Resistance is Fertile: No reproductive justice without freedom for Palestine

On 27 October, Raneem Hejazi was eight months pregnant when her aunt’s apartment was hit by an Israeli military airstrike. Unlike her aunt and six other family members, Raneem survived the strike, but her arm was crushed, and her legs were broken and badly burned. An ambulance managed to rush her to the overcrowded Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, in the South of Gaza, which is being deprived of electricity, water and antibiotics. Dr. Mohammad Qandeel decided that an emergency caesarean section was needed. With cell phones illuminating the operating table, the medical team managed to save the life of Raneem and baby Maryam -  for now, because with a critical lack of food, shelter and clean drinking water, it is unclear how Raneem and her family are supposed to survive, let alone live and thrive.

Sadly, Raneem’s dystopian birthing story is not unique. Israel’s brutal military assault on Gaza specifically targets health care and life-supporting facilities and by extension reproductive rights, health, and justice. According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), there are approximately 50,000 pregnant people in Gaza right now, of whom 5,500 are expected to give birth in the coming month. All of them are at grave risk amid unseen and atrocious levels of violence while medical care, food, and water are still largely blocked from entering the Gaza Strip. Lack of micronutrients produces a serious risk to pregnant and lactating people, especially to half of Gaza’s pregnant population that suffers from anemia. There are  acute shortages of antiseptics and of blood products for treating postpartum hemorrhage. The UN reports hysterectomies as a last resort to save pregnant people’s lives. C-sections are conducted without anesthesia, and laboring people are forced to give birth without pain relief. In many instances, pregnant women in labour are unable to access maternity care services, or are only admitted to the hospital at the very last moment before birth, and discharged again shortly after delivering. Often, mothers have no safe place to go, lacking access to clean water and food, which affects their ability to breastfeed and care for themselves and their newborns. With residential areas and medical facilities as central targets, women are forced to deliver their babies in cars, in the streets, and in overcrowded shelters where the risk of infection and the spread of disease is high. There is also a shortage of contraceptives and sanitary products needed for postpartum bleeding and periods. The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that over half of Gaza's hospitals - 22 out of 36 - are now "non-functional" and recorded 335 attacks on health care in the occupied Palestinian territories since the start of the hostilities. It expects maternal and neonatal deaths to increase due to physical trauma, a rise in stress-induced miscarriages, stillbirths, and premature births, as well as general deterioration of health, and continuous lack of medical treatment.

According to the updates from 9 December, more than 18.000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza so far since October 7, almost 8.000 of them were children, with an estimated 1.500 more reported missing and presumably trapped under the rubble. 18.000 Palestinian children are wounded and an estimated 25.000 have become orphans in the last two months. Also 33 of the 1.200 Israelis who were reportedly killed on October 7 were children, and 40 children were taken hostage by Hamas. All life is sacred, and humanity is not a numbers game. There are heartbreaking stories of unfinished love, life and dreams behind each of these losses. There is, however, a glaring disproportionality, between the loss of Israeli and Palestinian life, both in scale and in terms of power inequalities between a settler colonial, occupying, nuclear powered Apartheid regime and an occupied and besieged civilian population. And at the time of writing this killing is continuing.

This disproportionality is illustrative of the State of Israel’s systematic disavowal and dehumanization of Palestinian life. For every Israeli child that was killed on 7 October, 240 Palestinian children have been bombed by the Israeli armed forces, transforming Gaza into a “graveyard for children”, as UN Secretary General Antonio Gutterez phrased it, and as “the most dangerous place in the world to be a child” according to UNICEF Director Catherine Russel. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli security forces and settlers have killed an additional 53 Palestinian children since the start of the recent war. Hundreds of Palestinian children remain imprisoned in Israeli jails, often without charge, trial or due process guarantees, which does not meet international juvenile justice standards. According to Save the Children, Israel prosecutes between 500 and 700 children in military courts each year, and has detained more than 10.000 children over the past 20 years. 

Israel’s assault on Palestinian life and reproduction, did not start on October 7, but fits a decades old pattern of reproductive injustice. In 1948, Deir Yassin was one of the 531 Palestinian villages that was attacked by Zionist paramilitary groups during the Nakba [1], resulting in the killing of more than 100 Palestinian men, women and children, widespread looting, mutilation and torture. Since the early 2000s, Israel has intensified its regime of closures, forcing many Palestinian women to give birth at military checkpoints, as they are not allowed to pass to go to the hospital in time. The maternal mortality rate in Palestine, 28.5  per 100.000 live births, is eight times higher than in Israel, where it stands at 3.4. The infant mortality rates are almost five times higher in the West Bank and Gaza than in Israel. In 2013, the infant mortality rate was estimated at 15.8 per 1.000 live births in the occupied Palestinian territories, compared with 3.5 in Israel.

