Contribution short abstract:

Soup Kitchens (itkieah) are charity organizations that have been re-utilized to ensure access to cooked food for people in the Gaza Strip. Volunteer's work in the soup kitchens in the face of war and famine. We ask, how do people draw on indigenous social institutions to ensure survival?

Contribution long abstract:

The Gaza Strip has been kept on the threshold of starvation and famine from the start of the most recent israeli invasion. Keeping ‘Gazans on a diet’ by maintaining the siege and targeting food production capacities in the Strip predates this current onslaught by over a decade and a half. Despite, and in the face of, industrial scale warfare Palestinians in Gaza are resisting starvation, famine, and genocide in uncounted ways. One of the most important of these ways is ensuring sustenance to the near two million IDP’s now in shelters and “safe zones.” Today, the most common source for attaining (cooked) food is the ‘itkieah’ -soup kitchens- which are found in formal and informal shelters throughout the Gaza Strip. In these shelters, people donate food supplies, others contribute by cooking the food, or distributing it, or cleaning. This ouneh, or mutual assistance and solidarity- is ensuring people have access to food. Both the social practice of ouneh and the institution of itaki (plr. itkieah) are indigenous concepts with rich Arab-Islamic histories. As such, we ask how do people draw on indigenous social institutions and practices to ensure survival? We argue that while ouneh can take on many forms -and indeed does- its use today in soup kitchen ensures social reproduction at a time of cleansing, while itaki have been shifted from charity institutions to an institution adjusted to suit the needs of an entire population.