Gaza’s Genocide/Ecocide, Technolibertarian Warfare, and the Seeds of Survival: Talk by T.J. Demos

Chaired by Jeff Diamanti
​With respondents Yazan Khalili and Chiara De Cesari

de Appel in collaboration with the New Directions in Critical Theory series at the University of Amsterdam invites you to a public presentation and discussion with T.J. Demos examining the intersection of technolibertarianism, settler-colonial Zionism, and the ongoing genocide/ecocide in Gaza. The talk will be in English and is hosted by Cinetol (Tolstraat 182, Amsterdam).

Israel’s recent genocide/ecocide in Gaza exposes the inherent dangers of technolibertarianism, particularly in its entanglement with Israeli settler-colonial Zionism. This presentation examines two critical aspects: first, technolibertarianism’s drive to remake the world through violent ethnic cleansing, facilitated by advanced weaponry and AI surveillance systems tested in what Anthony Loewenstein terms The Palestine Laboratory; and second, its absolute prioritization of corporate self-interest over life, land, and livable environments. Rooted in libertarian ideology, and taken up in Israeli policy thinktanks, this fusion of property accumulation and unchecked economic power manifests a disturbing trajectory—one that suggests an exterminationist future for the many. Gaza offers an appalling picture of this reality and a glimpse of one potential dystopian future. Palestinian artist Vivien Sansour’s work reveals what such a future entails: a world where technological power, fueled by profit and corporate ambition, justifies and executes the systematic erasure of entire communities. Yet, her political ecology also resists this destruction, cultivating a space where Palestinian endurance and solidarity flourish—both human and more-than-human. Through her botanical politics of life, Sansour’s work challenges settler-colonial domination, reasserting deep-rooted connections to land and collective survival.