Ashlaa

For the 2010 documentary film directed by Hakim Belabbes, see In Pieces (film).

The Arabic word šilw (شلو), plural: ʾašlāʾ (أشلاء), means a "severed member (of the body); part torn off, fragment; remnant; stump of a limb."[2]

The word ʾašlāʾ has been used to describe the severed limbs, dismembered flesh, and scattered body parts created by the Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip in the Gaza genocide.[3][4] Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian has made use of the concept of ʾašlāʾ in her theoretical critique of Zionism, arguing that it seeks not only to eliminate Palestinians but to "evict the already dead from humanity" and "prevent both Palestinians and Palestine from being whole."[5][6][7][8][9] It has been used as a metaphor in relation to fragmentation in the Palestinian condition.[7][4][10][11] Ghassan Abu-Sittah writes that "Following a missile attack, survivors try to collect the ashlaa’ of their beloved in order that, at least in death, they remain unaltered and undiminished; that they remain themselves."[10]

Istanbul bureau chief for The New York Times Ben Hubbard, writing in 2017 as a Middle East correspondent for the newspaper, described the word ashlaa as an example of "the richness of the Arabic lexicon" within his discussion of what he called "The Linguistic Labyrinth of Arabic News."[12]

Ashlaa (أشلاء) is also the original Arabic title of Hakim Belabbes's 2010 documentary film In Pieces.

References

  1. ^ "عشرات الشهداء والمصابين بقصف الاحتلال مصلى مدرسة بغزة". الجزيرة نت (in Arabic). Retrieved 2026-02-17.
  2. ^ Wehr, Hans; Cowan, J. Milton (1971). "شلو". A dictionary of modern written Arabic (4th ed.). Ithaca, N.Y: Spoken Language Services. p. 566. ISBN 978-3-447-01325-3.
  3. ^ "Seeing and Not Seeing the Catastrophe: Notes on fragmentation". Mondoweiss. 2024-10-05. Retrieved 2026-01-18.
  4. ^ a b Atallah, Devin G.; Awartani, Hisham (2024-01-02). "Embodying Homeland: Palestinian Grief and the Perseverance of Beauty in a Time of Genocide". Journal of Palestine Studies. 53 (1): 137–145. doi:10.1080/0377919X.2024.2344419. ISSN 0377-919X.
  5. ^ Shaloub-Kevorkian, Nadera (2024-10-31). "Ashlaa' and the Genocide in Gaza: Livability against Fragmented Flesh". Society for Cultural Anthropology. Retrieved 2026-02-17.
  6. ^ Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Nadera (2025-09-19). "Five Pillars of Zionist Genocidal Apparatus: A Palestinian Problematization of Genocide Studies". Journal of Genocide Research: 1–13. doi:10.1080/14623528.2025.2556589. ISSN 1462-3528.
  7. ^ a b Gamedze, Thandi (2026-02-17). "Liberation Narratives and Theologies as Sites of Struggle – Thinking with Gender, Genocide, Gaza, and the Book of Esther: Engaging Texts of Terror(ism) by Sarojini Nadar". Black Theology: 1–10. doi:10.1080/14769948.2026.2629778. ISSN 1476-9948.
  8. ^ Ihmoud, Sarah (2024-10-31). "(Re)membering the Dead at the End of the World: Ashlaa' as Critical Feminist Methodology". Society for Cultural Anthropology. Retrieved 2026-03-06.
  9. ^ Abu-Sittah, Ghassan (2024-10-31). "The Character of Settler-Colonial Violence". Society for Cultural Anthropology. Retrieved 2026-03-06.
  10. ^ a b "Out of Ashlaa' أشلاء: Refugee Language Education in Times of Heartbreak and Failure". www.gla.ac.uk. Retrieved 2026-03-06.
  11. ^ Reyes, Victoria (March 2025). "Apologies to All the People in Palestine". Feminist Formations. 37 (1): 238–244. doi:10.1353/ff.2025.a962238. ISSN 2151-7371.
  12. ^ Hubbard, Ben (2017-01-14). "Opinion | The Linguistic Labyrinth of Arabic News". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-03-08.
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