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As global conflict rages, people with disabilities on battlefields around the world face devastating challenges that are too often ignored or invisible.
Hani Khoury, a mathematics professor at Mercer University, remembers as a child searching his school for a classmate who had been stoned by Israeli soldiers in 1981.
“Stand up, you beast,” he remembered someone ordering him.
But Khoury was born with spinal muscular atrophy, a condition that affects motor neurons and weakens muscles, so he couldn’t follow orders. “It took me probably 10 minutes to stand up,” Khoury says. “One of the soldiers slapped me across the face. He said, ‘I told you to stand up, you brute.'”
In war zones like the Gaza Strip, violence leaves many people disabled and those who are already disabled are often targeted by military forces. War disproportionately affects people with disabilities, who are often left behind during displacement, denied access to food and water, and targeted by violence. The physical and mental trauma caused by violent conflict exacerbates the existing inequalities faced by disability communities around the world.
Inaccessible environment, lack of basic services
Maris Ross, executive director and CEO of the World Disability Institute, the world’s oldest disability justice organization, says people with disabilities are often left out when it comes to the billions of dollars in aid the U.S. sends to war zones each year.
For example, the United States has reportedly sent $12 billion to support Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022. Still, many reports say that the roughly 3 million Ukrainians living with disabilities remain underserved.
“The bomb shelters are off limits, so people can’t go in,” Ross said. “A lot of people were trapped in their homes.”
As well as physical disabilities, the war has disproportionately affected people with intellectual disabilities: around 4,000 elderly Ukrainians with neurodevelopmental disorders have been forcibly institutionalised since the start of the war.
Elkansa Fahad is Painter, sculptor and activist A resident of Sudan, Fahad lost both hands to a blood clot at the age of three and is a leader with Action for Disability Development (ADD) International, advocating for the rights of people with disabilities in Sudan. Displaced by violence, Fahad’s work focuses on disability justice, despite discrimination within her community. “Millions of people with disabilities are displaced,” she says, “including those who are moving from safe country to safe country.”
The escalating military conflict in Sudan has forced 3.3 million people to flee since April 2023, leaving around 6% of Sudanese people with disabilities to fend for themselves.
International Ignorance, Local Impact
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Khoury’s family, who live in the West Bank, applied for a tax exemption under Israeli law to buy him mobility equipment when he was 16.
“The first thing they asked was, ‘What have you done to the State of Israel for us to give you immunity?’” Khoury’s father had no answer and was denied.[The officer] I tore up the application in front of him.”
Khoury said he has seen improvements in disability accommodations in the 35 years since he left the West Bank, including the installation of portable ramps and parking lots and an increase in the number of people using electric wheelchairs, but systemic inequalities under what many advocates call an apartheid system still show up in poor access to buildings and public transportation.
Today, activists like Rafi Mero, a Palestinian-American visual artist and educator who has a blood disorder and growth hormone deficiency, see disability as taboo in Khoury’s day. “Amputation is seen as partial martyrdom,” Mero says. “In our community, we often hear, ‘Your limbs are gone.'[s] I went to heaven before you.”
During the 2018 March of Return – a series of protests in which more than 10,000 people marched along the fence separating Gaza from Israel to demand an end to the Israeli blockade – human rights groups accused the IDF of specifically targeting protesters’ legs. More than 6,392 people were shot in the lower limbs, leaving them with lifelong injuries and, in some cases, paralysis or amputations.
“We are seen as a threat regardless of our capabilities,” Mello said. “Only when the standard is death and destruction do we become equals.”
Following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) instructed Gaza residents to flee south to safety to escape a bombing campaign that has left more than 17,000 Palestinians dead. As Palestinians flee south, Israel continues to bomb the area.
Mello recalled a client who took at least 30 minutes to get into her wheelchair: “There was no way I could get her off in time. My options were to leave her behind or stay. I chose to stay.”
