An upcoming book from Rutgers professor Jasbir Puar attacks Israel for sparing the lives of Palestinians, arguing the Jewish state does so as a form of control.
The associate professor of women's and gender studies laments in her book, The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability, that "Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have shown a demonstrable pattern over decades of sparing life, of shooting to maim rather than to kill."
That "ostensibly humanitarian" position, she argues in the book's introduction, is actually part of Israel's policy of "creating injury and maintaining Palestinian populations as perpetually debilitated, and yet alive, in order to control them."
The intro to Jasbir Puar's upcoming book The Right to Maim is here! Read it now: https://t.co/q2VrMgHvx2 #queertheory #disabilitystudies pic.twitter.com/J7QI9DlLDJ
— Duke University Press (@DukePress) September 29, 2017
"The purportedly humanitarian practice of sparing death by shooting to maim," she continues, is still a form of oppression "through the logic of 'will not let die.'"
Puar caused a stir in 2016 when she gave a lecture and said "some speculate" that Israelis harvest the organs of Palestinians, and accused the country of intentionally "stunting" Palestinians through malnourishment. Critics called both allegations anti-Semitic and an update of the Medieval "blood libel."
After a similar speech at Dartmouth University, the president issued a statement making clear Puar's views did "not represent the views of the College."