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My dissertation explores the relationship between personal ties and the political in the context of the Israeli military occupation and settler colonization of the West Bank. Based on a fieldwork conducted from 2011 to 2014 in a Palestinian village under complete Israeli control, my methodological choice focused on an ethnography of Palestinians’ everyday life in order to grasp the moral and affective dimensions in which social relationships are embedded. The research questions how a moral economy of friendship, regulating personal relationships between distinguished populations, emerged from the Palestinians’ work experience in a colonial context. In the first chapter I introduce the context of my fieldwork focusing on the social identity of fellāḥīn (peasants) through which Palestinians in the village represent themselves. Peasants’ narratives and memories are linked to Palestinians’ violent dispossession due to the creation of the Israeli State, but also reveal present fractures in the Palestinian society. In the context of the progressive expansion of the Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank, agriculture has become a political practice claiming the Palestinian ownership over the land. I analyze such a politization through the different ways Palestinian agriculture has been appropriated by both Palestinian and Israeli activists in the public arena, showing the conjuncture and disjuncture of emerging political subjectivities. Given the structural dismantlement of Palestinian peasants’ life, the second chapter focuses on Palestinian labor in Israel as an apparatus of the Israeli colonial governamentality. In the context of the Palestinians’ growing economical dependence on Israel since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, a special attention is dedicated to Palestinian laborers’ experience. I examine labor through three dimensions: work values in the Palestinian domestic economy, where norms regulating masculinity are explored in details; labor

Purpose: Epileptic seizures complicate the management of childhood brain tumours. There are no published standards for clinical practice concerning risk factors, treatment selection or strategies to withdraw treatment with antiepileptic drugs (AED). Method: We undertook a case note review of 120 patients with newly diagnosed brain tumours, referred to a regional paediatric cancer service. Results: Data was available on 117/120 (98%) children <18 years: median age at tumour presentation was 8.1 years (IQR 25°-75°: 3.6-12.7), median follow up was 33 months (IQR 25°-75°: 24-56), and 35/117 (29%) experienced seizures. A cortical tumour location was associated with the highest risk of seizures (OR: 7.1; CI 95% 2.9-17.3). At a median follow up of 24 months (IQR25°-75°: 15-48), 22/35 (63%) with seizures, had a single seizure episode, 15/35 (43%) were seizure free (SF) on AEDs, 13/35 (37%) were SF off AEDs, and 7/35 (20%) experienced continuing epileptic seizures. Overall 34/35 (97%) were treated with AEDs after a seizure, of whom 12/35 (35%) withdrew from AED medication, and although 4/35 (12%) had seizure relapse, all were after further acute events. The median duration of AED before withdrawal was 11 months (IQR25°-75° 5-14 months), and the median follow up after withdrawal was 15 months (IQR25°-75° 5-34 months). Conclusions: Seizures affect about 1/3rd of children and young people presenting with and being treated for brain tumours particularly when the tumour is in the cerebral cortex. The low risk of recurrent seizures after AED treatment justifies consideration of early withdrawal of AED after seizure control.

We describe a 20 month old boy with neuro-fibromatosis type 1 (NF-1) who presented with diencephalic syndrome due to a large hypothalamic tumour and developed massive necrosis after chemotherapy associated with severe encephalopathy. We report this case because of rapid progression of presenting symptoms, the rare association with diencephalic syndrome in NF-1, chemotherapy induction of “tumour lysis” associated with encephalopathy, reduced toxicity and sustained improvement with vinblastine, the therapeutic benefit of tumour drainage signs of resolution of diencephalic syndrome and then restoration of visual movements and function associated with developmental recovery. The presentation of tumour in this case highlights the importance for parents and doctor to known and recognize the precocious symptoms, and justifies sharing these features as an indicator with parents and GP’s to justify early / urgent specialist review, particularly in the first two years of life. Early recognition could offer a reduced risk of brain injury.

