‘Long live Intifada’: Why decolonisation and protests still matter for Palestine
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As Gaza has been in the spotlight for a year now for the death and destruction wrought by Israel, Western media has often framed the narrative as beginning from just Oct 7, 2023.
For the West, the Oct 7 Hamas attacks “sparked the conflict” in Gaza. It may be more apt to refer it to as “recent conflict” instead, to acknowledge that the story goes decades back and has a layered history.
Under Israel’s settler colonialism — fully backed and catalysed by the West — Palestinians have been controlled, displaced, and killed. Their land has been occupied, bulldozed, and made barren. Their lives have been destroyed, dehumanised, and traumatised.
Yet, Palestinians have persisted. Time and time again, they have pushed against Israel’s colonial crimes. They have shown resistance — an act that is the basis of decolonisation.
This piece looks at the various forms in which decolonisation occurs in Palestine’s context — from the struggle of Palestinians to worldwide protests over the past year. The ongoing process of decolonisation is the journey that would one day culminate in freedom for Palestine.
Colonisation of Palestine
While colonies may sound like a thing of the past in today’s post-colonial world, the people of Palestine are not just under direct occupation of Israel but also subject to the violence and oppression inherent to colonialism.
According to a UN expert, Israel’s occupation is illegal and indistinguishable from a “settler-colonial” situation, which must end as a pre-condition for Palestinians to exercise their right to self-determination.
Settler colonialism is an ongoing system of power that “perpetuates the genocide and repression” of indigenous peoples and cultures. The Israeli occupation has been termed settler-colonialism with similarities to South Africa’s apartheid regime.
It can be traced back to 1917 when Britain — our very familiar colonial empire on which the “sun still never sets” — pledged to establish “a national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine, Al Jazeera explains.
The infamous ‘Balfour Declaration’ was included in the terms of the British Mandate for Palestine, which AJ describes as a “thinly veiled form of colonialism and occupation”. It was a carte blanche for the creation of a state that would occupy land belonging to the people there and use oppressive tactics and violence to maintain its stronghold.
According to the United Nations, the British mandate lasted from 1922 to 1947, during which “large-scale Jewish immigration” took place, mostly from Europe — changing the territory’s demographics.
“What the political concept of a Jewish state in Palestine needed to give it reality was to transfer people to Palestine,” the UN’s records note. They were to occupy a land that was not theirs.
Interestingly, France was also officially awarded its mandate over Syria and Lebanon at the San Remo conference in April 1920, which as history professor Carol Hakim writes, “helped establish an image of France as an archetypal colonial power”.
Coming to Israel as a colonising entity, it not only indulges in settler colonialism but also other oppressive tactics inherent to colonialism.
Elia Zureik writes in Israel’s Colonial Project in Palestine: “Colonialism has three foundational concerns — violence, territory, and population control — all of which rest on racialist discourse and practice.”
Zureik lists that settler colonialism is “intrinsically associated with the dispossession of indigenous populations through violence, repressive state laws and practices, and racialised forms of monitoring (currently referred to as racial profiling)”.
He describes surveillance as an “indispensable tool of governance”. While Israel uses AI in its recent onslaught on Gaza, years-old instances of monitoring tech, facial recognition and drones have been reported as well, including in occupied West Bank.
Another example is Israel calculating Gaza’s daily calorie needs during its 2007-2010 blockade, claiming it was to prevent malnutrition. However, Israeli advocacy groups Gisha and Hamas alleged it was to restrict the quantity of food Israel allowed in the enclave. These and numerous other methods to control the Palestinian population are also inherent to colonialism.
‘From the river to the sea’: Freedom means decolonisation
The phrase ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ is frequently heard at pro-Palestinian rallies and protests.
While this phrase originates from the 1940s referring to the liberation of the entire land that used to be historically Palestine, it has become a subject of debate regarding its interpretation, with Jewish groups claiming it is anti-Semitic.
‘From the river to the sea’ is a call for an “imagined future of peace and freedom”, “end to [Israeli] occupation” and “ability to return [to their historic land]”.
However, as Mark Levine writes in AJ, the other side perceives it in “exclusivist terms” — equating the call for freedom to a violent destruction of Israel and “dehumanisation” of Israelis.
According to Eleyan Sawafta’s article in Middle East Monitor, decolonisation in the Palestinian context aims to address “structural, cultural and direct violence”, which does “not mean dehumanising individuals”.
It is the long-term answer to the conflict which must be viewed in “a wide historical lens encompassing global struggles for freedom as well as the enduring complexities of Israel as a settler-colonial, apartheid and occupation state”.
Freedom for Palestine necessitates decolonisation to dismantle the perpetual colonial violence that existed even before Oct 7, according to Muhannad Ayyash, Professor of Sociology at Canada’s Mount Royal University.
Palestinian struggle to decolonise
Where colonialism exists, there also exists a struggle against it. And Palestinians have maintained their struggle against it for decades.
After more than 20 years of military occupation, a “spontaneous popular uprising” took place in the Gaza Strip and West Bank from December 1987 to September 1993 — known as the First Intifada.
