ABSTRACT
Bram Wispelwey and Amaya Al-Orzza report a striking example of political influence upon health, one that should interest any medical student or doctor. Wispelwey and Al-Orzza, in connecting the high incidence of diabetes in Palestinians, their political oppression and the subsequent impoverishment of lives, note that the “prevalence of the disease is linked to land dispossession, structural violence, colonial domination and oppression”. Macro-politics, or sovereign power, describes power over others – by force or through the law, legitimate or illegitimate – as either a normal condition or as a “state of exception”. Identity politics flowered in the late 1960s to parallel party politics. Identity politics can be traced to the Suffragette movement of the early 20th century and the Pacifist movement during the two world wars, but it was given a high profile by the Civil Rights and “first wave” feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s.
