The Rhetoric of Decolonizing Global Health Fails to Address the Reality of Settler Colonialism: Gaza as a Case in Point

Engebretsen, Eivind; Baker, Mona

doi:10.34172/ijhpm.2024.8419

The Rhetoric of Decolonizing Global Health Fails to Address the Reality of Settler Colonialism: Gaza as a Case in Point

Document Type : Editorial

Authors

Eivind Engebretsen

Mona Baker

Sustainable Health Unit, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

10.34172/ijhpm.2024.8419

Abstract

This editorial critiques the existing literature on decolonizing global health, using the current assault on health in Gaza as a case in point. It argues that the failure to address the ongoing violence and blatant targeting of health facilities, personnel and innocent civilians demonstrates most clearly the limitations of an approach that is strong on rhetoric and weak on mounting a forthright challenge to the entire system supporting and perpetuating settler colonialism. We propose a more radical rethinking of the position of global health institutions within the current neoliberal system and of the systems of knowledge production that continue to underpin the existing colonial approach to the health of victims of settler colonialism.

Highlights

Commentaries Published on this Paper

Countering Coloniality in Global Health; Comment on “The Rhetoric of Decolonizing Global Health Fails to Address the Reality of Settler Colonialism: Gaza as a Case in Point”

Abstract | PDF

Confronting the Colonial Roots of Global Health Inequities in Gaza; Comment on “The Rhetoric of Decolonizing Global Health Fails to Address the Reality of Settler Colonialism: Gaza as a Case in Point”

Abstract | PDF

Are Burned Babies and Mass Graves a Global Health Crisis? What Does Decolonization Got to Do With It?; Comment on “The Rhetoric of Decolonizing Global Health Fails to Address the Reality of Settler Colonialism: Gaza as a Case in Point?”

Abstract | PDF

Centering Local Knowledge to Address the Imbrication of Settler Colonialism and Global Health; Comment on “The Rhetoric of Decolonizing Global Health Fails to Address the Reality of Settler Colonialism: Gaza as a Case in Point”

Abstract | PDF

Palestine Is Freeing Us All Before Palestine Is Free; Comment on “The Rhetoric of Decolonizing Global Health Fails to Address the Reality of Settler Colonialism: Gaza as a Case in Point”

Abstract | PDF

Depoliticization, Colonialism, and the Imperative to Disrupt Denial; Comment on “The Rhetoric of Decolonizing Global Health Fails to Address the Reality of Settler Colonialism: Gaza as a Case in Point”

Abstract | PDF

Authors' Response to the Commentaries

Beyond Rhetoric: A Response to Recent Commentaries

Abstract | PDF

Keywords

Global Health

Decolonization

Settler Colonialism

Gaza

Palestine

Politics of Health

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