According to the UNRWA, the movement was “marked by demonstrations, boycotts, tax resistance, strikes and largely unarmed protests”.
Later, a wave of protests and violence from 2000 to 2005 — sparked by the storming of the Al Aqsa Mosque compound — became known as the Second Intifada.
Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda, who recently won an Emmy award for her documentary on her life in Gaza, has narrated the colonisation of Gaza in a video she released in March.
“How come a coloniser who had never lived in the land nor his great grandparents steal this land from an Arab Palestinian Cannanite farmer — whether a Muslim, Christian or Jew?” she asks, while seated among children and an old man.
Referring to the British Mandate of Palestine, she says ‘mandate’ was a “legal term that embellishes the idea of colonisation”.
“The brutality and terror of the coloniser can never force me to leave my land, to surrender or to lower my spirit or voice,” Bisan wrote on X last month.
While the Palestinian resistance is diverse, many welcome the armed resistance of Palestinians, saying it is the materialisation of decolonisation.
Some even consider last year’s October 7 attacks as an act of decolonisation.
According to an article by a researcher from the University of South Africa, the “use of violence is unavoidable for both colonialism and (genuine) decolonisation” and decolonisation uses “counter-violence” against colonial violence.
Frantz Fanon, in his book The Wretched of the Earth, highlights how a colonised group is only left with violence as a tool to decolonise its land.
He writes: “From birth, it is clear to him (the native) that this narrow world, strewn with prohibitions, can only be called in question by absolute violence.”
Fanon further says that the violence that has “ruled over the ordering of the colonial world, […] that same violence will be claimed and taken over by the native”.
While addressing the ICJ in February, China stated that Palestinians’ use of armed struggle to gain independence from foreign and colonial rule was “legitimate” and “well-founded” in international law.
On the other hand, the West employs “terrorism” to describe Palestinian fighters, even when Israel’s military offensive has killed countless civilians, including children.
Global Palestinian movement
The Palestinian cause has gained support from all parts of the world over the past twelve months, since Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza in the name of “defending itself” against Hamas’s Oct 7 attacks.
From Africa to Europe, South America to the Middle East, people have marched in solidarity with the Palestinians who are facing bombardment, displacement, and death on a daily.
The humanitarian plight of the Palestinians and the barbarity of the Israeli campaign against them has prompted massive outpourings, even in otherwise aloof Western cities and capitals.
But the most vocal support — in terms of public support as well as diplomatic — has arguably come from Latin America, where many countries have borne the brunt of European colonisation themselves.
There are some 700,000 Latin Americans of Palestinian origin, living in fourteen countries of South America, according to a 2020 research published in a peer-reviewed journal of Edinburgh University Press.
According to an article by researchers from Denmark’s Roskilde University, the Gaza conflict has become an ideological position transforming into a global leftist cause. For many Palestinian supporters, imagining a free Palestine is contingent upon decolonisation.
Meanwhile, Pakistanis across the country have shown solidarity through numerous protests against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
In Lahore, Pakistan’s Progressive Students Collective (PSC) marched outside the US consulate in April. They were joined by diverse groups of students, social and political activists, academics, artists, and concerned citizens — all demanding justice and freedom for Palestine.
In fact, students have led many pro-Palestinian protests across the world but were met with strict actions taken by their university administrations.
The student groups were suspended in places such as Harvard University, Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania and other colleges. The British police arrested about a dozen Oxford University students and scuffled with some during a pro-Palestine sit-in at the university premises in May.
These vocal pro-Palestine protests have multiplied despite facing all kinds of repression. This raises an important question: What is so global and radicalising about the Palestinian struggle?
Muneeza Ahmed is a Pakistani activist who has organised pro-Palestine protests in Karachi. Speaking to Dawn.com, Ahmed highlights that the Palestinian movement “has been able to transcend borders and become a global discourse”.
The reason behind the movement’s global reach is “resistance and work that Palestinian activists and their allies have done over the years in different countries”, she says.
Marcelo Alves de Paula Lima, assistant professor at Morocco’s Al Akhawayn University, compares Israel to South Africa’s apartheid regime.
“South Africa is a country that underwent an apartheid regime that resembled a lot the Israeli state today. Indeed, the white settler colonialism that segregated blacks in South Africa until 1994 served as an inspiration for the Israeli segregation of Palestinians over the years,” he tells Dawn.com.
“Another sign of how the Palestinian struggle is part of a decolonisation movement is the decision of other non-western countries such as Brazil and China — both of which were victims of Western imperialism in the past — to speak up against Israeli actions,” Lima notes.
‘Beyond colonialism’: Roles of modernity and Western hegemony
Speaking about the West’s role in extending Israel’s colonial reign over Palestine, Lima highlights that Israel’s creation was proclaimed in 1948, which was a “moment when Western colonialism in Africa and Asia was starting to retreat”.
“Hence, many authors see the state of Israel as an outpost of Western colonialism in the Middle East in a moment when Western domination was fading away,” he adds.