Israel is known internationally as having adopted remarkably pronatalist policies since its creation in 1948, aimed at encouraging high birth rates by offering financial incentives for reproducing large families, welfare benefits for (working) mothers, high child allowances and generous subsidies for assisted reproductive technologies including in vitro fertilisation, egg donation and surrogacy. However, critical scholars [2] have been arguing for decades that Israel’s pronatalism is selective, and mostly designed to benefit its European-descended Jewish Israeli citizens and not Palestinians who are framed as a “demographic threat”. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are a priori excluded from benefiting from Israel’s ‘pronatalist’ reproductive policies. Palestinian citizens inside Israel are often restrained by colonial realities from exercising their reproductive rights equally, although legally speaking they are entitled to the same fertility treatments as Jewish Israelis [3]. Antinatalist actions were also documented against Ethiopian Jewish women in Israel who were disproportionately prescribed with the controversial contraceptive Depo Provera without their proper consent, and against Mizrahi, Yemenite and Balkan Jewish families upon settlement in Israel in the early 1950s, of whom thousands of babies and toddlers were reportedly  kidnapped and housed in transit and absorption camps.

The current and past wars on Gaza and Palestine at large illustrate how Israel’s “pronatalism” is not only stratified, but also bears strong necropolitical militarized logics. Israel’s health ministry is now implementing a posthumous sperm retrieval program, aimed at harvesting and preserving the sperm of deceased young males, particularly soldiers killed in battle. Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reports that the posthumous sperm retrieval program had, till November 9, been carried out on 33 men killed in Hamas’s cross-border raid on October 7, of which 29 were soldiers and four were civilians. Meanwhile, after the Gaza War in 2008, Israeli soldiers designed t-shirts portraying a pregnant Palestinian woman in the crosshairs of a gun, accompanied by the slogan: One shot, two kills”. Similarly, during Israel’s war on Gaza in 2014, Gazan women were frequently portrayed as hyper-fertile and sexualised “breeders” that deserved to be annihilated because of their mere ability to bring forth the next generation of Palestinians. Also now, Palestinian women and children are bearing the brunt of the hostilities, with WHO and other UN agencies warning that they constitute almost 70 percent of all casualties. Yet, The Economist states that Gaza’s “high birth rates” and “unusual demographies” are to be blamed for the death toll of thousands of children, not the unfathomable amount of bombs that Israel has dropped on a entrapped civilian population.    

The intentional attack on present and future Palestinian life and reproduction has been termed a genocide in the making by scholarly experts and UN officials. This unfolding genocide is only the latest and most obvious iteration of Israel’s stratified pronatalist regime, which, according to critical scholarship [4], is sedimented in a century old Zionist settler colonial logic of demographic replacement, aimed at creating and maintaining a Jewish demographic majority in a Jewish state at the expense of Palestinian Indigenous life. Half of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, including houses, refugee camps and entire neighborhoods, schools, universities, children’s nurseries, hospitals and other UNRWA facilities, mosques, churches and water and electricity infrastructure, has been targeted and wiped off the map. 1.9 million Gazans, most of them refugees from 1948, are currently displaced and unable to return to their homes, in what Palestinians call a second or ongoing Nakba. Many Israeli policy makers are openly calling for a complete annihilation and depopulation of Gaza, and a resettlement of Jewish Israeli settlers, which is illegal under International Law, yet condoned and supported by US and European governments. 

There has been a remarkable silence of academic institutions and researchers on this issue [5], also those involved in the broad study of reproduction, health, fertility, kinship, and parenthood. It is staggering to see how an essential pillar of genocide, namely the prevention of births and the transfer and the ethnic cleansing of an entrapped, displaced, starved, water-deprived population of 2.3 million facing massive bombardments, does not cause more uproar in the academic community of scholars interested in the epidemiology, sociology, anthropology, feminist theory, and philosophy of reproduction. This may be partly due to the strong victimisation of scholars and students who do speak out on Palestine, some of whom are being silenced or wrongfully accused of antisemitism. Organized teach-ins in some universities are being canceled, study material on Palestine is being censored, and additional bureaucracies and surveillance are introduced under the guise of “student wellbeing” and “sensitivity”. But this does not relieve us of our moral duty to fight for reproductive justice for all

Professional midwifery organisations also remain silent concerning the abhorrent conditions to which Palestinian women, children and reproductive health care workers are subjected. With the forced closure of Gaza’s main hospitals, Palestinian midwives have become a lifeline for pregnant people in Gaza. As the International Confederation of Midwives rightfully stated during the annual 16 days of activism against gender-based violence that ‘midwives are advocating for a world where violence against women and children is a thing of the past’, it must be urgent for all midwives to address the reproductive catastrophes unfolding in Gaza.

We fully endorse the statement by Palestinian feminist scholars and organizers that ‘Palestine is a feminist struggle’, and call on everyone involved in the study, practice and facilitation of reproductive justice – that is repro-scholars, abortion activists and providers, midwives, doulas, obstetricians and gynecologists – to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people. We ask those committed to reproductive justice to “support the call for a permanent cease fire, lift the siege on Gaza, end the Israeli occupation, and dismantle the settler-colonial structure which has denied Palestinians their reproductive rights and freedom for over 75 years”. The reproductive justice framework, as established by Black feminists and women of colour since the mid-nineties, advocates for the right to have children, not have children, and raise children in safe and healthy environments. Genocide and colonial occupation are in direct violation of reproductive justice and should therefore be a matter of concern for all advocates for reproductive justice, health, and freedom. 

