ABDEL-JAWAD, Saleh: “Israeli policy since 1948 has, explicitly or implicitly, been designed to force the Palestinians into exile... Its single aim, however, has always been Palestinian "sociocide"”

Saleh Abdel-Jawad (Associate Professor of History, Birzeit University, Ramallah, Palestine) referred to by Eve Spenger re his term “Palestinian sociocide”: “The cumulative weight of all these [Zionist] aggressions constitutes, in the words of Abdel Jawad, a Palestinian sociocide. Abdel Jawad’s term has spawned a host of cognates – “spaciocide” to describe the incredible disappearing Palestine, “politicide” to describe the dismembering of the Palestinian political hopes. Clearly his term , sociocide, is the most inclusive and it also has the immense moral advantage of allowing Palestinians to name their own experience, if they so choose. Perhaps it is correct to understand that the ethnic cleansing of Palestine is Zionism’s aim and “sociocide” describes the complex set of policies by which this aim is accomplished without unmasking “the only democracy in the Middle East”” (Eve Spengler, “Understanding Israel/Palestine: Race, Nation and human Rights in the Conflict”, Sense, 2015, page 199).

Saleh Abdel-Jawad (Associate Professor of History, Birzeit University, Ramallah, Palestine) on “Palestinian sociocide” (1998): “Israeli policy since 1948 has, explicitly or implicitly, been designed to force the Palestinians into exile. Sometimes this has taken the form of war, sometimes of measures designed to make daily life for the Arab population as difficult as possible. Its single aim, however, has always been Palestinian "sociocide"” (Saleh Abdel Jawad, “War by other means”, AL Ahram, 1998: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/Archive/1998/1948/359_salh.htm).