Lima stressed that Israel did not only receive financial and military support from the West but also “intellectual/ideological” support. He highlighted how Israel was “often portrayed as an ‘oasis’ of freedom, tolerance, and progress amidst an allegedly backwards and authoritarian Arab world”.
“When looking at Israeli modernity — urbanisation, democratic political system, respect to LGBTQ+ rights, environmentalist policies, technological advances, etc — one must never lose sight of the colonial pillars on which that modernity was built (just like Western capitalism was built slavery),” he states.
Ahmed, the protest organiser, looks at the massive demonstrations through a slightly different lens that still ties in with coloniality — that of modernity and Western interests.
She believes that the Pakistani pro-Palestine movement lacks an informed narrative.
“Many people who show up to protests don’t necessarily know the history of Palestine,” Ahmed says, adding that the “outlook is more about Muslim solidarity”.
She further asserts, “Western powers, who have supported Israel, must be called out by our people, government and the establishment.
“In Pakistan, there isn’t enough political activism around what [those in] the US has been doing with Israel,” she notes.
In February, a US airman Aaron Bushnell set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington in protest over the assault in Gaza. The 25-year-old had filmed himself shouting “Free Palestine” as he lit himself on fire.
This act drew attention to the US’s unending support to Israel. Several US officials resigned following Bushnell’s act, in protest against Washington’s support for Israeli military operations in Gaza.
The US annually provides approximately $3.3 billion in aid to Israel. It has also shown unwavering support to Israel in the Gaza conflict with providing $8.7bn just last month.
Many argue that the pro-Israel lobby in the US is responsible but this idea overlooks that the US has its own economic and strategic reasons for supplying military aid.
Ahmed emphasises the need to understand “why Israel gets the support of the West”, which was absent from the Pakistani discourse.
The activist says: “One of the biggest reasons the US supports Israel is because they want an ally in the Middle East. It is also quite a bit about capitalism; that narrative is missing.”
“How can you talk about decolonisation without talking about modern capitalism?” she asks.
Muneeza describes the Gaza conflict as an “extreme military occupation and complete genocide”. She says: “Settler colonialism as a word cannot describe what happened in Gaza for the last 20 years, since Hamas [formed the] government.
“It is beyond colonialism. Gaza struggle is a struggle for survival, life, freedom, identity and land,” Muneeza highlights. She states that what modern capitalism and the US hegemonic structure have done is “worse than traditional colonialism”.
However, the global Palestinian movement is “not a decolonising one”, according to Muneeza, as “the aims are not so centralised”.
According to the activist, there would “always be a connection and alliances between people who have been colonised and people of colour” but, she adds, the worldwide protests and activism “do not necessarily show a collective struggle against colonialism”.
Muneeza says that the Palestinian movement is “more localised”.
“It is more about Palestine, which is okay. It is okay to also have localised struggles, and have solidarity between them, but it is not a global takedown of US imperialism or Western colonial powers,” she adds.
The colonial project is further propagated by the Western world, including the United States — Israel’s most ardent ally. For example, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has criticised calls for a ceasefire and also pledged Israel the support it needs to “win fast”.
On the Democrat side, vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, when asked if he supported a pre-emptive strike by Israel on Iran, said getting the hostages was fundamental “but the expansion of Israel and its proxies is an absolute necessity for the United States to have a steady leadership there”.
Argentinian scholar Walter D Mignolo points to the same in his book The Darker Side of Western Modernity: Global Futures, Decolonial Options. He states that the “colonial matrix of power is the very foundational structure of Western civilisation”.
“Coloniality, in other words, is constitutive of modernity—there is no modernity without coloniality,” he writes.
Way forward
The International Court of Justice in July ruled that “Israel’s continued presence in the Palestinian Territories is illegal”, adding that it was under an obligation “to evacuate all settlers”. In September, the United Nations also passed a resolution demanding the end to Israeli occupation.
While these demands cannot be forcefully implemented, they are an indictment of Israel’s colonial actions — now coming from across the world. They also echo wider support for Palestine as an independent and free state, forming part of a global decolonising project.
Human rights lawyer Craig Mokhiber, in his recent opinion piece in Mondoweiss, termed the UN resolution as indicative of a new era in which the “foundations of Israeli settler-colonialism, apartheid and ethnonationalism have begun to crumble”.
While Israel has been persistent in defying calls for a ceasefire — and is instead adamant on wreaking havoc in the entire region — international condemnations continue to highlight its rogue behaviour.
As protests and slogans have conveyed: a ceasefire is not the solution to Israel’s settler colonialism of Palestine.
An enduring solution and halt to the war crimes being committed by Israel lies in the creation of an independent State of Palestine.
The world must keep up its protests to amplify the voice of Palestinians so that the West — the torch-bearers of so-called modern values of equality and freedom — is forced to pressure Israel into allowing a viable solution to the Palestine issue.
Header image: A man carries a Palestinian flag, as students walk out of classes in what they call “one year of genocide on the people of Gaza”, as they demonstrate at the University of California, in Irvine, California, US on Oct 7, 2024. — Reuters
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