Nadine Sayegh

What is 'purple-washing' and how does Israel weaponise women's rights to demonise the Palestinians and shroud their crimes against humanity?

Israeli intrusion into Palestinian bodily autonomy extends beyond the grave. The Knesset passes bills to ensure Israel’s physical and psychological domination over Palestinians is maintained with the practice of stealing and withholding corpses.

Israel's intrinsic impulse to flatten Gaza has backfired and its new plan to redraw the Middle East has stalled. States with relations with Israel have distanced themselves, and Saudi Arabia has condemned the pariah state, halting normalisation.

Israel's apartheid system, illegal violence and sophisticated weaponry have pushed Palestinians into a corner. This essay uses the concepts of biopower and necropolitics to understand how Israel controls Palestinian bodies both in life and death.

The Palestinian diaspora lives 'out of place' in permanent exile and stateless purgatory. This reality has forced many to reckon with their alien-ness either by adopting dual identities or appreciating the status of a perpetual foreigner.

November 25th marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and a 16-day campaign by UN Women to fight gender based violence. It is especially prescient this year after the disproportionate effects of the pandemic.

Palestinian prisoners are damned to a prison system that perpetuates their reality as second-class citizens in Israel. From women being forced to conceive inside prisons to the increasing phenomenon of child prisoners, Palestinians are without mercy.

Women and girls in Lebanon are struggling to afford menstrual products amid the country’s economic crisis, with many having to reuse disposable sanitary pads following the sharp rise in prices – turning a necessity into an unaffordable luxury.

On the anniversary of Ghassan Kanafani's assassination, The New Arab takes stock of the history and legacy of Palestinian cultural figures assassinated by Israel, and how their enduring significance continues to permeate within the Palestinian mind.