What about older persons in Palestine? A call for recognition, rehumanising and solidarity in gerontology

While the impact of humanitarian crises caused by armed violence is well documented, the specific experiences of older persons remain largely overlooked, particularly within academia and the field of gerontology. Amid escalating violence and destruction in Gaza, older Palestinians represent a stark example of this silence and systemic neglect. Having endured decades of oppression under occupation, their plight is now intensified by high mortality risk, forced displacement, collapsed essential services and devastation of their communities. This article argues that the experience of older Palestinians must serve as a wake-up call for gerontology and for international ageing-related policy agendas, as it exposes a failure to uphold global commitments to healthy ageing and human rights protection. Structural dispossession, mass exile and aggression obliterating all means of basic survival are severely undermining older Palestinians’ ability to age in place or experience age-friendly living environments. Beyond reflecting on the crisis in Gaza, the article critiques the broader neglect of older persons affected by armed violence. Gerontologists are urged to adopt an emancipatory social science approach within teaching, research, dissemination and scholar-activism through acts of recognition, rehumanisation and solidarity towards older Palestinians. Breaking the silence on Palestine can reaffirm the moral purpose and legitimacy of gerontology as a value-based discipline and contribute to advancing a much-needed transformative agenda to address injustices affecting older persons around the world.