Reproductive justice means allowing all Palestinians, from the river to the sea, to build and rebuild the infrastructures of life and social reproduction they need to live a life worth living, free from bombs and colonial dispossession. There can be no reproductive justice when it does not count for everyone, Jewish and Palestinian people alike. There can be no reproductive justice without a free Palestine. We must speak out against all forms of racism, including islamophobia and antisemitism. Considering that many of us work in countries whose governments are explicitly complicit in the ongoing colonial occupation and genocide of Palestinians by offering moral, political and material support, the time to show unwavering solidarity with Palestinians in matters of life and reproduction, is now. Our resistance is fertile. Let us commit ourselves to continued protest. 

What you can do as a repro-scholar:

  • incorporate Palestine, de/anticolonialism and intersectionality in your academic analysis and scholarly outputs on reproduction.
  • co-organize classes, lectures and teach-ins on reproduction, feminism and Palestine
  • invite Palestinian scholars to your conferences and symposia
  • issue statements on solidarity with Palestine
  • study the complicity of Israeli universities in reproductive injustice in Palestine, and support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign
  • support colleagues who are being silenced, disciplined or sanctioned for speaking out on Palestine

What you can do as a midwife, doula, obstetrician or gynecologist:

  • speak out as a  birth worker on the attacks on healthcare and healthcare workers and patients in Palestine
  • call on your professional organizations to issue a statement of solidarity
  • talk to your colleagues about reproductive health in Palestine
  • organize with other reproductive care workers for a free Palestine
  • organize to help with reproductive and maternity care in Gaza 
  • speak out on Palestine on social media and in your professional organizations 

What you can do as a repro-activist:

  • issue a statement of solidarity with Palestine
  • take part in local and national solidarity and peace protests
  • organize transnationally to facilitate and support reproductive justice in Palestine
  • incorporate and connect Palestine to the struggles you are involved in
  • don’t stop talking about Palestine


Signatures (as a repro- scholar, worker, and/or activist, you can co-sign below):

