Occupied Food Systems: Case of Palestine

Principal Investigator

• Dr Mehroosh Tak (SOAS)

Funder

• Council for British Research in the Levant

Duration

• 2022-26

The aim of the project is to conceptualise, document and provide evidence on how settler colonialism transforms local Palestinian food and agriculture systems by changing traditional production and consumption practices. 

This project will gather evidence on how occupation contributes to food, land and political vulnerabilities. With research participant community-driven collective development strategies addressing agricultural practices related to food and land use consistent with their aspirations in the context of Palestine’s occupation. The project will provide a participative and transdisciplinary methodology and a framework specific to researching food systems under occupation to empower local communities to strengthen collective autonomy and decision-making to build resilient food systems in accordance with their needs and ethno-cultural practices. 

The planned research outputs will add to the body of evidence on economic, social and cultural human rights of Palestinian community development by building resilience in local food systems. These are key welfare factors, due to the ways in which livelihoods (related to curtailment of economic activities) depend on agriculture and natural resources and contribute towards people welfare. The project’s insights may apply to similarly occupied spaces affected by protracted political conflicts such as Jammu and Kashmir, Borneo and West Papua. 

Given the complexities of food systems and the holistic nature a systemic approach affords, the project addresses multiple SDGs, and specifically, #2 (zero hunger) and #16 (peace and justice).

Header image credit: Ash Hayes via Unsplash.

• De-developing Food Systems Under Occupation