Purpose: Epileptic seizures complicate the management of childhood brain tumours. There are no published standards for clinical practice concerning risk factors, treatment selection or strategies to withdraw treatment with antiepileptic drugs (AED). Method: We undertook a case note review of 120 patients with newly diagnosed brain tumours, referred to a regional paediatric cancer service. Results: Data was available on 117/120 (98%) children <18 years: median age at tumour presentation was 8.1 years (IQR 25°-75°: 3.6-12.7), median follow up was 33 months (IQR 25°-75°: 24-56), and 35/117 (29%) experienced seizures. A cortical tumour location was associated with the highest risk of seizures (OR: 7.1; CI 95% 2.9-17.3). At a median follow up of 24 months (IQR25°-75°: 15-48), 22/35 (63%) with seizures, had a single seizure episode, 15/35 (43%) were seizure free (SF) on AEDs, 13/35 (37%) were SF off AEDs, and 7/35 (20%) experienced continuing epileptic seizures. Overall 34/35 (97%) were treated with AEDs after a seizure, of whom 12/35 (35%) withdrew from AED medication, and although 4/35 (12%) had seizure relapse, all were after further acute events. The median duration of AED before withdrawal was 11 months (IQR25°-75° 5-14 months), and the median follow up after withdrawal was 15 months (IQR25°-75° 5-34 months). Conclusions: Seizures affect about 1/3rd of children and young people presenting with and being treated for brain tumours particularly when the tumour is in the cerebral cortex. The low risk of recurrent seizures after AED treatment justifies consideration of early withdrawal of AED after seizure control.

We describe a 20 month old boy with neuro-fibromatosis type 1 (NF-1) who presented with diencephalic syndrome due to a large hypothalamic tumour and developed massive necrosis after chemotherapy associated with severe encephalopathy. We report this case because of rapid progression of presenting symptoms, the rare association with diencephalic syndrome in NF-1, chemotherapy induction of “tumour lysis” associated with encephalopathy, reduced toxicity and sustained improvement with vinblastine, the therapeutic benefit of tumour drainage signs of resolution of diencephalic syndrome and then restoration of visual movements and function associated with developmental recovery. The presentation of tumour in this case highlights the importance for parents and doctor to known and recognize the precocious symptoms, and justifies sharing these features as an indicator with parents and GP’s to justify early / urgent specialist review, particularly in the first two years of life. Early recognition could offer a reduced risk of brain injury.

Purpose: Epileptic seizures complicate the management of childhood brain tumours. There are no published standards for clinical practice concerning risk factors, treatment selection or strategies to withdraw treatment with antiepileptic drugs (AED). Method: We undertook a case note review of 120 patients with newly diagnosed brain tumours, referred to a regional paediatric cancer service. Results: Data was available on 117/120 (98%) children <18 years: median age at tumour presentation was 8.1 years (IQR 25°-75°: 3.6-12.7), median follow up was 33 months (IQR 25°-75°: 24-56), and 35/117 (29%) experienced seizures. A cortical tumour location was associated with the highest risk of seizures (OR: 7.1; CI 95% 2.9-17.3). At a median follow up of 24 months (IQR25°-75°: 15-48), 22/35 (63%) with seizures, had a single seizure episode, 15/35 (43%) were seizure free (SF) on AEDs, 13/35 (37%) were SF off AEDs, and 7/35 (20%) experienced continuing epileptic seizures. Overall 34/35 (97%) were treated with AEDs after a seizure, of whom 12/35 (35%) withdrew from AED medication, and although 4/35 (12%) had seizure relapse, all were after further acute events. The median duration of AED before withdrawal was 11 months (IQR25°-75° 5-14 months), and the median follow up after withdrawal was 15 months (IQR25°-75° 5-34 months). Conclusions: Seizures affect about 1/3rd of children and young people presenting with and being treated for brain tumours particularly when the tumour is in the cerebral cortex. The low risk of recurrent seizures after AED treatment justifies consideration of early withdrawal of AED after seizure control.