the sense that this war is for greater-Israel land — it’s no longer ideological and there is zero chance of a two-state solution. Israel is being smart — finally — in my opinion, provided the rest of the region stays out of it. Iran and Yemen are the only engaged Muslim countries at the moment. Let’s hope it stays that way.
You assume that all Arab states are pro Hamas and anti Israel?
The only regional actor that is pro-Hamas is (Persian) Iran. They are all Muslims though, and there are enough Iranian proxies in the region to keep this going for a long time. It is very likely Iran has nukes, or can get them with a phone call.
It doesn’t really matter whether you call it terrorism or ‘armed resistance’. What matters is that it was pathologically stupid. The Palestinians are tragically badly served by their idiot leaders, just as they are by the idiot Western intellectuals like the ludicrous Judith Butler who encourage these futile acts of collective suicide because it makes them feel ‘relevant’, or something.
What matters is that it was barbaric, hate-fuelled rape and butchery. Sometimes behaviour is so evil that any justification is perverse. And those seeking to justify rape and torture are beyond help.
Woman have volunteered to work in death camps in Nazi Germany and in the Gulag.
Irma Grese – Wikipedia
How far apart is the ability to justify torture, rape and murder and actually undertaking these deeds ?
Inflicting wounds on the sexual organs of those raped and murdered indicates sadism and very perverted minds. Justifying sadism makes one a sadistic voyeur.
When Group Captain Sir Douglas Bader was being interviewed about his role in the Battle of Britain he said he never wanted to kill German pilots, only destroy the planes.
Douglas Bader – Wikipedia
Bader and Adolf Galland a German Ace became firm friends after WW2.
Adolf Galland: The Luftwaffe Air Ace Who Survived Being Shot Down Four Times | War History Online
British soldiers respected Rommel in the N African campaign.
Those who have proved their courage in combat often end up respecting their foes. They have charismos, in the Greek sense
Those who lack charismos or charisma if a woman, often are posssed by a bitter resentment and have sadistic pleasure in the pain of those who have these spiritual qualities. Charismos being the divine power given by the gods to mortals a specific purpose.
If one looks at WW2, I cannot recall any left wing middle class intellectual who volunteered for combat( commented on by Orwell ) and proved their courage apart from E P Thompson’s brother whereas Conservative politicians proved theirs.
Robert Ryder – Wikipedia
George Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe – Wikipedia
Guy Gibson – Wikipedia
Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat – Wikipedia
Butler is like Sartre who supported Mao from the late 1960s.
My dad was a bomber pilot, shot down over Germany. Survived by parachute and as a POW. Definitely not a left wing middle class intellectual.
Close friend of my Father had similar experience and was in the death march from Stalag III- Great Escape.
What is ignored or perhaps deliberately kept quiet are how many air crew were tortured, even killed and also died in death marches at end of war. It would appear if aircrew were captured by army or SS they could be tortured or executed. What saved aircrew was being arrested by Lutwaffe. My Father’s friend was handed over to SS and tortured by SS for weeks and what saved him was the Luftwaffe obtaining his release. When they asked how he had been treated he said “look at my face” which was a mass of bruises “.
Fifty percent of aircrew were killed. The person who has stated what aircrew achieved was Albert Speer. The bombing kept 750,000 men in Germany and over 50,000 guns including the 88mm which was also the best anti tank gun. The Luftwaffe recruited more intelligent men than the infantry which meant they were not on the Russian Front. Speer said six more raids like Hamburg in 1943 would have destroyed Germany.
Bombing of Hamburg in World War II – Wikipedia
Whast is odd is that Bomber Harris is criticised yet the person who had the best understanding of the of the impact of bombing, A Speer, acknowledged it’s effectiveness.
Many thanks. Fyi In field outside Chaumont 74270, France, there is memorial to escapees and to those who helped them. A village woman was deported, but survived camps for aiding them. RAF Geneva has annual wreaths laid in commemoration.
Hello My uncle too. He wore a tie with tiny silkworm pattern in recognition of his parachute survival. Did your father too?
