The Un-Chosen Body : Disability Culture in Israel

Brings crip aesthetics and disability justice into conversation with Israel studies.

In the first work to bring crip aesthetics into conversation with Israel studies, Ilana Szobel explores disability culture and disability justice through the work of artists with disabilities in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. This book outlines the production and performance of a range of projects by poets, filmmakers, and performers to examine how they reframe or reimagine accessibility in artistic, cultural, and political spaces through creative expression and suggests their works' potential for social transformation. Through close analysis of this vibrant underground subculture, Szobel proposes new avenues for understanding genealogies of art on disability, depictions of sexuality and vulnerability of disabled women, disability as political violence, community building among the disabled, and imagined disability futures. Szobel renders a clear critique of forms of oppression—ableism, sexism, heteronormativity, settler colonialism, and state violence—within Israel/Palestine and how artists with disabilities creatively address and undo their relationship to structures of power. For those interested in disability justice, gender, and creativity, Szobel illustrates how Israeli and Palestinian artists create new possibilities through their work.