  1. Siggie Vertommen, scholar at Ghent University and University of Amsterdam
  2. Rodante van der Waal, scholar at University for Humanistic Studies & Amsterdam based Midwife 
  3. Michal Nahman, scholar at University of the West of England
  4. Rishita Nandagiri, scholar at King’s College London
  5. Elif Gül, scholar University of Vienna 
  6. Weeam Hammoudeh, scholar at Birzeit University
  7. Heba Farajallah, scholar at University of Aberdeen & Midwife 
  8. Silvia Posocco, scholar at Birkbeck University
  9. Sarah Bracke, scholar at University of Amsterdam
  10. Paola Bacchetta, scholar at University of Berkeley
  11. Sharmila Rudrappa, scholar at the University of Texas at Austin
  12. Sophie Lewis, independent scholar visiting at the University of Pennsylvania 
  13. Noëmi Willemen, scholar at Université Catholique de Louvain
  14. Kathryn Medien, lecturer at Open University
  15. Tithi Bhattacharya, scholar at Purdue University
  16. Suruchi Thapar Bjorkert, scholar at University of Uppsala
  17. Noémie Merleau-Ponty, scholar at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France
  18. Julieta Chaparro Buitrago, scholar at University of Cambridge
  19. Jemima Repo, scholar at University of Newcastle
  20. Camille Barbagallo, activist with UK Women’s Strike
  21. Mwenza Blell, University of Newcastle
  22. Zeynep Gürtin, scholar at University College London
  23. Anna Horn, Doula and Doctoral Candidate, City University of London
  24. Rachelle Chadwick, scholar at University of Bristol
  25. Amrita Pande, Scholar at University of Cape Town, South Africa
  26. Fatimah Mohamied, London based Midwife, Association of South Asian Midwives member
  27. Marion Stevens, founding and outgoing Director of the Sexual and Reproductive Justice Coalition, South Africa, PhD Student, Stellenbosch University, Gender Advisory Panel, WHO
  28. Samukezi Mrubula-Ngwenya, Scholar, University of Limpopo, South Africa
  29. Sundas Khalid, NHS Midwife/ Association of South Asian Midwives CEO
  30. Ken Fero, Assistant Professor, Coventry University
  31. Lola, London based Midwife
  32. Ayesha Siddiqa, Registered Midwife UK
  33. Liz Newnham, senior lecturer, University of Newcastle, Midwife
  34. Paddy O'Keeffe, NHS trainer, Equity Campaigns Officer
  35. Sreeparna Chattopadhyay, Associate Professor, FLAME University
  36. Viva Ruiz, Initiator, Thank God for Abortion
  37. Fiona Ross. scholar at the University of Cape Town Town
  38. Asma Boujnah, Registered Midwife, Public Health practitioner, UK
  39. Marcin Smietana, scholar at University of Cambridge and Queen Mary University of London
  40. Indira Govender, Sexual and Reproductive Justice Coalition
  41. Michelle Murphy, Professor, Co-Director of Technoscience Research Unit, University of Toronto
  42. Emma McLellan, repro-activist and student midwife, København proffessionshøjskole, DK.
  43. Rosalind Petchesky, Distinguished Professor Emerita, Hunter College & the Graduate Center, City University of New York; Member Leader, Jewish Voice for Peace-New York Cityder, Jewish
  44. Marcia Inhorn, scholar at Yale University
  45. Sarah Franklin, scholar at University of Cambridge
  46. Barbara Katz Rothman, Professor of Sociology, City University of New York
  47. Priya Sharma, Independent scholar, India
  48. Kim Windvogel, Director - FemmeProjects NPC, South Africa
  49. Silvia Federici, Professor emerita Hofstra University
  50. Asli Tatliadim, Ex-Chair of the Board of Trustees at Project Mama UK
  51. Hannah de Klerk, community midwife, cultural anthropologist, PhD student
  52. Veronica Mitchell, Scholar at University of Cape Town, South Africa
  53. Laura Mamo, Director at the Health Equity Institute and Professor at San Francisco State University
  54. Tamara Shefer, Women’s and Gender Studies, University of the Western Cape
  55. Alex Müller, research associate at Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany
  56. Nasima Badsha, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
  57. Nicole Daniels, doula, scholar, university of Cape Town & maternity advisor, Percept
  58. Vivienne Bozalek Emerita Professor, Women's and Gender Studies, University of the Western Cape
  59. Abortion Network Amsterdam
  60. Toni Mayo, Activist, Bristol Transformed
  61. Fiona Moolla, Deputy Dean of Research, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of the Western Cape
  62. Siti Khuzaiyah, Scholar at Midwifery Program, Universitas Muhammadiyah Pekajangan Pekalongan, Central Java, Indonesia
  63. Inge van Nistelrooij, associate professor Care Ethics, University of Humanistic Studies, The Netherlands
  64. Thandeka Chauke, human rights lawyer, South Africa
  65. Wahyu Ersila, Lecture, Universitas Muhmamadiyah Pekajangan Pekalongan Indonesia 
  66. May Langan, Infant Feeding Supporter, Chelsea and Westminster Hospita
  67. Nur aini elvitasari, midwifery, indonesia
  68. Mumtihana Muchlis, Midwife, Indonesian Midwifery Association/Indonesian civil servant
  69. Robert Pralat, scholar at University of Cambridge
  70. Christina Weis, scholar at De Montfort University
  71.  Sophie Withaeckx, scholar at Maastricht University
  72. Fleur van Leeuwen, scholar at Boğaziçi University Istanbul
  73. Madyasa Vijber, midwife
  74. Jason Marcus, Senior Lecturer, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Cape Town, South Africa
  75. Roya Fathalizadeh, Researcher, Arizona State University
  76. Elizabeth Roberts, Professor, University of Michigan
