Love in a Time of Genocide: A Palestinian Litany for Survival

Abstract

This essay centers the affective insights and pedagogies of transnational Palestinian feminism through a conversation and friendship that emerged between Mona Ameen, a young feminist scholar trapped in Gaza, and the author, during Israel’s latest military assault, which is still ongoing at the time of writing. It argues that practicing decolonial love in a time of genocidal war is a life-affirming practice of critical Palestinian feminist consciousness.

Keywords:

• Gaza
• genocide
• war
• love
• feminism

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to all in beloved community who are walking with the Palestinian people through this moment of immense grief and who have found the courage to speak out against genocide. I thank the editorial team at JPS, including R. Abdelnabi and Laura Albast, who supported an earlier version of this essay, “Ghassa: The Lump in One’s Throat Blocking Tears and Speech” (https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1654463). Nadim Bawalsa’s love and care as an editor has allowed Mona’s voice, intertwined with my own, to grow and flourish. Ryah Aqel, Aya Krisht, and beitsittimedia generously helped uplift this piece with their artistic expression. My deepest debt is to Mona Ameen, who entrusted me with her story. I pray that she survives and that her words stretch across time and space to touch the hearts of others who seek, with radical love, to build a more just world.

Notes

1 “4,200 People Killed, over One Million People Displaced in Just 10 Days–OHCHR Briefing,” Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, October 17, 2023, https://www.un.org/unispal/document/4200-people-killed-over-one-million-people-displaced-in-just-10-days-ohchr-briefing/.

2 Lila Abu-Lughod, “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others,” in American Anthropologist 104, no. 3 (September 2002): 783–90, https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.2002.104.3.783.

3 “Israeli Defence Minister Orders ‘Complete Siege’ on Gaza,” Al Jazeera, October 9, 2023, https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2023/10/9/israeli-defence-minister-orders-complete-siege-on-gaza#:∼:text=%E2%80%9CWe%20are%20fighting%20against%20human,attack%20by%20Hamas%20on%20Israel.

4 Ramzy Baroud, “The Twisted Israeli Logic of Murdering Palestinian Children,” Jordan Times, September 5, 2023, https://www.jordantimes.com/opinion/ramzy-baroud/twisted-israeli-logic-murdering-palestinian-children.

5 “Hundreds of Palestinian Men, Women, and Children Killed at al-Ahli Hospital,” Defense for Children International-Palestine, October 18, 2023, https://www.dci-palestine.org/hundreds_of_palestinian_men_women_and_children_killed_at_al_ahli_hospital#:∼:text=Israeli%20forces%20have%20killed%20a,the%20Israeli%20perimeter%20fence%20surrounding.

6 I thank Nayrouz Abu Hatoum for gifting me this language, the feeling she said she felt when she read an early version of this essay.

7 Nidal Al-Mughrabi, “Gaza Death Toll Tops 10,000; UN Calls It a Children’s Graveyard,” Reuters, November 6, 2023, https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/pressure-israel-over-civilians-steps-up-ceasefire-calls-rebuffed-2023-11-06/.

8 In referencing Audre Lorde’s “A Litany for Survival” (1978), I am conjuring the intimacies between decolonial Palestinian feminism and a broader trajectory of Black, Indigenous, women of color and Third World feminisms, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/147275/a-litany-for-survival.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sarah Ihmoud

Sarah Ihmoud is a Chicana-Palestinian anthropologist who works to uplift the lived experiences, histories, and political contributions of Palestinian women and Palestinian feminism. She is a founding member of the Palestinian Feminist Collective and an assistant professor of anthropology at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA.