Public Lecture by T. J. Demos: Gaza’s Genocide/Ecocide, Technolibertarian Warfare, and the Seeds of Survival
Chaired by Jeff Diamanti
With respondents Yazan Khalili, Chiara De Cesari and others

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 hosted by Cinetol.

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.