Whose Life is Grievable? The Hierarchy of Grievability, Theo-Political Mechanisms, and Selective Empathy in the Palestine-Ukraine Context

A Comparative Sociological Analysis

Bibliographic Data

ID21999986
AuthorsMuhammed Babacan (0000-0002-8845-4677, Ankara Sosyal Bilimler Üniversitesi, corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume13
IssueDin, Barış ve Çatışma Çözümü
Pages78-96
Publication date2026-05-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEskişehir Osmangazi Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2147-8171
PublisherEskisehir Osmangazi University (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.51702/esoguifd.1878365
OpenAlexW7161281099
LanguageEN
References cited27

The explicit difference in the West's reactions to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Israeli occupation of Gaza reveals a profound inconsistency in the contemporary moral landscape. Such a double standard constructs a world where suffering is graded and where the hierarchy of grievability is seemingly determined by systematic mechanisms. The concept of universal human dignity becomes ineffective in the face of this discriminatory perspective. By interrogating the socio-discursive and theo-political mechanisms that elevate some lives to “worthy victims” while condemning others to “bare life”, this article argues that modern violence is fundamentally intertwined with secularized survival theologies rather than being purely secular. In this sense, Russia’s “Russkiy Mir doctrine” and Israel’s “Amalek decree” emerge as symmetrical power apparatuses, transforming institutionalized destruction into a theological commandment by bypassing ethical constraints. To avoid a reductionist equivalence, we must acknowledge the profound material divergence between these cases. While the Russian case reflects post-imperial revanchism, the Israeli context is rooted in the structural dynamics of settler-colonialism and demographic engineering. The analysis synthesizes the concepts of grievability, the friend/enemy distinction, and biopolitics to expose how structural racism functions as a determinant of life and death, creating a group-differentiated vulnerability to premature death. This biopolitical process determines whose survival is an absolute necessity and whose erasure is permissible. Furthermore, by employing the frameworks of civilizationalism and the state of exception, the study elucidates how certain populations are excluded from legal protection while remaining subjected to its violence. The West’s identity construction, often implicitly defined by White Christian norms, is also critically examined alongside media propaganda models to highlight discursive boundaries and selective memory. Methodologically bridging Comparative Critical Discourse Analysis (CCDA) with a theo-political genealogy within the sociology of the spectator, the article uncovers a structural symmetry in how both Russia and Israel mobilise religious narratives to transform territories into sacred spaces and enemies into “human-animals”. Conversely, a radical asymmetry exists in the Western representation of their victims. While Ukrainians benefit from “epidermal citizenship”, portrayed with complex inner lives, Palestinians are reduced to an indistinguishable mass or described through antiseptic reporting. Operating through linguistic tools such as passivization and statistical reduction, this calculated strategy extends beyond a mere technical choice of reporting. It strips the victims of their humanity and agency, thereby preemptively paralyzing potential public outrage and mechanisms of moral accountability. The selective empathy exhibited by prominent intellectuals like Jürgen Habermas marks a collapse of the Enlightenment’s promise of inherent dignity. The findings reveal that international law is selectively activated to protect recognized subjects while abandoning the marginalized to a permanent state of exception. Consequently, the stratification of humanity into grievable and ungrievable subjects constitutes one of the fundamental forms of violence in contemporary global politics. As long as this hierarchy remains unquestioned and Palestinians are reduced to a human-animal distinction, the post-Holocaust pledge of “Never Again” functions not as a moral imperative, but as a rhetorical facade for state-legitimized destruction. Addressing this disparity requires challenging the secularized theologies that weaponize grief as an instrument of dominance

Biopower · Dignity · Hierarchy · Reductionism · Secularization · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Political Developments and Conflicts · Religion and Society Interactions

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