He, and probably your father, then flew in the Berlin Airlift. Did that take 6 months to decide and organise?
Dennis Healey for one. Perhaps he doesn’t count as a left wing intellectual.
I was thinking of those who volunteered such as all aircrew, I think submarines. Commandos, Parachute Regiment/Airborne, SOE, SAS, SBS , Long Range Desert Goup, Bomb Disposal.
Healey did his duty in the RE.
A SOE officer said WW2 was unlike WW1, one could do what one wanted. There were those who were COs, those who skulked in offices, those who were called up and avoided combat such as the character Kenneth Widmerpool in Dance to The Music of Time, those who were called up and saw combat and those who volunteered for danger such as the groups mentioned. There were those like Violette Szabo GC who not only volunteered for SOE but went back for a second mission and did not esape from a train when she could but helped others. The brutal reality is what was the life span of that person undertaking combat duties? A radio operator in the SOE was six weeks, 3 months if lucky. If one was caught it was torture and execution ot being sent to concentration camp.
Some Battle of Britain Pilots lasted a day.
Hugh Seagrim GC, DSO, MBE gave himself up to the Japanese to save Karen from being murdered.
Many people seeing war was approaching joined the Reserves in orderr to obtain training and then were popsted to regulars . I have yet to come across a left wing middle class intellectual who joind the Reserves prior to WW2.
Hugh Seagrim – Wikipedia
Why do the HAMAS leaders not follow High Seagrim’s example and give themselves up to the Israelis ? In many cases VCs and GCs are awarded fro saving others.
Martin-Leake and Chavasse were doctors who were twice awarded VCs for risking their lives helping others.
Arthur Martin-Leake – Wikipedia
Noel Godfrey Chavasse – Wikipedia
Why do the HAMAS leaders not follow High Seagrim’s example and give themselves up to the Israelis ? They would demonstrate their courage and reduce Israels reason to invade Gaza to destroy HAMAS. .
Ah, Ms Butler; that famous proponent of word-salad gender bollocks.
If she was really concerned about Palestinians, she’d call out their shameless and useless ‘leaders’ who clearly care little for the average person in Gaza and have achieved zero in real terms.
Just like 30 years of ‘freedom fighting’ and the ‘armed struggle’ in Northern Ireland achieved what exactly ? The same will apply in Gaza as, quite clearly, none of their fellow Muslim states want anything to do with them.
The only country in the region anybody with a brain ( apart from Owen ‘Queers for Palestine’ Jones) would dream of living in is Israel.
Can we agree that it is high time for a humanitarian ceasefire?
Why have Hamas not released the hostages which includes at least one baby?
Call it what you want but the IDF does need an operational pause whilst the majority of the civilian population that has been sent south by the operations to destroy Hamas and its infrastructure in the north are relocated to the north so operations can continue in the south in accordance with the international law of armed conflict.
Judging from the downvotes, the consensus answer to your question appears to be no. And while acknowledging the dreadfulness of the entire situation, I can understand why that view is prevalent.
‘The dreadfulness of the entire situation…’
Surely that strengthens the case for an immediate ceasefire?
It’s easily suggested, but far too simplistic. War is always dreadful. Innocent people always suffer and die.
A cessation of war can be a good thing, but can also be the wrong thing. Objectives need to be kept in mind. Also the fact that a cessation might prolong the misery. It’s never simple.
Why do Hamas not release the hostages if they want a ceasefire? Hamas will not confirm who they have taken and who are alive?
If say a Christian group had slaughtered 1400 Muslims in a Muslim country and undertaken the same atrocities as Hamas, what would be the response ?
A ceasefire helps Hamas. True, there are civilians whose lives are upended and worse but militarily Israel cannot give Hamas time to communicate and plan a strategy to continue fighting. Now they’re on the run looking over their shoulders always fearful always wondering if they should surrender. A ceasefire, pause whatever would be a gift to them physically, and psychologically. Momentum is important and if it stops there’s relief that hurts Israel.