  77. Frances S. Hasso, scholar at Duke University and active wit Black Alliance for Peace Solidarity Network.
  78. Rosa Mutianingsih, Scholar at Midwifery Program, University Nahdlatul Wathan Mataram
  79. Islah Wahyuni, lecturer and Institut of health Payung Negeri Pekanbaru 
  80. Naili Rahmawati, lecture, stikes dharma husada bandung
  81. Jayne Osgood, Professor of Childhood & Gender, Middlesex University, London
  82. Princess Banda, DPhil Anthropology student, University of Oxford 
  83. Hannah Alice King Midwife Doctoral Student University of Central Lancashire UK
  84. Roya Fathalizadeh, Researcher, Arizona State University
  85. Suze Jans, midwife, midwifery researcher, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  86. Robina Khalid, Licensed/Certified Midwife, PhD, Small Things Grow Midwifery
  87. Bahareh Goodarzi, Researcher, Vumc/ Amsterdam UMC, Midwife
  88. Nayla Luz Vacarezza, Universidad de Buenos Aires
  89. Marlies Rijnders, midwifery researcher, Amsterdam
  90. Robbie Davis Floyd, Adjunct Professor, Department of Anthropology, Rice University, Houston
  91. Rhoda Kanaaneh, scholar
  92. Fathima Zehra Khan, Occupational Therapist, Health Care Workers 4 Palestine 
  93. Alicia Burnett, Midwife, Founder of Black Baby Loss Awareness Week 
  94. Jo Murphy-Lawless, Research Fellow, Centre for Health Evaluation, University of Galway
  95. Laura Bridle. Senior Midwife MMHS, London UK
  96. Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Distinguished Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, Syracuse University
  97. Bongiwe Mahlangu, Independent Consultant for Systems Change and African Feminist Phil’s
  98. Lucía Berro Pizzarossa, University of Birmingham 
  99. Julika Hudson, Midwife, PhD Candidate at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 
  100. Sarah McCann, Midwife
  101. Carolin Schurr, Professor, University of Bern
  102. Martina Hynan, artist/researcher, University of Galway 
  103. Colm OBoyle, midwife lecturer, Trinity College Dublin 
  104. Karen McLaughlin, midwife and academic university of Newcastle, Australia 
  105. Ghent University Women's Strike
  106. Bridget Sheeran Midwife, Elephant Collective , Teacher
  107. Massilia Ourabah, PhD, UGent
  108. Ziyanda Majombozi, Scholar at Stellenbosch University
  109. Nienke van Teijlingen, OB/GYN resident, Amsterdam UMC
  110. Natalie Goodyear, Midwife at Imperial Healthcare NHS Trust London.
  111. R.Sanchez-Rivera, Research Fellow, University of Cambridge
  112. Aideen O'Shaughnessy, Lecturer in Sociology, University of Lincoln
  113. Kiaya Knoop, Midwife
  114. Anneleen Kenis, scholar at Brunel University London
  115. Dr Juliet Bressan, Irish College of General Practitioners
  116. Critical Midwifery Studies Collective
  117. Doulas for Palestine, @doulasforpalestine, Scotland, Cymru, Éire, England, and other areas occupied as the 'UK'.
  118. Eshe Kiama Zuri, Activist, doula and community organiser, Nottingham, England
  119. Sonia Corrêa, Sexuality Policy Watch
  120. Soraya Tremayne , Affiliate, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford
  121. Zillah Eisenstein, Writer, AntiRacistFeminist Scholar, Activist, Ithaca NY
  122. Jodi Dean, Professor, Hobart-William Smith
  123. Hannah Dickinson, Associate Professor of Writing and Rhetoric, Hobart and William Smith Colleges
  124. Albena Azmanova, Professor, University of Kent
  125. Tess Humble, Community Organiser
  126. Michael Picken, Retired University manager, Glasgow Scotland
  127. Alessandra Mezzadri, Reader in Global Development, SOAS
  128. Femke Keizer - de Jong, midwife Netherlands
  129. Sancha Bristow-willing Midwife at King's college hospital
  130. Amir Jalalijam, internal medicine resident
  131. Julia Weis. Yoga Teacher Trainer. CEO
  132. Faiza Rehman Midwife MD of Raham Project
  133. Humaairah Jama, Midwife
  134. Sadia Sajid, Consultant
  135. Allison Cummins, Associate Professor in Midwifery University of Newcastle, Australia
  136. Mimi Niles, PhD, MPH, Licensed Midwife and Scholar, New York
  137. Rasha Khoury, Obstetrician Gynecologist, Doctors Without Borders
  138. Kate Macdonald, Perinatal Advocate, The Obstetric Justice Project, Canada
  139. Monica Chaudhuri
  140. Amy Neilson, Rural Generalist (Emergency Medicine)
  141. Petra ter Veer, midwife/sonographer Netherlands
  142. Maddie McMahon, Founder of Developing Doulas Training, Breastfeeding Counsellor, Author
  143. Koen Bogaert, professor, Ghent University
  144. Nicky Hudson, academic, Centre for Reproduction Research
  145. Cordelia Freeman, Senior Lecturer, University of Exeter
  146. Mairead Enright, Professor, University of Birmingham
  147. Ernestina Coast. Professor of Health and International Development. LSE.
  148. Warre Thevelin, Student, University of Ghent
  149. Lea Happ, PhD student, King‘s College London
  150. Maaike Van Melckebeke, journalist
  151. Caroline Rusterholz, Assistant Professor, Graduate Institute
  152. Toke Michielsen, clinical psychologist at a midwife practice.
  153. Helen Green, Midwife, UK
  154. Kalpana Wilson, Senior Lecturer, Birkbeck, University of London
  155. Ng Sauw Tjhoi, father of three children, journalist
  156. Katrijn D'Hondt, Physiotherapist, Belgium
  157. Dyuti Chakravarty, Postdoctoral Researcher, University College Cork
  158. Kylie Jarrett, Associate Professor, Maynooth University
  159. Ruth Defloor - HR
