Short Abstract:

This panel will address reproductive justice and infrastructures of reproduction in Palestine and the role of STS in commenting on this today.

Long Abstract:

This Roundtable invites a discussion of the role of STS in commenting on Palestine and Reproductive Justice, in light of what has been called a genocide or impending genocide in Gaza by many scholars and recognized as such in the ICJ, perpetrated by the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF). Whilst reproductive technologies in Israel have been studied at length within STS, anthropology and sociology, reproduction and reproductive Justice in Palestine have had much less attention. Yet there is an urgency to put a spotlight on what is currently taking place in Gaza where there are 52,000 pregnant people, and an estimated 180 currently forced to labour and birth in unsafe, unsanitary and unimaginable conditions daily. We invite discussion of the use of multiple military technologies and AI in the destruction of the infrastructures of reproduction including: killing of entire families and support networks, destruction of water systems, food distribution systems, bombing of hospitals and eradication of homes; extending the reproductive justice lens developed by Black American feminists of the right to birth and raise children safely to Palestine, and widening to infrastructures of reproduction.

Building on legacies of transnational, anti-racist, and anti-colonial feminist solidarities and bearing witness, this roundtable brings together scholar-activists to urgently engage with and organise for reproductive justice in/for Palestine.

We will have short 5 minute contributions from each participant and an introduction from the Chairs

Chairs: Michal Nahman (UWE, Bristol); Sigrid Vertommen (Amsterdam)

Participants: Weeam Hammoudeh (Birzeit), Noemie Merleau-Ponty (IRIS, Paris), Fatimah Mohamied (London), Elif Gul (Vienna), Zaina Mahmoud (Liverpool)