The Politics of Hunger and Borders: Stories from Gaza and Afghanistan

In this talk we will discuss the history of food insecurity in Gaza; how Israel has controlled the movement of goods, and has always counted Palestinian calories in the Gaza Strip. Even as the strategies of control Israel has used over the decades have changed dramatically, following October 7 Israel decided to deprive the Palestinians in Gaza “of objects indispensable to their survival, including wilfully impeding relief supplies,” which is the legal definition of what it means to intentionally use starvation as a method of warfare.

National borders are usually tools of violence that lead to death, destruction, and displacement. This talk looks at how borders function as one way to contain poor people of colour. Drawing on arguments from prison abolition, the role of the family, and histories of enslavement, it argues that whilst doing away with national borders may seem like a corrective to the current unequal world order, it is only one aspect in a larger regime of 'racial capitalism'. This talk draws on two examples from the US-Mexico border and the Afghan-Pakistan border.