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Food Politics versus Political Food: Palestinian Cuniculture under Israeli Occupation
Abstract
There has been no sustained study of Palestinian cuniculture (rabbit husbandry). While this presentation attempts to identify and map the extent of Palestinian cuniculture, this study is not merely in order to establish an aspect of Palestinian culture but as one of the ways to measure the socioeconomic devastation of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. As a matter of fact, it is a clear example of how political and military conditions impact cultural expression among Palestinians. Thus, as much as cuniculture can be claimed as an interesting and proud aspect of Palestinian heritage it has also been shaped within a dialectical process with aspects of the Israeli occupation that attempt to limit and debilitate Palestinian self-sufficiency and expressions of that identity. While it may be initially assumed that a study of cuisine or animals is a frivolous manner to approach the Arab-Israeli conflict, this presentation will demonstrate that cuniculture is actually a quite informative subject to clearly reveal the negative aspects of occupation while also underscoring the creative and positive efforts by Palestinians to thwart that occupation and survive as a culture and a people—quite literally as an existential question of whether they have enough to eat or not. In other words, cuniculture is a means to address the issue of whether Israeli policies are a form of (cultural?) genocide.
Discipline
Other
Geographic Area
Palestine
Sub Area
Arab-Israeli Conflict