« The roots of settler colonial architecture: Andrew Herscher, ‘Anishinaabe Forests, American Lumber, Settler Balloon Frames’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 84, 4, 2025, pp. 512-526
Settlers out of time and out of place: Linda Andersson Burnett, ‘The “Savage” Within: The Sámi People and the Archaeology of Whiteness’, Isis, 116, 4, 2025, pp. 766-777 »

Settler dishumanitarianism: Ron J. Smith, ‘A failure of humanitarianism: the West, Settler Colonialism, and the Manufactured crisis in Gaza’, Third World Quarterly, 2025

21Nov25

Abstract: Gaza has been subject to numerous manufactured humanitarian crises since 2006, a year after the Israeli withdrawal of civilian settlers across the strip. Many of these crises are supported by the refusal of the West to recognise the sovereignty of the Palestinian people and their basic human rights. The starvation and total collapse of the health of Gazan people is not simply a matter of neglect, but rather an active process of dispossession that began with the numerous proposals for the splitting of historical Palestine, and the advent of the Palestinian refugee problem with the establishment of the state of Israel. This paper considers the history of the West’s contentious relationship with United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) from its conception to the present day. This history includes long-term shortfalls in promised financial support to UNRWA across the Middle East and existential crises for the agency due to funding withheld based on flimsy accusations. The paper will examine demands to end the agency in favour of others even further removed from the goal of refugee return and resettlement.


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