Thanato-geographies of Palestine and the possibility of politics

Abstract

This article critically examines thanato-geographies of Palestine-Israel and Palestinians and the crucial question of the possibility of politics in the context of sovereign exception. The main argument of the article is that bare life as referent for Palestinians’ lives overstates the subject-making capacities of the sovereign and understates the possibilities of political agency. As a response, the discussion turns to two prominent examples of exception – Israeli checkpoints and the Gaza borderlands – with the aim to keep in sharp focus both the thanatopolitical and that which – whether as complement or counter – exceeds it. Two important correctives arise from such an approach: thanatopolitical formations are i) dependent on broader thanato-geographies of capitalism; and ii) countered by the political agency of those figured as bare life.