  160. Agata Cieszyńska, midwife, Amsterdam
  161. Rosamund Greiner, PhD student, Institute for Global Health, UCL
  162. Zaina Mahmoud, Lecturer-in-Law, University of Liverpool
  163. Rhiannon Lockley, Lecturer Birmingham City University & Equality Chair, UCU
  164. Gala Rexer, Lecturer, University College London
  165. Lesley Page Professor of Midwifery King’s College London
  166. Genevieve Smart, PhD Candidate, Birkbeck
  167. Sam Vanbelle
  168. V'cenza Cirefice, Feminist Activist-Academic, University of Galway
  169. Evelyn Bouwens, DVM, Belgium
  170. Asma Nabila, doctorate student, University of Auckland
  171. Lisa Tilley, SOAS University of London
  172. Rohin Bhatt, Lawyer, Supreme Court of India
  173. Suleiman Ayoub, Paediatric Education Fellow
  174. Ruth Fletcher, Reader in Law, Queen Mary University of London
  175. Eylem Mercimek, Ph.D. Student, Istanbul, Turkey
  176. Emma Crowley, Lecturer, University of Bristol 
  177. Smin Smith, Lecturer/PhD Student, UCA
  178. Jasmine Joanes, PhD student, Royal Holloway University of London
  179. Phoebe Martin, Research Associate, KCL
  180. Joke Struyf, scholar at University of Antwerp
  181. Leah Gilman, University of Sheffield
  182. Ingrid Crols,midwife ,Bonheiden, Belgium
  183. Elsie Sowah, Obstetrics & Gynaecology Trainee - South London
  184. Martina Yopo Díaz, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Universidad Diego Portales
  185. Iris Wynants, teacher, Sint-Victor, Turnhout 
  186. Professor Gargi Bhattacharyya, University of the Arts
  187. Rebecca Blaylock, Scholar, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
  188. Lise Puls, nurse in Belgium
  189. Matilde De Cooman, activist at collecti.e.f 8 maars Gent
  190. Stella Villarmea, Professor of Philosophy, Complutense University of Madrid
  191. Alliance for Choice Derry, Northern/Ireland
  192. Rose Chabot, PhD candidate - McGill University
  193. Kriss Fearon, Research Fellow, Centre for Reproduction Research, DMU
  194. Kader Celik, receptionist Gstt.nhs.uk
  195. Sofía Ugarte, postdoctoral researcher at the London School of Economics and Political Science
  196. Owen Walsh, lecturer, University of Aberdeen
  197. Joline Nicaise, teacher
  198. Sieglien De Roo, Post-doc researcher, Ghent, Belgium
  199. Gita Sen, DAWN
  200. Neha Mankani, Midwife, Mama Baby Fund
  201. Alessandra Jungs de Almeida, PhD candidate, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
  202. Mohammed Mohammed, Doctor, NHS
  203. Maria Siermann, PhD candidate, KU Leuven
  204. Sophie Jones, lecturer, University of Strathclyde
  205. Anna Nelson, Research Associate, University of Manchester
  206. Hadewijch Vandewege, pediatrician, Herentals
  207. Romina Verwichte, manager, mother
  208. Julie Carlier, feminist, mother and cultural programmer
  209. Isabelle Van den Bossche, communicatief officer, KU Leuven
  210. rachna vanjani, md, obgyn
  211. Tiba Bonyad, scholar, Trinity College Dublin 
  212. Floor Michielsen, internship tutor social work, Odisee Brussels
  213. Emma Campbell, Research Associate Ulster University, Reproductive Citizenship and Co-Convenor Alliance for Choice Northern Ireland
  214. Naomi Connor, Co-Convenor , Alliance for Choice Belfast
  215. Sheryl Nestel, Affiliated Scholar, New College, University of Toronto
  216. Jemma Walton, scholar at Birkbeck University
  217. Lucy Lowe, senior lecturer, University of Edinburgh
  218. Maria Ximena Davila. PhD Student, University of Texas at Austin
  219. Shirin Heidari, Gender Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute
  220. Marina Acero, postdoctoral researcher at the Complutense University of Madrid
  221. Dhouha Djerbi, PhD Researcher, Geneva Graduate Institute
  222. Rima Majed, scholar at the American University of Beirut
  223. Yasmine Abchaoui, Midwife, Fertility Clinic St Jean
  224. Rede de Pesquisadoras e Pesquisadores sobre Aborto pelo Direito de Decidir no Brasil - REPAD (Network of Researchers on Abortion for the Right to Decide in Brazil)
  225. Hayley Anderson, herbalist & birth story listener
  226. Zoe Baywood, Baker, fellow mother
  227. Jo Newman, pre and post natal yoga teacher
  228. Dagmar Stulens, Logistic Coordinator, Lint
  229. Srishti Dutta Chowdhury, PhD Scholar, Purdue University
  230. Meghan de Holanda
  231. Carla Pagano, Ph.D. student, University of Naples L’Orientale
  232. Sumaya B, Researcher/PhD student, UW
  233. Rasigan Maharajh,  chief Director, Institute for Economic Research on Innovation,  Tshwane University of Technology.
  234. Maria Paula Prates, Lecturer, University of Oxford
  235. Holly Parker, RM BC, Canada
  236. Paola Bove Libraia in pensione. Albano laziale. Baruffe ass.ulturale
  237. Nelli Sargsyan, associate professor, Emerson College
  238. Emily Snape, Doula, Doulas for Palestine
  239. Maud Anne Bracke, historian, University of Glasgow
  240. Fabiola Fiocco, PhD candidate, University of Edinburgh
  241. Adeli Block, PhD Candidate at the University of Michigan
  242. Ashlie Taylor, Nurse in Boston
  243. Francesco Sticchi, Lecturer in film studies, Oxford Brookes University
  244. Theo Prodromidis, artist
  245. Carolina Cagetti, Economist and Researcher, REPAD
  246. Kamile Batur, Dr., Independent researcher
  247. Anu Sharma, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Wesleyan University
  248. Julia Merkler, Registered Midwife (Canada)
  249. Mieke Stiers, midwife MSc
  250. Dr Maeve O'Connell Midwife