It is high time for an unconditional Hamas surrender, and for the release of all the hostages whom they have not murdered. It is high time for the Hamas leaders and their followers who were responsible for the slaughter, torture, murders and rapes of Israelis and others to be brought to justice and punished for their crimes. And it is high time for the Palestinian population who support Hamas and its actions to be deradicalized, just as the Germans were denazified after WW2.
”The theorist added…”’
If only she would write as clearly as she speaks.
UN: ‘Convincing Information’ sexual violence committed against hostages in Gaza
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68474899
The German Nazis would have undoubtedly said that their re-armament, and commencement of WW2 was “armed resistance” against the “unfair and unreasonable” provisions of the Versailles Treaty. And it is indeed a point that is open to reasonable debate.
But no debate, and no later dubious attempt at moral equivalence, changes what those architects of the Nazi movement actually were. We know what they were, and we know what Hamas are.
And we know what their apologists are.
At the time, The Germans would have undoubtedly said that their re-armament, and commencement of WW2 was “armed resistance” against the “unfair and unreasonable” provisions of the Versailles Treaty. And it is indeed a point that is open to reasonable debate.
But no debate, and no later dubious attempt at moral equivalence, changes what those architects of that particular German movement actually were. We know what they were, and we know what Hamas are.
And we know what their apologists are.
The Kingdoms of Israel in Judea and Samaria predate the existence of Islam by 1600 years. The Gazan Muslims (no relation to the Philistines who were once there [the Greek immigrants, I mean], are occupying territory to which they have ZERO legitimate claim.By the way, if ‘armed resistance’ is totally okay, per Judith Butler, then rape is okay. Then butchering babies in cribs is okay. Shooting the hands off a man who was desperately holding closed the door to his safe room is okay. Firing 10,000 rockets indiscriminately at cities and towns is okay.If ‘armed resistance’ under these circumstances is ‘okay’, then Judith Butler should dread the world she wants created. She wouldn’t last 10 minutes under her own rules.God save us from the evil men, but from the fools first.
This is a ridiculous “nativist” and incoherent concept of who is entitled to live in any land. On those grounds the “English”, definitely not, let alone North Americans whites.
Are “the Jews” predominantly a genetically descended racial group or the followers of an ancient monotheistic religion? Probably a mixture of both – but it is complex. Many Jews converted to Christianity and indeed Islam which was indeed an offshoot of Judaism. Does this fact then deprive them automatically of their ancestral right to the lands on which they lived?
You have absolutely no idea about the genetic ancestry of Gazans – modern research seems to say there is often a high degree of population genetic continuity despite elite leadership change through conquest etc. We have many ancestors and much inter breeding in any case. But this is just not the right ground to argue for Israel and against Hamas, and in fact concedes a great deal of the argument to left wing progressive “anti-settler and colonial” narratives.
I wasn’t sure who Judith Butler was so I went to her Wikipedia page. It is full of typos, referring to an American philosopher (singular) as “they”. There must be some mistake here. So I went back to the earlier version of the article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Judith_Butler&oldid=68827438
and the typos are not there. The original, correct version of the article does not make her philosophy appear any less rotten, though.
How well I know, having tried to edit Wikipedia’s Judith Butler entry to reframe sentences to omit the “they” pronoun altogether (fairly deftly, if I say so myself). All my edits were reverted, despite my pointing out that she had never requested to be referred to as “they.” At least, not at the time, anyway. Middle-of-the-night endeavor, aggravating my insomnia.
Hamas could have mounted a raid where only the military were attacked; built bomb shelter for those in Gaza and /or moved people to a designated safe area and not built military targets close to civilian buildings. Then they could have stated it was purely military operation which would be plausible.
I’m so glad I will never have to be anywhere near this excuse for a human being.
The activities of the various resistance movements opposing German occupation in WWII could be correctly called armed resistance. I don’t recall the Maquis raping German teenagers and decapitating babies, so perhaps there is a distinction.
Since Iraq I and Kuwaiti bogus atrocity claim most of us have become wary of belligerents’ claims etc. Re Maquis, before D-day, surely the only German teenagers around were soldiers….
Amazing how much she resembles Charlie Watts. You expect her to bust out on “Dance, Little Sister” at any moment!
