Demographic Anxieties of Jewish Sovereignty: Palestinian Women’s Bodies in Israeli Annexation Politics

Abstract This article analyzes the demographic discourse in Israeli annexation politics, focusing on how the Sovereignty Movement—one of the most influential networks advocating for Israel’s annexation of the West Bank—conceptualizes Palestinian women primarily through their reproductive capacity. Employing discourse analysis of publications from 2013 to 2022 and examining post-October 7th developments, the article reveals how annexationists co-opt the feminist language of “women’s rights” to promote a racialized demographic agenda. The research identifies two distinct approaches in the annexation discourse: in the West Bank, concerns focus on Palestinian women’s fertility rates, celebrating their “Westernization” and reduced reproduction (biopolitical control), while for Gaza, the emphasis shifts to “voluntary emigration” or transfer (biopolitical elimination). Both approaches employ humanitarian rhetoric while ultimately advancing Jewish demographic dominance. Theoretically, the article expands on the intersections of gender, biopolitics, and settler-colonialism by showing how variations of biopolitical logics apply to different territories within the same political context.