Necroviolence

Necroviolence as defined by anthropologist Jason De León refers to "violence performed through the specific treatment of corpses" in ways that are offensive and enable "the powerful" to deny responsibility for the death.[1][2]

Israeli necroviolence against Palestinians

In Gaza–Israel conflict

Israeli forces have been accused of necroviolence in 2020 in Gaza, including violently scooping up a corpse with a bulldozer.[3]

Ongoing Israeli use

Student of MA International Conflict Studies at Kings College London Aymun Moosavi[4] and Harvard PhD candidate in anthropology Randa May Wahbe have described Israeli necroviolence as including:[5]

  • 'Ambiguous loss'; withholding Palestinian bodies in freezers, thus preventing Palestinian families from mourning their loved ones
  • The cemeteries of numbers (cemeteries where graves are marked only with numbers and not names, thus dehumanizing the dead)
  • Demolition of historic gravesites

Mexico–United States border

In the book The Land of Open Graves by Jason De León, De León and his colleagues discover the dead body of a female migrant that appears to have experienced necroviolence, which he states is the embodiment of what the Department of Homeland Security's "Prevention Through Deterrence" policy looks like.[6]

Against trans and gender-diverse people

In the academic article Necropolitics and Trans Identities: Language Use as Structural Violence, authors Kinsey Stewart and Thomas Delgado argue that language can also harm the dead and that the (mis)use of language within medicolegal death investigation reflects and reinforces structural violence against transgender and gender diverse people.[7]

See also

References

  1. ^ "THE LAND OF OPEN GRAVES: LIVING AND DYING ON THE MIGRANT TRAIL". Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Book Reviews. 6 March 2017. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  2. ^ De León, Jason (2015). The Land of Open Graves : Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail. Oakland, California: University of California Press. p. 69. ISBN 9780520282759. OCLC 908448301.
  3. ^ Linah Alsaafin, "Israel slammed for necroviolence on bodies of Palestinians", Al-Jazeera. February 24, 2020
  4. ^ "Necroviolence in Palestine". Words of Solidarity. Retrieved 17 January 2024.
  5. ^ Wahbe, Randa May (September 2020). "The politics of karameh: Palestinian burial rites under the gun". Critique of Anthropology. pp. 323–340. doi:10.1177/0308275X20929401. Retrieved 17 January 2024.
  6. ^ "THE LAND OF OPEN GRAVES: LIVING AND DYING ON THE MIGRANT TRAIL". Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Book Reviews. 6 March 2017. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  7. ^ "Necropolitics and Trans Identities: Language Use as Structural Violence". MDPI. Retrieved 12 January 2024.