  251. Dr Sheetal Soni, Senior Lecturer, School of Law, University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa
  252. Blanca Garcia Peral, researcher. Universidad de Granada
  253. Atamhi Cawayu, childhood scholar,  Universidad Católica Boliviana
  254. Juliana Aguilera Lobo, Master's Degree student, Universidade Estadual de Campinas
  255. Hemrish Chirwa of MamaNiyaa the Doula & Creator of Birthworkers for Humanity
  256. Christiana MacDougall, Co-Founder of the Birth Justice Research Initiative, Associate Professor, Mount Allison University
  257. Jessy Young, Artist and Activist, Conway and Young
  258. Inti Soors Solis-Midwife
  259. Sofia Al Balkhi, Registered Midwife, RM
  260. Benash Nazmeen, FRCM, FHEA
  261. Krista Johnston, Associate Professor, Mount Allison University,, co-founder of the Birth Justice Research Initiative
  262. Iratxe Perea Ozerin, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU)
  263. Nafiza Anwar , Director Association of South Asian Midwives
  264. Dido Reijntjes, student midwife
  265. Naomi kerkhove, artist
  266. Olivia Joseph, PhD Researcher, University of Leeds
  267. Iliana Fokianaki director art institute State of Comcept
  268. Claire Horn, Research Fellow, Dalhousie University
  269. Annie Gardner, Holistic Therapist, Devon, UK
  270. Kimra Luna - Full Spectrum Doula and Founder - Idaho Abortion Rights
  271. Marianna Iliadou, Lecturer, University of Sussex
  272. Charlotte Verdin, birth activist and yoga doula, Brussels
  273. So Mayer, feminist writer and editor
  274. Katerina Daem, teacher
  275. Nele Lauryssen
  276. Rose-Anne Gush, Assistant Professor, IZK TU Graz
  277. Anamary Maqueira Linares, Instrcutor 1, University of Manitoba, Canada
  278. Pam England, midwife, author, birth story listener
  279. Elizabeth Mens, BScN RN MI, Ontario
  280. Erica McNabb, Sex Education Consultant, Winnipeg, Canada.
  281. Rana Jaleel, Associate Professor of Gender Studies and Asian American Studies, University of California, Davis
  282. Aimée Baert, teacher, Activist Campagne Rosa
  283. Zeynep Zelal Kızılkaya, Lecturer, University of Mus
  284. Sherryl Kleinman, Emerita professor of sociology, UNC-Chapel Hill
  285. Naciye Turkyilmaz, midwife/sonographer Netherlands
  286. Signore Valentina, shiatsu practitioner, Shiatsudo- Brussels
  287. Joke Van Hoeck, childpsychologist, University of KULeuven
  288. Songül Sabur midwife
  289. Shilpa Dutta, Full Spectrum Ayurvedic Doula
  290. valentina signore, shiatsu practitioner, Shiatsudo Brussels
  291. Lana khaskia
  292. Sanna Poelman, PhD researcher, Tampere University, Finland
  293. Ludovica D'Alessandro
  294. Victoria Browne, Senior Lecturer, Loughborough University
  295. Tessa Moll, Research Fellow, University of the Witwatersrand
  296. Tiia Sudenkaarne, University of Helsinki
  297. Rebecca Brione, PhD student, King's College London
  298. Tessa Welsh Teacher, Birth and Earth Doula, yoga Teacher
  299. Bruna Fani Duarte Rocha,Activist, Researcher/PhD student, Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) and Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), Brasil and Spain
  300. Kim Gorus, senior researcher, Sint Lucas Antwerpen
  301. Giulia Zanini, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Ca' Foscari,University of Venice
  302. Yeliz Çakır-Koçak, Midwife, Asst. Prof., M.Sc., PhD., Pre-Perinatal Massage Therapist, Bartın University Faculty of Health Sciences Midwifery Department, Türkiye
  303. Sally Al Sharad, pediatric resident at Maasstad Hospital Rotterdam, the Netherlands
  304. Minna Seikkula, post-doctoral reseracher, Tampere University
  305. Kai Quinn Allen, jewish disabled carer, Edinburgh
  306. Nicole DeNuccio, Midwife, NYC Health & Hospitals, Woodhull Hospital, NYU Langone Affiliate
  307. Katrien Jacobs, scholar Ghent University
  308. Samira Herawi, midwife in the Netherlands 
  309. Hannah Vögele, University of Brighton
  310. Samira Herawi, midwife in the Netherlands
  311. Tre Kwon, Midwife, New York City, United States
  312. Fatma Arikoglu, feminist 
  313. Melly Damayanti, midwife, lecturer, 
  314. Geordan Shannon, Medical Doctor and Academic, University College London
  315. Faranak Miraftab, Professor  University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
  316. Susan Newman, scholar at the Open University, UK
  317. Mariana Prandini Assis, Professor, Federal University of Goiás (Brazil)
  318. Laura Perler, Researcher, University of Bern
  319. Paula Viana, Enfermeira,  Grupo Curumim
  320. Jessica Timmis - Artist
  321. Julia Barnett, Supervisor Harm Reduction
  322. Melisa Slep, PhD candidate, Queen Mary University of London
  323. Marlies Casier, researcher, Ghent University
  324. Sophie Withaeckx, lecturer and researcher in philosophy, Maastricht University
  325. Céline Lemay, midwife, senior lecturer, UQTR, Québec, Canada
  326. Rianne van Hassel, science practitioner
  327. Gwyneth Lonergan, Northumbria University
  328. Melanie Richter-Montpetit, Associate Professor, University of Sussex (UK)
  329. Erika Sawyer, certified nurse midwife
  330. Carolina Rezende Moraes, activist, academic and lawyer, University of Brasília
  331. Adam Broomberg, Artist
  332. Hakim Benichou cofounder BIND network
  333. TL Jordan, Instructor, Winona State University
  334. Sweta Dash, Researcher, based in India
  335. Laura Teerijoki, PhD candidate, Monash University
  336. Rebecca Ashley, perinatal bereavement officer and PhD graduate, University of Sussex
