Oppressive Language and Humanitarian Complicity: Reflections on Gaza and European Border Violence
This paper critically examines the uses and limitations of humanitarian language in addressing the ongoing atrocities and right violations in Gaza and the European borderlands. Drawing on Toni Morrison's notion of ‘oppressive language’, it demonstrates how humanitarian frames and terminology limit our understanding and action by erasing power and history, misrecognising the political agency and rights of Palestinians and refugees, and diverting attention from more just and transformative responses. Ultimately, it highlights the complicity of humanitarian actors in perpetuating and normalising the systems of violence and oppression they aim to challenge or mitigate. The paper concludes by exploring alternative vocabularies and advocating for a politics of refusal.
