Food and War
How does war shape everyday life? This episode explores survival, food access, and power in Palestine. Discover how daily life is affected and why it matters.
Everyday life is often described as common, usual, uneventful, slow, and mundane, yet it can easily become unpredictable, anxious, and traumatic. This episode explores contexts in which war and political violence closely interact with everyday life.
To discuss the everyday political economy of state-mandated violence, we focus on survival. Where critical political economy frames survival as part of everyday resistance connected to labour agency, we move to discuss the political economy of actual survival as represented by gathering food when supply chains become instruments for violence and repression.
We discuss the political economy of survival by exploring the sources of food insecurity in Palestine and the food-related abuses employed by the Israeli state, first as part of its colonial project and after October 2023 as part of the genocide of the Palestinian people.
Concepts discussed: survival, social reproduction, genocide, violence, resistance, starvation, humanitarianism.
Recommended Reading:
- Bahour, N., Anabtawi, O., Muhareb, R., Wispelwey, B., Asi, Y., Hammoudeh, W., Bassett, M. T., Mills, D., & Tanous, O. (2025). Food insecurity, starvation and malnutrition in the Gaza Strip. Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, 31(4), 281–284
- Gisha. (2012). Reader: "Food Consumption in the Gaza Strip - Red Lines". Gisha - Legal Centre for Freedom of Movement
- Ross, A. (2021). Stone Men: The Palestinians Who Built Israel. Verso Books
- Abusalim, J., Bing, J. and M. Marryman-Lotze. (2022). Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire. Chicago: Haymarket Books
- Devereux, S. (2024). Was There a Famine in Gaza in 2024? IDS Working Paper 613. Brighton: Institute of Development Studies
- El Masri, Y. (2024). 12: Food-Making in the Sisterhoods of Bourj Albarajenah Refugee Camp: Towards Radical Food Geographies of Displacement. In: Hammelman, C., Levkoe, C.Z. and Kristin Reynolds. (Eds). Radical Food Geographies. Bristol University Press
- IPC - Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. (2025). GAZA STRIP: Famine confirmed in Gaza Governorate, projected to expand | 1 July – 30 September 2025. 22 August
- Nimer, F. (2024). Food Sovereignty in a Palestinian Economy of Resistance. Al-Shabaka’s Palestine, 27 August
- Pearce, F. (2025). As War Halts, the Environmental Devastation in Gaza Runs Deep. Yale Environment 360, 6 February
- Roy, S. (2023). The Long War on Gaza. The New York Review of Books, 19 December
- Seidel, T. (2021). Settler Colonialism and Land-Based Struggle in Palestine: Toward a Decolonial Political Economy. In: Tartir, A., Dana, T., Seidel, T. (eds) Political Economy of Palestine. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Credits
- Host and Editing: Frank Maracchione (ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow at SOAS University of London and part of the SPERI Presents... Working Group)
- Host: Gwilym Evans (Doctoral Researcher at the Centre for Decent Work at the University of Sheffield)
- Guest: Nadine Bahour (Research Program Coordinator for the Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University)
- Editing: Dillon Wamsley (Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Sheffield)
- Podcast Produced By: SPERI Presents… Committee
- Music By: Andy_Gambino
