Join the Center for Palestine Studies for a talk by Samee Sulaiman,
Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Fellow, Columbia University.
VENUE
Scheps Library, Room 457,
Department of Anthropology
Schermerhorn Extension
Advanced registration by Thursday, November 5,
is required for all attendees, including CU/BC ID holders.
This paper examines mass disablement in Gaza as a central technology of colonial elimination and genocide. Developing the concept of “death-by-disablement,” it traces how bombardment, siege, forced displacement, and the systematic destruction of healthcare and life-sustaining infrastructure produce debility and turn survivable injuries into pathways toward premature death. Drawing on Palestinian testimony, disability justice scholarship, and reports documenting the assault on Gaza, the paper argues that disability cannot be understood solely as an outcome of war. It is also a condition deliberately produced and intensified through the deprivation of care. Ultimately, this paper argues that disability justice in Palestine cannot be achieved through humanitarian aid, medical rehabilitation, or reconstruction alone; it requires decolonization and the dismantling of the political conditions that continually produce mass injury, debility, and death.
Samee Sulaiman is an anthropologist whose research and teaching focus on disability, political violence, mobility, and social movements in Lebanon and Palestine. He received his PhD in Anthropology from Brown University in 2023 and was previously a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Palestine Studies at Yale University’s Council on Middle East Studies. His research draws on ethnographic work with Lebanese and Palestinian disability activists and organizations, examining disability politics, citizenship and non-citizenship, war, and crisis in Lebanon. His current work focuses on disability and mass disablement in Palestine, particularly in Gaza, and explores the relationship between disability justice, decolonization, reconstruction, and liberation. He is currently the Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Postdoctoral Fellow at Columbia University’s Center for Palestine Studies. Learn more about his work here.