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"Even Cows Have Failed to Escape this War": Precarious Environments in Palestinian Literature and Film
Abstract
In his discussion of militarized conflicts, Paul Carr argues that “the human, cultural, and economic cost of war to the environment is substantial,” and that “what is most destabilizing is that the environment is generally not included in calculations of costs and benefits…The media, in lock-step with hegemonic forces, refuses to focus, or are prevented, from focusing on the environment" (''Shock and Awe,” 342). In the face of such systemic blackout, Palestinian cultural productions have portrayed plants, animals, air and water as grievable casualties of violence. Seeking to reframe the discourse of war (and occupation), Palestinian literary and filmic texts often highlight the interconnections between the human and non-human world and the inextricability of economic, social, gender, and environmental injustice. Drawing upon studies in postcolonial ecocriticism, this paper explores representations of environmental insecurity in Palestinian cultural productions, particularly as it relates to the insidious consequences of political conflict, settler colonialism, anti-Palestinian racism, and war. Analyzing contemporary Palestinian texts that speak of precarious environments, including Laila al-Haddad’s Gaza Mom, Atef Abu Saif's The Drone Eats with Me, Burnat and Davidi's documentary Five Broken Cameras and Shomali and Cowen's documentary-animation The Wanted 18, I demonstrate how Palestinian authors and filmmakers have articulated the “apocalyptic now” that Palestinians have endured by means of documenting precarity, but also creative resistance. As they bemoan the suffering and loss of human lives, these texts simultaneously lament the predicament of cows, donkeys, and olive trees, the unlawful usurpation of land and sea, and the toxicity of bombs and drones. Aside from portraying the recurring violations of the environment—epitomized by the 1948 Nakba that sought to sever Palestinians from their land—such texts draw attention to the resilience of humans whose environments may be “precarious,” but who continue to be steadfast in their fight for justice and self-determination. The production of Palestinian counter-narratives that center the natural world—while summoning the Nakba as the quintessential act of human-environment dispossession—demonstrates a prominent environmental consciousness among Palestinian writers. Palestinian cultural productions elucidating environmental degradation also serve to take western environmentalists (preoccupied with recycling and renewable energy) to task by urging them to consider the devastating impact of war, occupation and settler colonialism on Palestinian ecosystems. Such literary and filmic contributions deserve critical attention as they help diversify the fields of ecocriticism and Arab Studies, while also inviting us to incorporate eco-centered pedagogies in our teaching.
Discipline
Literature
Geographic Area
Palestine
Sub Area
None