The Doomsday Economy: Colonial Violence, Environmental Catastrophe, and Burning Tires in Palestine

Abstract

The article analyzes the Palestinian act of tire burning at the intersection of the following frameworks – colonial violence, racial capitalism, and environmental discourse. The analysis considers the many functions of Palestinian tire burning: capital accumulation, waste management, protestors’ protection, counter-violence, pollution redistribution, and spectacle production. This analysis leads to the argument that Palestinian tire burning takes part in a “Doomsday Economy.” The article promotes the concept of a “Doomsday Economy” as a frame for understanding violence toward Palestinians and the contemporary intent of tire burning. The Doomsday Economy is a violent economic structure that involves two interplaying processes: (a) the positioning of a discursive catastrophe in a deferred future by colonial powers in order to conceal the present violence and production of a daily doomsday for the oppressed; and (b) the oppressed’s acceleration of the future-doomsday’s arrival for all participants of this economy – through pollution and images – introducing doomsday as a present state.