Text of my speech on Israel as an imperialist-supported colonising power, during the seminar organised by Garden of Knowledge, Malta, on February 22, 2014.
While addressing the United Nations General Assembly in
1960, Fidel Castro stated “Colonies do not speak. Colonies are not known until
they have the opportunities to express themselves.” Speaking about the
situation of Cuba prior to the triumph of the revolution, the same discourse
can be applied to the oppression which Israel, in collaboration with
imperialism, is enforcing through its colonisation of Palestine.
It is extremely important to define Israel as an
imperialist-supported settler-colonial state. Many references to the
“occupation” fail to take into consideration the earlier Zionist plans of
colonisation. In doing so, both Israel and the international community are
stripped of accountability in the oppression of Palestinians. Eliminating the
reference of Israel as a settler-colonial state creates an indirect form of
complicity in fragmenting Palestinian identity – an identity which should go
beyond Gaza and the West Bank. When we speak of Palestine, we need to emphasise
the integrity of a nation dispersed by Zionist settler-colonialism, and that
means recognising the early plans for colonisation, which Palestinian academic
Nur Masalha has traced back to 1882.
The settler-colonial state of Israel is established upon the
destruction of Palestinian land and memory. Of course, the Zionist narrative
justifies the ethnic cleansing and forced displacement which created millions
of Palestinian refugees since the Nakba of 1948. Hundreds of Palestinian
villages were destroyed and their inhabitants massacred or displaced. Israel
justifies the atrocities committed during the Nakba, describing them as
beneficial to the establishment of the settler-colonial state. What followed
later – settler-terror endorsed by Israel, the dehumanisation of Palestinians,
the theft of water, the use of Palestinians for labour in the West Bank and
Jordan Valley, the Gaza blockade, targeted assassinations of military leaders,
home demolitions, the bombardment of Gaza during Operation Cast Lead and
Operation Pillar of Defence are proof of a strategy to ensure the continuation
of colonisation. However, Israel has also been very cautious in avoiding
international condemnation of genocide. While Operation Cast Lead was deemed
genocide by the Independent Fact Finding Committee on Gaza, the report also
claims it did not find sufficient evidence to prove that Israel’s policies
against Palestinians constitute genocide – the term used was collective
punishment. Speaking about the same Gaza assault, a former Israeli foreign
minister once stated “It’s a bit like going to a dietician. The Palestinians
will get a lot thinner, but they won’t die.” This means that Israel is
perfecting its oppression – it will not risk calls of genocide, but it will
continue its oppressive expansionist practices to evict Palestinians from their
land.
The international community’s recognition of Israel is
partly to blame for Israel’s failure to uphold its commitment to recognise and
implement the Palestinian right of return enshrined by the imperialist
collective embodied by the United Nations. Israel’s widely known intention has
been to create refugees. In the case of Palestinians still living in their
territory, Israel seeks to create as many hardships as possible to encourage
further displacement. Although Israel does exploit Palestinian labour, it is
dispensable – just another strategy to break resistance, encourage population
transfer and embark upon further appropriation of land. This is possible
because Israel has twisted the narrative of nationhood and applied the
indigenous label to its settler population. According to a recent article by a
settler leader, Dani Dayan, settlement expansion is “legal, legitimate and
necessary for peace” and it would be “immoral for Israel to wind back the
clocks and go back to square one”. The Zionist state itself is an impediment to
peace. But Israel’s concept of peace is a settler-colonial state which not only
retains a demographic majority. The Zionist state considers Palestinians a
problem which should be eliminated. And imperialism actively supports Israel’s
ambition of creating an exclusively Jewish state, obliterating Palestine in the
process.
Similar reasoning has been applied to the plight of African migrants
in Israel. As will be seen, racism and
discrimination are institutional in Israel. Zionists claim that migrants’ attempts
to seek refuge in Israel constitute proof of the democratic nature of the
Jewish state. At the same time, Netanyahu’s government has been seeking
collaboration with undisclosed African countries to repatriate refugees – in
return for economic aid. Migrants in Israel are called ‘infiltrators’. Israel
has now passed a law which allows the authorities to detain African migrants
indefinitely. Thus, migrants can avoid prolonged detention only by consenting
to be deported to their country of origin - meaning that the Zionist state is
willing to collaborate upon further oppression. Last June, Netanyahu stated:
“We have stopped the infiltration phenomenon into Israel. Now we are focused on
the infiltrators leaving.” Since the construction of the fence on the border
between Israel and Egypt, the number of migrants seeking refuge has become
negligible – only two migrants were able to cross into Israel. Yet the rhetoric
about Israeli benevolence remains a focal point for its allies, who insist upon
describing Israel as ‘the only democracy in the Middle East’. Israel has stated
countless times that it does not want migrants ‘living on their land’. And that
discourse is not disputed in mainstream media, despite the fact that it is not
their land – the land belongs to Palestine.
Throughout the decades, Israel has increased its impunity
mainly because mainstream discourse about Israel is manipulated within false neutrality.
Edward Said clearly states “There can be no neutrality or objectivity about
Palestine.” However, neutrality has served its purpose well within imperialism,
as it allows a constant debate about human rights violations which are never
addressed. The complicity between imperialist neutrality and Israel disfigures
Palestinian legitimacy. It has prohibited Palestinians from a proper
opportunity to assert their history. Every so-called opportunity or expression
of solidarity with Palestinians needs to be assessed as part of the imperialist
framework supporting Israel’s settler-colonialism.
Having seen how Israel always intended to embark upon
colonisation, it is now important to see how imperialism, in various forms,
contributes to the colonisation of Palestine and the subjugation of the
Palestinian people. To achieve this, I will be focusing upon the United Nations
as an imperialist international organisation.
