For decades, Israel has held the remains of hundreds of Palestinian martyrs in secret burial sites in closed military zones called the cemeteries of numbers. Simultaneously, the Israeli police have desecrated several ancient burial sites in Jerusalem and built above them parks and other public spaces. This article examines these under-explored phenomena within the lens of Zionist colonialism to consider the ways cemeteries and spaces of death are used by the Israeli state as a mechanism of necroviolence. Through ethnographic interviews with martyrs’ families and a review of key legal documents regarding the burial of Palestinians, this article makes the case that the control and intentional negligence of dead bodies – fueled by racist ideology – are key facets of Israeli territorial acquisition.
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