Palestinians Under Israeli Settler Colonialism and “Anglo-Centric” Colonization of Knowledge Production

Abstract

Calls for decolonizing knowledge production are increasing considerably. Yet the domination of knowledge production by English-speaking, neoliberal, Western countries continues, with understandings and assumptions often irrelevant and unimportant to southern countries, and can contain racialized portrayals of the people of the developing world. Palestinians under Israeli military rule have also become governed by neoliberal funding northern institutions that have commoditized research and education and control what should be researched and how. The dual colonization of Palestinians by Israel and the hegemony of neoliberal political-economy among a captive Palestinian population—reinforced by the Zionist lobby's ferociousness in punishing whoever dares to raise questions about Israel's wrongdoings—is silencing Palestinians and those supporting justice to Palestinians in ways perhaps not experienced by others who want their voices heard. Yet Palestinians continue to teach and conduct research and to struggle for freedom and justice on one hand and for liberation from donor dictates on what to research and how to research and write on the other. We continue to hope that international funders and publishers would take concrete steps to turn calls for the decolonization of knowledge production from lip service to actions so that all knowledges can contribute to debates and societal advancement worldwide.

Because its power remains naturalized: introducing the settler colonial determinants of health

“…While some social scientists might already concur with the contention that settler colonialism and health are both obviously and powerfully linked, it is epidemiologists and public health specialists who often decide what counts as causative health "evidence" and can thus become eligible for population-level knowledge consumption. Such a gatekeeping role, infused with and often blind to coloniality (98), has historically positioned these disciplines as complicit in perpetrating epistemic violence and preservation of the status quo (99)(100)(101). Rewiring our health models and research questions from a starting point of settler colonialism is an opportunity to challenge the epistemicide of Native and other colonially marginalized voices that exists as the gaping wound at the heart of these disciplines' underlying assumptions (102).…”