Does anyone care what Mr Watts’ opinions are about Israel or Hamas? Hmm… I didn’t think so. But at least Ol’ Charlie had some intellectual credibility
Note to Unherd readers & commentors:
There were NO decapitated babies on October 7th (only one has been identified in all the dead).
The evidence for rape on a scale described is inconclusive at best (and if the NYT article is taken as an exemplar, utterly bogus).
There is ample evidence that the IDF were responsible for many of the Israeli deaths due to either ‘friendly fire’, incompetence, panic and/or their Hannibal Directive that saw them shell or straffe any vehicle on the way back to Gaza and numerous houses that they knew contained hostages. (I’m old enough to remember when the circumstances of people’s deaths was considered to be quite important when it came to justifying extreme responses – see for example Covid19 and lockdowns).
Of those deaths around 400 were Israeli army or security forces so fair game for an occupied people under International Law.
It was not just ‘Hamas’ who crossed the border on October 7th. So did many other Gazans once they heard of the incursion and the apparent lack of Israeli response. What anyone of you would have done were you one of them had you lived in the repressive circumstances of Gaza for youThe r entire lives is something only you can answer.
The events of October 7th were tragic, horrendous and awful, but it was not year-zero.
Right after the report on October 10 by a television station of beheaded babies found in kibbutz Kfar Aza, the IDF officials already said they couldn’t confirm it. But somehow people trying to minimize the HAMAS barbarity keep bringing this one thing up … the tying up and burning alive, the rapes, the massacres of whole families, all this is amply confirmed – the rapes most recently by the UN. We even have video evidence of a Hamas terrorist trying to behead a farm worker with a shovel, if only beheading counts for you …
The Gazans weren’t an occupied people. They did live under repressive circumstances, under the HAMAS regime. Hopefully this disastrous regime will be eliminated, to the benefit of Israelis and Palestinians alike.
Actually the decapitated babies have been brought up in these comments.
If Mrs Butler was in their way on that forsaken day, those Hamas “resistance fighters” as she calls them would have gang-raped and murdered her to. It wouldn’t have helped if she would have explained to them that she’s American, a Lesbian or an Anti-Zionist: to them, she’s a Jew. I am sickened to my core by the attempt (especially by Jews, as I am one myself) to pseudo-legitimize these horrors by trying to frame them as anything else than murderous ethno-religious hatred.
Want a sample of this woman’s thought processes?
The move from a structuralist account in which capital is understood to structure social relations in relatively homologous ways to a view of hegemony in which power relations are subject to repetition, convergence, and rearticulation brought the question of temporality into the thinking of structure, and marked a shift from a form of Althusserian theory that takes structural totalities as theoretical objects to one in which the insights into the contingent possibility of structure inaugurate a renewed conception of hegemony as bound up with the contingent sites and strategies of the rearticulation of power.
Did she actually write that, or was it produced by the Post-modernism Generator at https://www.elsewhere.org/journal/pomo/ ?
Calling attacks on Israel antisemitic is a bit redundant. The state defines itself as the nation state of the Jews. It’s like calling a bomb attack on Mecca antimuslim. Both obvious and fairly irrelevant
Why devote any space at all to this lying dog?
Judith Butler should not be given any space or attention. She is responsible for some of the outlandish theories regarding gender and we owe a lot of the insanity that is going on in the radical trans movement to the theories that the very poorly presented in her book ” Gender Troubles”. She needs to be cancelled in all areas.
Looking at the comments below, it is clear this journalist writes utter nonsense .. and what a warped mind.
This article from 2012 from an Arab media channel does NOT provide a solution but it tells you everything one needs to know in 2024 ..
https://www.arabnews.com/arab-spring-and-israeli-enemy
Thank you for that link — an extraordinarily insightful essay, hugely relevant still.
I am not Jewish.
But why the bloody hell have you got this anti Jew filth on your news outlets – with no argument for the opposing view?!!!
You are a disgusting Jew-hating publication… and I will celebrate the day you go bust.
Unherd will collapse. You are cursed. Unherd is finished.