Read Puar, Jasbir K. 2017. The Right to Maim. Durham. Duke University Press. Chapter 4 “”Will Not Let Die”: Debilitation and Inhuman Biopolitics in Palestine”. 127–154.
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OpenEdition schlägt Ihnen vor, diesen Beitrag wie folgt zu zitieren:
Victoria Mummelthei (11. Dezember 2023). biopolitics, session #10: chapter 4: Debilitation and Inhuman Biopolitics in Palestine. Keine Disziplin – No Discipline. Abgerufen am 27. März 2025 von https://doi.org/10.58079/13jpb
The concept of not letting die takes on a new meaning when considered alongside the concept of slow death depicted by Puar. Because in both examples, life is not an ambivalence but a process. Looking at what people go through as a process actually draws attention to the historicity of the subject because the suffering of the Palestinian people is not limited to the present. Israel’s approach to Palestine as a field of experimentation also supports this theory because we are examining where IDF dehumanize Gazans and use them as commodities in any way they want. But one thing that sticks in my mind is that where the Palestinian people are very passivized by such examples, Puar uses a passive language throughout the book, which I think can sometimes lead to describing the Palestinian people in a way that lacks agency.
At this point of the book it is essential to focus on how power always plays a leading role in each of these stories and once a certain point is reached, human ethics and morals disappear. The debilitation biopolitics are truly inhuman, I let the evidence speaks for itself with the state of Israel and its well-premeditated colonialist campaigns. This claim to the right to maim and wear out, somewhat, the Palestinian as a form of biopolitical control, is one of the most harsh acts ever seen in history. In addition the lives debilitation of Gazans is used for a purely capitalist purpose and make profit from it as if they were mere production objects. Therefore, all of this leads to a longed-for slow death, which maintains this permanent disability over bodies and makes this biopolitical control endure. This is the first time I have read about each and every one of the atrocious maiming tactics used in this conflict and I simply stand by the position with which I started reading this book; I believe that from a Western perspective one can never really understand the suffering and emotional burden carried by the people involved in such situations.
Chapter 4 of Puar’s text left me in a want to discuss, and missing the class was sad but helped generate even more talk of Palestinian freedom (yay). Many of the mentioned tactics in this chapter have surged in the last few months, in televised talks and shared resources on social media that have led me to know some bases of talks of Gaza being an ‘open-air prison’ as well as the ”Need” some countries have for Palestine to be stifled as it is. This quoted need a mockery of the honest definition of the word. Through these pages I learned more of the terrifying maiming tactics employed to keep the population maimed and small. That which sticks most with me is the wording of maiming as a joke in ‘will not let die’. When in reality the maiming is only to front; for israel not to take blame in more casualty deaths and simply coast on a large number of debilitated Palestinians. For Paletinians to remain debilitated in large part allows for influx of donor money that keeps pouring in from the rich too ashamed to look deeper, money that will barely graze the streets of a famished city and instead coat the pockets of swelling the swelling pigs of leaders in israel and its complicits.
I wonder, today, what Puar would write in the stead, or in addition to this chapter, ending as it does on an unquestionable note of solidarity.
White Phosphorous bombs are meant to be used in a tactical way, however IDF has been criticized for misusing them multiple times not only by the Author of the book, however various international human rights organizations. Such bombs are unique in their classification, dodging the status of a “chemical weapon” since the effects relies on heat rather than the toxicity. Primary use for such weapons is meant to be tactical, such as creating smoke barriers for troops to move undetected, however when used as a classical artillery shell directed directly at the enemy, can cause a situation such as one reported by Amnesty.org on October 31st where at least 4 civilians died due to such shelling strategies. Similar unlawful usage of this often-fatal weapon has been reported by Human Rights Watch back in 2009. US supplied White phosphorous bombs have been used and the sheer fact that a similar safe alternative produced in Israel exists, raises the question of morality of usage of such bombs in such a densely populated region as the Gaza strip. While the supplier of these bombs, The United States, on 21st of December through John Kirby, questioned the application of the White Phosphorous bombs, IDF denied all accusations of alleged misuse of the munitions. Author’s concept of debilitation and real life reports on this topic in 21st century puts the local population to remain between “Let live” and “Make die”, which she believes causes traumas such as becoming disabled or displaced, which ruin individuals and even generations.