Palestinian liberation is intertwined with every contemporary political issue. It is a human rights issue, a free speech issue, a racial justice issue, an issue of respect for international law, a queer issue, a children’s rights issue, a disability justice issue, a matter linked to the anti-capitalist struggle, a climate justice issue, and more…
Disability justice is closely linked to what has been happening in Palestine for decades.
Genocide is a mass disabling event and a form of eugenics.
The Zionist project plan includes creating as many disabilities as possible, through limb impairments, spinal cord injuries, starvation, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and other psychological damage. Gaza has a very high percentage of disabled people, and has for generations, long before October 7, 2023.
The practice of shooting at the legs
A military tactic of the occupation forces, for years, has been to aim at the legs of Palestinians to disable them (the so-called “shoot to maim”). There is a lot of documentation on this, for example regarding the Great March of Return, a non-violent demonstration in 2018, when dozens of snipers were deployed to shoot at the crowd — not only killing hundreds of people, but also injuring and disabling thousands by aiming at knees and femurs. An old practice of the army during the First Intifada was to break the arms of young stone throwers. These are real “kneecapping” campaigns, systematic practices, forms of torture to undermine resistance, with the advantage for Israel of limiting the death toll and maintaining a somewhat “cleaner” international image, and attracting less negative media attention.
Bombings and starvation
Disabled people are among the first people to die under the bombings of Israel in Gaza (which have been going on for decades). Those that have mobility limitations have greater difficulty getting to safety; they cannot get out from under the rubble to avoid suffocation, and often cannot call for help by shouting loudly to be heard by the Civil Protection. If the two of us were in Gaza and our house was bombed (and by pure chance we survived,) and we were trapped by the rubble, we would be practically done for, given that we move very little on our own.
A deaf person may have difficulty orienting themselves and understanding where the rescuers are. The first children to die of hunger because access to food is blocked as a death strategy — just as it’s done in concentration camps — are disabled children or children with chronic diseases. A child who is deprived of food dies before an adult, but many disabilities, including ours, also make you more fragile in the face of food deprivation.
The forced transfers imposed by Israel are a concentration of every possible discomfort imaginable that can be inflicted on people: traveling in the heat, in the cold, on makeshift means of transportation, in fear, without a real safe destination, carrying only the bare necessities or nothing at all. The “evacuation” orders are a death sentence for many disabled people.
Targeting hospitals means killing, first and foremost, people with chronic diseases/disabled people. The Gaza Strip had 36 hospitals on its small territory, so many because they were regularly — even before October 7th — bombed and then, little by little, rebuilt each time. There are practically none left standing or functioning.
And again, how can a blind person orient themselves in a city that is razed to the ground, without the slightest reference because all is rubble and with little electricity, therefore without being able to rely on their phone which they may need more than others? They are forced to constantly rely on others or simply stay at home, as long as they have one, or in the tent where they were forced to live.
Even the two of us who have a motor disability often rely on WhatsApp to ask for help from one place to another or from one room to another. Those who are deaf cannot access valuable information and resources without a smartphone.
For disabled people in Gaza, conditions couldn’t be worse: vital basic services have been razed to the ground. Poor access — already well before October 7 — to Internet and electricity and essential aids for mobility or for breathing and eating forces disabled people into conditions of segregation, or leads to death.
The official number of those killed since October 2023 does not include all the people under the rubble, those who died of starvation, those who died because they were unable to take “trivial” things like an antibiotic or insulin, or other life-saving drugs for specific conditions. And among these people there is likely to be a very high number of disabled people.
Israel’s Disability Washing
Again, Israel is Disability Washing (we wrote about this before on this profile): one of the countless attempts to clean up its international image, highlighting the fact that their army is so “inclusive” that it even enlists, with special arrangements, disabled people who would like to participate (how lucky!).
They are called “Special in Uniform” (a bit patronizing, isn’t it?) and according to Israeli media these activities give disabled people a purpose in life (because it’s known that otherwise disabled people would have a sad and meaningless life).
Israeli society is not at all the society attentive to the rights of disabled people that it would like to appear. Since the 1970s, attempts have been made to reduce the immigration of disabled people, and the promotion of colonial immigration in Palestine focuses a lot on physical abilities, valuing physical ability above all else.
Anti-ableism and anti-Zionism are connected
Disability justice cannot exist under colonialism, military occupation, apartheid and imperialism.
Us disabled people know what it feels like to be dehumanized.
We know the feeling of not being helpless by all means, but rather put in a position to be so.
We know what it feels like when you are considered expendable.
Let’s do our part!
Let’s mobilize, demonstrate, donate to fundraisers.
Image description: Maria Chiara and Elena wearing keffiyehs on, with olive trees in the background