  337. Camille Bajeux
  338. Kat Goslawska, Amsterdam
  339. Luka Lins, lawyer
  340. Dandara Rudsan, Pesquisadora, Coletivo Amazônico LesBiTrans
  341. Sally Butcher, Doctoral Researcher, Repro Studies & Art Practice, BCU & Centre of Reproduction Research, DMU
  342. Asiya Abedin, Ophthalmic surgeon, Birmingham, U.K.
  343. Claire English, Senior Lecturer, Anglia Ruskin University, London
  344. Caroline Bispo, Elas Existem Mulheres Encarceradas
  345. Rebecca Hunt - Doula
  346. Gail Daniel , Doula, Bristol UK
  347. Ameena Nasib, Public Health Practitioner
  348. Hannah Gibson, postdoctoral fellow, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona
  349. Zelaika Clarke, PhD, MSW, MEd, Professor, Goddard College
  350. Dina Al-Kassim
  351. Ankica Čakardić, University of Zagreb
  352. Ellen Verryt activist and member of Furia
  353. Ida Dequeecker, lid van FURIA en BOEH!
  354. Eline Jonas - socióloga - União Brasileira de Mulheres/UBM
  355. Feling, lecturer midwifery, Faletehan University, Indonesia
  356. Feling, lecturer midwifery, Faletehan University, Indonesia
  357. Emily Zeno Yeast, Midwife, President of the Oregon Affiliate of the American College of Nurse-Midwives
  358. Kim, PhD researcher, University of Amsterdam
  359. Yuli Smith, Licensed Midwife, IBCLC Inland Empire Midwifery and Lactation
  360. Julia Martins, historian of gender and repro activist, The Vavengers/King's College London
  361. Joke J. Hermsen. Writer
  362. Clíona Mc Loughlin Midwife
  363. Charlie Monlouis Anderle, student-midwife & full spectrum doula, NY
  364. Nicola Glynn, mental health nurse
  365. Froukje Jorissen, Midwife
  366. Verena Blok, Artist, Rijksakademie Alumna
  367. Stichting Samen naar de Kliniek
  368. Rachel Arkell, PhD Researcher, University of Kent
  369. Sona Smith
  370. Helen Stonehouse, activist, Abortion Rights Campaign, Ireland
  371. Danielle Oxenham, Perinatal Occupational Therapist/ Lecturer -London
  372. Erin Brooks, abortion care worker, doula & feminist - New York
  373. Alys Weinbaum, Professor, University of Washington
  374. Valerie De Craene, scholar at Vrije Universiteit Brussel
  375. Heidi Mertes, Associate professor in Medical Ethics, Ghent University
  376. Celia Roberts, professor, Australian National University
  377. Riddhi Chakraborty, Postgraduate Student, IIT Hyderabad, India
  378. Lana Sirri, Researcher, Amsterdam University
  379. Soheil Asefi
  380. Katrina Blommaert, Registered Midwife
  381. Kjell Bühler, midwife, Berlin/Germany
  382. Cato Lian Yari Warm, midwife
  383. Feminist Bloc of Palestine Speaks, Berlin, Germany
  384. Alison Phipps, professor of sociology, Newcastle University UK
  385. Susan Crowther Professor of Midwifery Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand
  386. Annabel Farry
  387. mehra shirazi professor at OSU   
  388. Indra Lusero, Director, Elephant Circle
  389. Catherine Moughalian, PhD candidate at the University of Groningen
  390. Inessa Baustad Oostindie
  391. Shuiqing Hu, PhD candidate, University of Amsterdam
  392. Frieda Bequeaith, student midwife
  393. Honor Vincent, student midwife and research assistant, KCL
  394. Jaya Keaney, scholar in Gender Studies, University of Melbourne
  395. Huma Dar, Adjunct Professor, CCA
  396. Katherine Bourgeois, Graduate student, Universität Wien
  397. Pip McKnight, Midwife and Research Fellow, University of Birmingham
  398. Johanna Rothe, writer, lecturer and social worker in Berlin
  399. R Ahmed, Paediatric Dr
  400. Anne M Brennan. Midwife UK
  401. Joke D'Heer, researcher Ghent University
  402. Carmen Dhondt, Academic assistent UGent
  403. Dewanna Cuthbert, Graduate Student, The Chicago School
  404. Helena Whitwell, Doula
  405. Cassandra West, Birth Worker, doulas without borders.
  406. Natalie Harrison- Doula
  407. Kate Woods, Doula educator / mentor
  408. Nika Looman, PhD, Ghent University
  409. Nasooha M, PhD Scholar, Kannur University.
  410. Ashna Viswanath , IIM Ahmedabad
  411. Nanna Dahler, Phd student, Gender Studies, Lund University


Notes 
[1]  Al Nakba, meaning ‘the catastrophe’ in Arabic, refers to the violent displacement and dispossession of Palestinians, and the destruction of their society, culture, political rights, and national aspirations. For more, see: The United Nations, Jewish Voices for Peace, Al Jazeera, and Haaretz.
[3] In 1949, for example, Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion issued the Heroine Mother Award, a birth prize for Israeli mothers at the birth of their tenth child. The award was dropped after ten years, when it turned out that mostly Palestinian mothers were claiming the financial reward. In 2010, the Israeli Knesset voted in favour of a controversial law to allow egg cell donations. One of the amendments in the Law on Egg Donation stipulated that the donor and the recipient of the egg cell are required to share the same religion which makes it impossible for a Jewish woman to donate an egg cell to a Muslim, Christian or Druze couple and vice versa without the approval of an Exception Committee. Since in practice, Palestinian women rarely donate egg cells in Israel, this amendment ensured that they will also be unlikely to benefit from an egg cell donation.
[5] There are hopeful exceptions, such as statements by BRISMES, MESA, BSA, ICCG, ESA, Department of Conflict and Development, etc.

 
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