Making Death and Life in Palestine

Social reproduction theory is a big idea. It explores how the daily renewal of human life, and therefore human labour, is essential to capitalism. Here, leading feminists come together to apply the theory to one of its most extreme settings - that of Palestine. Israel's settler colonialism is premised on the eradication of Palestinian lives, undermining Palestinian social reproduction at every turn. This project, which ramped up after October 7th, does have a logic, and by examining the concrete, historically specific details, the authors begin to reshape and refine the theory of Social Reproduction, shedding light on why Israel's assault is so brutal. Chapters look at Israel's mass murder of a generation of Palestinians in Gaza, the effects of ecocide, the relationship between land dispossession and class, Israel's selective pronatalism, scholasticide and other topics. By understanding this deadly logic, we can look deeper into the heart of the evils of capitalism, and stand in solidarity with Palestine.

Tithi Bhattacharya is a Marxist historian and activist writing extensively on gender and the politics of Islamophobia. She has been active in movements for social justice throughout her life, spearheading campaigns across three continents. She is a professor of South Asian history at Purdue University, the author of Ghostly Past, Capitalist Presence, editor of Social Reproduction Theory, and co-author of Feminism for the 99%, which has been translated into over 30 languages. She is on the editorial board of Spectre and lives in Indiana.

Susan Ferguson is Associate Professor Emerita at Wilfrid Laurier University and a Research Affiliate at the University of Houston. She is the author of Women and Work: Social Reproduction, Feminism and Labour. She serves on the editorial board of the webzine Midnight Sun. She is a coordinating committee member of Scholars Against the War on Palestine and a member of Faculty for Palestine, Canada. She lives in Texas.

Foreword: Emancipation in Rehearsal - Ruth Wilson Gilmore
1. Introduction - Tithi Bhattacharya and Susan Ferguson
2. Gaza: Care, Hope and Genocide - Asmaa AbuMezied 
3. Childhood and Social Reproduction in Palestine: They Didn't Know We Were Seeds - Mai Abu Moghli and Rachel Rosen
4. 'I Forgot to Die:' Thinking through Social Reproduction of Palestinian Life - Tithi Bhattacharya 
5. Decolonialism as Social Reproductive Class Struggle - Tal-Hi Bitton
6. Scholasticide and Social Reproduction in Palestine - Sue Ferguson
7. Checkpoints, the Sexual Division of Labour and Social Reproduction in the West Bank - Jemima Repo
8. Insurgent Social Reproduction: The Home, the Barricade and Women's Work in the 1936 Palestinian Revolution - Mai Taha
9. 'Genocidal Hauntings of Pronatalism': The Dialectics of Assisted Reproduction in Israel/Palestine - Sigrid Vertommen, Weeam Hammoudeh and Michal Nahman
Onwards: 'A Glass of Water, A Burning Boy' - Fady Joudah
Notes on Contributors
Bibliography