"They Make Death, and I’m the Labor of Life”: Palestinian Prisoners’ Sperm Smuggling as an Affirmation of Life

Layal Ftouni

doi:10.1215/26410478-11082977

"They Make Death, and I’m the Labor of Life”: Palestinian Prisoners’ Sperm Smuggling as an Affirmation of Life

Layal Ftouni^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

How is life affirmed under conditions of death, destruction, and debilitation? This article addresses this question by looking at the practice of sperm smuggling in Palestine as a life-affirming practice. The practice of sperm smuggling emerges in a context where reproductive injustices against Palestinians are daily occurrences of life under Israeli settler colonialism. The legal, social, and militarized targeting of Palestinian mothers and children, the mass incarceration of Palestinian men, and the attack on infrastructures of livability are Israeli biopolitical and necropolitical strategies of incapacitating the conditions necessary for the sustenance and reproduction of life in Palestine. Against this backdrop, the author argues that the practice of sperm smuggling circumvents settler-colonial efforts to curtail the reproduction of life and inaugurates a practice of life-making and a conception of life beyond its adjudication in the language of “rights.” Critically engaging with the work of Judith Butler and Rosi Braidotti, the author argues that sperm smuggling enacts an “affirmation of life” that refuses submission to the totalizing hold of physical, social, and political death.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	94-109
Number of pages	16
Journal	Critical Times
Volume	7
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1215/26410478-11082977
Publication status	Published - Apr 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Layal Ftouni.

Funding

I would like to thank the editorial team, Samera Esmeir, Susana Draper, and Ramsey McGlazer for their thoughtful comments and Breana George for her patience and support. The research is supported by a Veni grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO). LAYAL FTOUNI is an assistant professor in gender studies and critical theory at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. She is the recipient of the Dutch Research Council Veni grant (2021\u201325) for the research project entitled \u201CEcologies of Violence: Affirmations of Life at the Frontiers of Survival.\u201D The monograph explores the politics of life and living at the boundaries with death (both human and environmental) in conditions of war and settler colonialism, focusing on Syria and Palestine. She works across the fields/areas of gender and sexuality studies, cultural studies, political theory, critical theory, and critical race studies.

Funders	Funder number
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
Dutch Research Council Veni	2021–25

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Keywords

Israeli colonial violence
Palestine
affirmation of life
biopolitics of reproduction
sperm smuggling

Access to Document

10.1215/26410478-11082977Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

94ftouniFinal published version, 329 KBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

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abstract = "How is life affirmed under conditions of death, destruction, and debilitation? This article addresses this question by looking at the practice of sperm smuggling in Palestine as a life-affirming practice. The practice of sperm smuggling emerges in a context where reproductive injustices against Palestinians are daily occurrences of life under Israeli settler colonialism. The legal, social, and militarized targeting of Palestinian mothers and children, the mass incarceration of Palestinian men, and the attack on infrastructures of livability are Israeli biopolitical and necropolitical strategies of incapacitating the conditions necessary for the sustenance and reproduction of life in Palestine. Against this backdrop, the author argues that the practice of sperm smuggling circumvents settler-colonial efforts to curtail the reproduction of life and inaugurates a practice of life-making and a conception of life beyond its adjudication in the language of “rights.” Critically engaging with the work of Judith Butler and Rosi Braidotti, the author argues that sperm smuggling enacts an “affirmation of life” that refuses submission to the totalizing hold of physical, social, and political death.",

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"They Make Death, and I’m the Labor of Life”: Palestinian Prisoners’ Sperm Smuggling as an Affirmation of Life

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

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Cite this