The United Nations has invalidated Palestinian narrative and
history since its recognition of the Zionist state. This means that although it
passed a resolution affirming the right of return for Palestinian refugees, it
has also justified the violence, destruction and massacres which Zionists
committed during the Nakba of 1948. And it continues to justify violence
against Palestinians by endorsing Israel’s right to defend itself. What the UN
should assert is the fact that Israel cannot claim self-defence for the
atrocities it committed through illegality. Yet every time Israel attacks Gaza,
for example, the UN continues to uphold defence as an exercise for the Zionist
state to perpetrate further massacres. And it does so, on the basis of an
allegedly equal conflict while Israel continues to deplete the Palestinian
population gradually, to make murder appear like a routine exercise in
collateral damage.
Since then, Israel has been allowed to infringe
international law despite the countless UN resolutions which are supposed to
safeguard Palestinians. The UN has dedicated this year to international
solidarity with the Palestinian people. However, the UN marginalised
Palestinians by allowing them a passive role. So far it is only a symbolic
declaration which has failed to challenge Israel’s settler-colonialism. The UN
is simply proposing pretence of compassion in return for allowing Israel to
continue its colonisation of Palestine. It is an extension of the usual
rhetoric of concern, seen regularly in statements which deplore violations and
yet still uphold Israel’s right to defend itself. Some might argue that the
international year of solidarity with the Palestinian people will create global
awareness. Colonisation cannot be fought only by awareness – it needs to be
fought from within through resistance, and internationally by holding Israel and
its allies, including the United Nations, accountable for complicity in
colonisation and the committed atrocities. Every international effort allegedly
attempting to grant rights to Palestinians is an extension of the colonial
process implemented in Palestine. The United Nations provides the perfect
platform for imperialists to further oppression under the guise of concern.
Another way in which Palestinians are subjugated within the
wider realm of imperialism is the dependence upon humanitarian aid. At the 68th
UN General Assembly, which addressed the humanitarian aid provided to
Palestinian refugees, the web of imperialism was evident. Israel portrayed
Palestinian refugees as privileged, despite the Zionist state’s refusal to
acknowledge the right of return for Palestinians. The history of colonisation
was never discussed. Palestinians were described as a humanitarian problem and
divested of identity. The insistence upon the right of return, according to
Israel “locked the refugees in a distorted reality”. On the other hand, the
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
(UNRWA) attempted a neutral stance, even expressing gratitude to Israel for
allegedly partly lifting the Gaza blockade. The agency is also part of the
imperialist scheme – it receives its largest financial contributions from the
US – the imperialist power which is responsible for creating the conditions
around the world that evoked the need for human rights to be addressed. It is
true that the US remains the biggest donor, however the financial compensation
it provides to UNRWA is nothing compared to the billions which Israel receives
to maintain its colonisation of Palestine. Imperialism embarks upon destruction
and plunder, and then offers a limited amount of aid to ensure the cycle of
dependence.
To summarise, Palestinians are refused the right of return
by Israel, which creates dependence upon international organisations whose
loyalty is already bequeathed to imperialism. It is an unwanted dependence – a
further exercise through which Israel can continue its colonisation and ensure
a demographic majority. The humanitarian aid provided does not allow autonomy –
it is simply a means of preventing Palestinians from furthering resistance. And
also a practical way through which the international community can falsely
claim concern and pledge help, to alienate the world from the fact that aid
only creates dependence, and aid dependent upon imperialist collaboration can
only result in maintaining the cycle ofhuman rights violations.
Another example of imperialist collaboration this time comes
from the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. The current
so-called peace negotiations, which aim at providing the means for Israel to
continue its colonisation, have taken a sinister twist. Should the hypothetical
two-state solution become a reality, Mahmoud Abbas has claimed that, following
the three year period during which Israel would gradually withdraw its soldiers
from the borders, there would be an additional interim period during which
border security would be provided by NATO! There is already a major compromise
in declaring the 1967 borders as acceptable for a “lasting and legitimate
solution”. Accepting a state based upon
the 1967 borders does not address colonialism. It does not address the
atrocities of the Nakba and the right of return for Palestinians. Even more
importantly, it does not address international complicity in recognising and
maintaining the colonial state of Israel. Israel is also in talks with NATO,
discussing a possible collaboration which would result in an Israeli
representative at NATO. In this case, besides the obvious subjugation of
Palestinians by Israel and imperialism, Abbas is also seeking to oppress
Palestinians through collaboration with imperialism by entrusting border
security to NATO – the entity which is responsible for genocide in various
countries under the guise of humanitarian intervention.
In conclusion, it is important to bear in mind that
Palestinians have experienced a massive betrayal – the main reason being the
intricate complicity of Israel, the Palestinian leadership and the
international community with imperialism. It is all too easy to view discourse
about international solidarity as a political step forward. Every step taken by
Israel, the US and the UN as an imperialist international organisation only has
one main concern – that of avoiding accountability for maintaining Israel’s
settler-colonial state and sanctioned state-terror. To avoid becoming unwitting
accomplices in the oppression of Palestinians, it is important to oppose
compromise, to oppose discourse which describes Israel as an occupying power
without mentioning settler-colonialism. We should assert that international
solidarity expressed through imperialist organisations is nothing but an
exercise in furthering Israel’s impunity.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~My book review of 'Beyond Occupation: Apartheid, Colonialism and International Law in the Occupied Palestinian Territories' (Pluto Press, 2012) has been published in the May 2013 issue of the journal Holy Land Studies.
The review may be downloaded from http://www.euppublishing.com
Citation Information.
Where I can write you, please
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Georges Vonelsass
georges@amispal.org
France
Please send an email to walzerscent@gmail.com
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