Isolation, separation and quarantine Editor Jamil Hilal 2020 Table of Content Foreword Editor ...................................................................................................................5 Jamil Hilal Isolation, separation and quarantine Produced in Palestine A Preliminary Analysis of the Repercussions First published in 2020 of the Coronavirus Pandemic ............................................................................17 © A. M. Qattan Foundation Jamil Hilal ISBN 978-9950-313-92-4 The Repercussions of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the Global Economy ........35 Ghassan Khatib Editor: Jamil Hilal Texts: Amira Silmi, Ghassan Khatib, Hashem Abushama, Sandi Hilal A life haunted by anxiety ...................................................................................55 and Alessandro Petti, Jamil Hilal, Khaled Hourani, Shourideh C. Molavi, Yara Hawari, Matt Aufderhorst, Max Haiven, Phanuel Antwi Khaled Hourani Design: iPrint Corona Got Us ....................................................................................................71 Coordination: Shadi Baker Translation: Jumana Kayyali, Arsen Aghazarian, Doa Ali Matt Aufderhorst A Home Between the Public and the Private ...............................79 (دار) Copy editor (Arabic): Abed Al-Rahman Abu Shammaleh, Qais Omar DAAR Copy editor (English): Marguerite Debaie Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti From Dystopia to Utopia: Imagining a Radical Future ...................................91 All right reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in Yara Hawari a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. Pandemic in Palestine, not an analogy .............................................................103 Shourideh C. Molavi A.M. Qattan Foundation (Cultural Centre) 27 An-Nahda Women Association Street Pandemics and Colonialist-Capitalist Oppression ..........................................115 Al-Tira- Ramallah, Palestine Amira Silmi Box: 2276 Postal Code 90606 Tel: 0097022960544 Not Our Country: On Palestinian Imaginaries for Liberation .......................137 www.qattanfoundation.org Hashem Abushama [email protected] Our Wrecks of the Medusa. A dialogue on Economy, Masculinity and Race Within and Beyond the Pandemic ...............................153 The views Expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of A.M. Qattan Foundation. Phanuel Antwi and Max Haiven Isolation, separation and quarantine 5 | Foreword More Than an Epidemic Editor The Coronavirus, or Covid-19, continues to spread worldwide after over eight months since the start of the breakout. Several centres continue to race for a vaccine against this epidemic. The same questions have been repeated since it first appeared and during the subsequent lockdowns and preventive measures, including the declared state of emergency that affected a large part of humankind and during the first wave as well as the second wave, which began in some countries in fall 2020. The quick global spread of the epidemic and the accompanying restrictions on movement, access and assembly have raised substantive questions about the nature of the existing global economic system and its role in creating the conditions for the virus’s quick emergence and outbreak. They have also raised questions about this system’s role in the subsequent surge in rates of impoverishment and unemployment, and aggravating the exposure of large groups to the perils of poverty. The pandemic has posed urgent questions about the responsibility of the capitalist neoliberal system for deepening inequalities within communities, including its responsibility for the increased tension in human relations with animal and plant ecosystems and the climate, consequently creating enabling conditions for the emergence and spread of new, dangerous viruses that threaten human life. Isolation, separation and quarantine 7 | The epidemic triggered a broad disposition towards the need for structural change economic crisis is deeper than the 2008 global financial crisis and the most serious in globalisation as it developed during the past four decades, and in the role and since the 1929 Great Depression. The article cites the IMF report on the decline in drivers of the international institutions, many of which have become paralyzed, international trade because of the pandemic, which led to a decrease in demand, muddled and marginalised. They fail to confront the growing extremist and a collapse of transit tourism and instability of supplies because of lockdowns. The egotistical nationalistic trends together with the strengthening of values of profit, article indicates that the coronavirus crisis has increased financial inflation, budget individualism and the market economy—free from societal control—that dictate deficits and public debt. It also addresses the social ramifications of the deteriorating the modes of relations among people. This book touches on concerns relevant to the economic indicators, most notably the increase in unemployment. According to the significance and ramifications of the pandemic. It also includes several accounts and International Labour Organisation, unemployment affected women more severely, thoughts addressing its ramifications on the Palestinian situation amidst the settler- aggravating gender inequalities in employment. The increase in unemployment colonial domination over historic Palestine. indicates a proportionate increase in poverty (more precisely impoverishment) rates. The new pandemic waves contributed to renewing anxiety for the future, survival Furthermore, poor countries are suffering heavier losses than rich countries at the and the types of relations that might prevail within humankind and in the sphere human and economic levels while increasing inequalities at the global level. It also of international relations once the pandemic recedes, in addition to other relevant addresses the adverse impact of the crisis on education and the long-term impact topics, as this introduction attempts to outline. on human capital, the most important element in socio-economic development. It concludes that although the crisis shall slow down capitalist globalisation, the Corona: An analysis of the repercussions of the pandemic on process will resume its role once the crisis recedes. the global economy and on culture Many have been sceptical towards the measures taken against Covid-19, the subsequent disruption of work and the resulting unemployment. Some expressed Ghassan Khatib’s article entitled “The Repercussions of the Covid-19 Pandemic on concern that the risk of compliance with the adopted measures exceeds that of the the Global Economy” discusses the economic and social repercussions of Covid-19, virus itself. It has become hard to persuade people of the political, economic and indicating that the global economy had been declining immediately before the health policies that govern the world. Two things about the Coronavirus pandemic epidemic. This fact drove governments, whose revenues decreased because of the baffled Khaled Hourani in his article entitled “A Life Haunted by Anxiety.” The first measures they took against the pandemic, to increase spending on unemployment concerns the state (including corrupt institutions), its reference of conduct and its and assistance schemes—with discrepancies—for those who lost their income, and claim that it cares for the health and wellbeing of its citizens. The second concerns provide support to businesses facing collapse. Many governments were compelled to the intellectual becoming obedient in the times of fear, compliant with the safety increase their spending on healthcare and needs. measures adopted by the state institution or the ruling authority. More importantly, Khatib’s article attributes the deteriorating global economic indicators prior to Hourani, as a plastic artist, has noticed the bewilderment of the art world and Covid-19 to three factors: Tension in Chinese-American economic relations, art institutions in Palestine and worldwide that require a live audience to attend American fiscal policies and instability in oil prices because of speculations among museums, festivals and theatres—just like sport institutions and events. oil-producing countries. The economic repercussions of the pandemic led to a severe Hourani noted that the pandemic has been more severe in Palestine because of the decline in various economic indicators, most notably the economic growth rate, absence of a sovereign state that controls the borders, natural resources and internal which declined globally, which led international economic and financial institutions and external movement, and the lack of institutions that care for creative artists and to consider that the global economy has entered a state of economic recession. The their needs, which also applies to other groups such as the unemployed. Hourani article includes a table issued by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in June adds: 2020 that reveals the impact of Covid-19 on different countries and indicates that the international economic and financial institutions unanimously agree that the current At the personal level, when I looked for the artist inside me, I found the maintenance Isolation, separation and quarantine 9 | worker. I was not an artist; I did not feel that art could help me at that moment. the public has radically changed during the Coronavirus pandemic, which required . In Palestine, the situation that preceded