Amanie Issa is a PhD Researcher and Hardiman Scholar at Irish Centre for Human Rights and Centre for Disability Law and Policy.

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In recent years, Israel has been lauded internationally for its advocacy in disability rights. Its policies are often held up as models of inclusion, accessibility, and care for the disabled. But as Israel’s actions in Gaza escalate, leaving thousands injured, displaced, and traumatized, this carefully curated image is being shattered. The horrific violence against Palestinians is casting a harsh light on the deep contradictions between Israel’s supposed advocacy for disability rights and the devastating reality on the ground, where the production of impairment is wielded as a weapon of the settler colonial regime.

Producing Impairment as a Genocidal Tactic

In Gaza, injury and impairment are not unfortunate byproducts of ‘conflict’; they are direct consequences of deliberate military strategies. The Israeli occupation forces’ attacks, which target densely populated areas and essential infrastructure like hospitals, schools, and community centers, leave many disabled and traumatized. These injuries are not isolated incidents, they are part of a broader pattern of violence aimed at destabilizing Palestinian society by targeting bodies, minds, and communities.

Palestinians who survive these attacks are often left with life-changing disabilities and little to no support. Hospitals are bombarded, medical supplies are blocked, and Gaza’s infrastructure is decimated, making it nearly impossible to provide the urgent, ongoing care disabled Palestinians need. In a place where even basic necessities are scarce, people with disabilities face profound neglect and systemic barriers. Here, disability is not something Israel seeks to accommodate but rather something it produces as a genocidal tactic.

Israel’s ‘evacuation’ orders in Gaza have been particularly devastating for disabled individuals, effectively constituting a quicker ‘death sentence’. By cutting off essential utilities such as electricity, water, and access to medicine, the survival chances for disabled Palestinians decrease. Thousands of people, including children, are left permanently disabled, psychologically scarred, and unable to access critical services. Many are trapped under rubble or left untreated in bombed-out hospitals, exposing the brutal reality behind Israel’s image as an advocate for disability rights.

These policies are not accidents or byproducts of war but reflect a strategic aim: the disablement of Palestinian bodies, minds, and lives. By creating a population that is sick, injured, and increasingly isolated from healthcare, education, and employment, Israel perpetuates a system that disables not only individuals but entire communities and generations.

Israel’s practice of disablement aligns seamlessly with the goals of settler colonial domination: to control, dispossess, and erase the indigenous people from the land.

Disabling Past, Present, and Future

The systemic production of impairments and the practice of disablement are integral parts of Israel’s settler colonial project. In light of the atrocities in the ongoing genocide in Gaza, Israel’s image of disability rights inevitably crumbles. Israel’s systematic practices of disablement and debilitation, along with the disposability of Palestinian lives and bodies, have been foundational since the state’s very inception, and long predate the events of October 7th and the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

For instance, Yitzhak Rabin’s “Break their Bones” policy during the First Intifada, which deliberately maimed generations of Palestinians, aimed to suppress resistance, and destabilize communities; tactics rooted in settler colonial elimination. Similarly, Palestinian prisoners have long endured systemic torture, medical neglect, and inhumane detention conditions, often leaving imprisonment with severe mental and physical impairments.(see e.g. here, chapter I)

Another stark example of this paradox is the Israeli military program Ro’im Rachok, which trains and recruits neurodivergent individuals, particularly autistic people, into the Israeli military ‘for which they have a comparative advantage.’ This program has been internationally lauded as a progressive step toward inclusion. However, this stands in stark contrast to the harrowing case of Iyad Al Hallaq, a young autistic Palestinian man, who was shot dead by Israeli police in 2020 while en route to a school for disabled students in Jerusalem. Iyad’s case is not an isolated incident but rather part of a broader pattern of systemic violence and discrimination against Palestinians with and without disabilities. This chilling contrast highlights the racialized and selective nature of Israel’s approach to disability: inclusion and opportunity for some, but disposability, violent erasure, and dehumanization for others.

Israel ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on 28 September 2012, thereby committing itself to upholding the rights and protections enshrined in the treaty. Under Article 11 of the CRPD, titled “Situations of Risk and Humanitarian Emergencies,” Israel is explicitly obligated to take all necessary measures to ensure the safety and protection of persons with disabilities during conflicts, natural disasters, and other emergencies. This responsibility includes ensuring access to humanitarian aid, medical services, and shelter, while addressing the specific needs of disabled people. Despite these obligations, Israel’s ongoing policies and practices as the occupying power in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, raise significant concerns regarding the fulfillment of these commitments. Israel’s disability rights initiatives and advocacy operate alongside its policies of settler colonialism, occupation and violence against Palestinians, a practice often referred to as ‘access washing.’

The staggering contradiction of Israel’s global disability rights advocacy lies in its championing of accessibility and inclusion on one hand, while systematically producing impairment as a weapon of oppression against Palestinian lives on the other. Israel cannot be regarded as a state of advancing disability rights when at the same time it is a state rooted in disablement and debilitation.

Call for a New Global Understanding of Disability Justice

Disability rights and disability justice are not the same. While disability rights center on access, legislation, and inclusion, disability justice demands an end to systemic violence, prioritizing those most marginalized, including indigenous peoples who have had their ancestral lands stolen. It insists on recognizing the interconnections between violence, imperialism, ableism, and oppression. Disability justice cannot coexist with settler colonialism, apartheid and genocide, and any genuine commitment to disability rights must extend solidarity to all oppressed peoples, including Palestinians.

As the suffering of disabled Palestinians becomes more visible, the myth of Israel’s benevolent advocacy for disability rights collapses. We are at a critical juncture, where it is no longer acceptable to separate Israel’s disability rights advocacy from its actions in Palestine, particularly its ongoing genocide in Gaza.