Feminism and Social (In)Equality after October 7

This course will explore how the October 7 attack and its aftermath have reshaped feminist discourse, gender politics, and debates over social equality in Israel and globally. The course examines sexual and gender-based violence as a tool of conflict, as well as the legal and political struggles to name, document, and prosecute these crimes. It also addresses the tensions and solidarities within local and international feminist movements responding to October 7. Through legal case studies, political analysis, and feminist theory, the students will consider how narratives of victimhood, power, nationalism, and human rights intersect to shape new understandings of feminism and social (in)equality in the post–October 7 landscape.

This course offers a feminist critique of gender-related issues within Israeli law and politics, focusing on the intersection of legal frameworks, societal norms, and gender perceptions. Key areas of exploration include Family Law, Religious Laws, and gender-based violence, with particular attention to Muslim-Jewish feminist collaborations. These joint efforts challenge claims of Israel being an apartheid state, while exposing the danger embedded in feminist analysis that factors in the (Jewish) origin of the victims of gender-based violence. 

Session 1: The Politics of Feminism and Anti-Zionism (Dr. Wilf)

Session 2: When Feminist Movements Confront the Jewish Question (Dr. Wilf)

Session 3: An Overview of Feminism and Law in Israel (Prof. Bitton)

Session 4: The De-Feminization of Conflict Related Sexual Violence (Prof. Bitton)

Dr. Einat Wilf is a leading thinker on Israel, Zionism, foreign policy and education. She was a member of the Israeli Parliament from 2010 to 2013, where she served as Chair of the Education Committee and Member of the influential Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Dr. Wilf has a BA from Harvard, an MBA from INSEAD in France, and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Cambridge. She was the Goldman Visiting Professor at Georgetown University.

Dr. Wilf is the author of seven books that explore key issues in Israeli society. We Should All Be Zionists, published in 2022, brings together her essays from the past four years on Israel, Zionism and the path to peace; the co-authored The War of Return: How Western Indulgence of the Palestinian Dream Has Obstructed the Path to Peace, was published in 2020.

Professor Yifat Bitton is a legal academic and social activist for equality, serving as President of Achva Academic College. Ph.D. Hebrew University; LLM, Yale University Law School (all honors); Visiting Researcher Harvard University (Fulbright Fellow). Visiting Professor, University of Chicago, NYU, and Peking University, China; Associate professor, The College of Management Law School, Israel; Affiliated Visiting Professor, School of Transnational Law, 2009-2014.

In 2024 Bitton led a research team writing a report on Hamas’ Oct.7 Sex & Gender-Based Violence. The report has been presented to and discussed by various policy-making venues, including UN and EU organizations and forums. Bitton co-founded and chaired Tmura, The Israeli Clinical Center for Equality, where she strategized and litigated cases of compensation for human rights violations, a legal apparatus she has designed. For her long-lasting human rights work, Bitton has won myriad awards and prizes. Among them: The Aliance Prize for Education and Social Change, 2016; “Honoris Causa” Award, the Israeli Bar Association, 2015; The women’s Spirit Award, 2025, World Zionist Organization Bravery Award, 2025 and more. Bitton was shortlisted twice for Israel’s Supreme Court, making history as the youngest woman and first woman of Mizrahi descent to ever appear on the list.

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