Social Disability as Colonial Strategy: Palestine, Political Violence, and the Systemic Oppression of the Marginalized

The presented paper reintroduces the concept of ‘social disability’ as a framework to analyze political violence by applying it to the ongoing occupation and genocide against the Palestinian peoples. Drawing on disability justice, crip theory, and decolonial studies, the authors explore how systems of power position certain identities and bodyminds as deficient, incapable, and undeserving of full personhood, thereby producing cycles of disablement and debility. We argue that the social construction of Palestinian identity, framed as inherently flawed, facilitates their marginalization and the normalization of violence against them and serves as a colonial strategy. This framework aims to shift the focus from individual rights to collective liberation, advocating for intersectional solidarity and resistance against oppressive structures.