This systematic violence and neglect also affects people like Beirut resident Jacob.
Jacob, who chose to use a pseudonym for safety reasons, developed muscular dystrophy over time and said the effects of the 2020 Beirut port explosion, which killed more than 200 people, continue to affect the city’s economy and infrastructure to this day.
In Beirut, Jacob and other residents have no 24-hour electricity and limited access to elevators or power sources for their electric wheelchairs. “We experienced displacement in 2006,” they said, referring to the war between Israel and Hezbollah. “It was a horrific experience.”
Fearing another war in Beirut, Jacob, a dual American citizen, asked the embassy for help, which offered to loan him $2,000 for his flight.
“Once you get to America, you’re on your own,” says Jacob, who is now unemployed. “It was really depressing.” Like a shocking number of disabled people around the world, Jacob is unemployed.
Ross also noted that a similar lack of support for people with disabilities exists in Haiti and elsewhere, where the country has been plunged into turmoil by a political crisis since 2018. Whether people are being asked to seek shelter in evacuation centers, use bomb shelters or use humanitarian corridors or designated paths out of combat zones, accessibility is a global challenge.
“[Disabled people] “They don’t have access to the information they need in an accessible format,” she said. “Hearing-impaired people have a hard time getting actionable information. People who are visually impaired, people with mental disabilities. The list goes on.”
“The impacts of conflict and disaster certainly have a huge impact on everyone,” said Ross, noting the psychological trauma experienced by people with disabilities fleeing war. “There are a lot of people with mental disabilities who are already there before the disaster or conflict, and they get left behind, left behind, left behind.”
Solutions in a world of ableism
Advocates like Ross say U.S. funding should go directly to disability-led organizations.
“We’re master problem solvers,” Ross says. “We’re good at anticipating problems and coming up with creative solutions, which makes us a great asset to communities affected by disasters.”
But as the US’s recent rejection of a UN ceasefire resolution makes clear, foreign aid will continue to fund military aggression, not peacebuilding.
Roth highlighted the work of Fight for Right, an organization led by Ukrainian women with disabilities that has been at the forefront of disability justice since the start of the Russian invasion.
“They felt they needed to step in,” Ross said. They were able to move many people with disabilities to safety and help them live in shelters, including many disabled men who were being forced into military service. “One small organization led by a woman with a disability was able to move tens of thousands of people to safety.”
To make evacuation easier, Fahad and others are calling for the creation of humanitarian corridors specifically for people with disabilities.
For those who are unable to leave the country, the new ordinance aims to provide some protection: Congolese authorities recently ratified Organic Law No. 22/003 of May 2022, which guarantees the rights of people with disabilities to employment, healthcare and accessibility, and protects them against discrimination.
As international governments abandon the disability community, disabled people themselves continue to express solidarity with one another. Mero has created a video playlist on disability and Palestine that includes interviews, footage of the Israeli military targeting disabled Palestinians, and information aimed at raising awareness and encouraging advocacy.
“Whatever you want to happen for Palestinians with disabilities,” they said. “We have to find a way to contribute to that dream.”
The fight for justice remains tied to war and empire, but so too is the answer to ending ableism during the crisis and beyond: “I hope that one day we’ll all realise that we’re all equal as human beings,” Cooley said.
Rohan Chow Lee (They/Siya/祂(Tā)/Elle) is a queer/non-binary Black Asian dancer, writer, and organizer. She is a 2023 Open City Fellow at the Asian American Writers Workshop and has contributed to Newsweek, Prism Report, NextShark, and more. Siya is also the founder of the award-winning Black/Asian/Brasian grassroots solidarity organization, Brasian March, whose work has been featured on CNN, NBC Chicago, USA Today, WNYC, and more. Chow Lee has spoken on organizing, human rights, and other topics at New York University, the University of Tokyo, the 2022 Unite and Enough Festival in Zurich, Switzerland, and Harvard University, among others. www.diaryofafirebird.com