An anti-colonial struggle is one in which an oppressed nation seeks to liberate itself from the shackles of imperialism and the violence that accompanies it. Cuba and Spain. Haiti and France. Kenya and Great Britain. Given the events of the last 75 plus years in the Middle East, it is appropriate to add Palestine and Israel to this list. Since its creation in 1948, the state of Israel has enforced a long, slow and painful death on the people of Palestine with the explicit backing of powerful western nations such as the United States and the United Kingdom. Millions of Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to live in the world’s largest open air prison with nowhere to escape repeating Israeli state violence.
None of this is to say that Palestinian actors such as Hamas are blameless. Hamas’ tactics of kidnapping civilians are reprehensible and should be condemned universally. Hamas, however, is a terrorist organization with relatively limited power and few backers. Israel is a fully developed state with an army and an air force that also receives billions of dollars in aid from the United States alone. This is not even close to a symmetrical power dynamic, which explains why the people of Palestine are suffering under the yoke of Israeli colonialism.
Many of the deplorable conditions that exist in Palestine, and especially the Gaza Strip, are the direct result of Israeli policies and decisions that are designed to decrease quality of life for the Palestinian people. Since 2007, Israel has imposed an embargo on Gaza by land, air and sea which serves as a form of state-enforced retribution for Gaza’s entire population. Meanwhile, nearly 50 percent of Gaza’s population is under 18-years-old and will likely suffer a serious children’s rights crisis due to the current conflict. Palestinians in Gaza can only receive essential supplies such as food, water, hospital supplies and electricity if Israel permits them to. After Hamas took Israeli civilians as captives in the recent attacks, the Israeli government turned off the power and water supply to the Gaza strip. The consequences of this will likely be horrific for people in Gaza who have nothing to do with Hamas and amount to a cruel form of collective punishment. Hospitals will be undersupplied as Israel enacts a bombing campaign that will result in thousands of fatalities. Internet access in Gaza will be highly limited and clean water and food will be extremely difficult to come by.
In a move that will surely exacerbate these long-existing tragedies, Israel’s current right-wing government is using its own intelligence failure to justify a military campaign that will lead to the deaths of thousands of innocent Palestinians. Days before the attack, United States intelligence agencies attempted to alert Israel’s government of a growing threat from Hamas. After Hamas’ attack on Israel, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) general in charge of activities in Palestine stated that Hamas had “opened the gates of hell.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said that Israel would “return fire of a magnitude that the enemy has not known.” So far, the IDF’s response has lived up to these grim promises. Human Rights Watch has reported that Israel had used white phosphorus in attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, which would constitute a violation of international humanitarian law. The Israeli Air Force has also devastated Gaza with bombing that has already killed more than 1,500 Palestinians at the time of writing, including 500 children. This number will most likely continue to rise.
The disparity in power between Palestine and Israel is typical of a colonial dynamic. Israel has a fully staffed and well-equipped army and air force. Meanwhile, Palestine has no army or air force. Hamas can fire rockets into Israel, but Israel’s Iron Dome defense system is typically highly effective at intercepting incoming rockets before they can make an impact. The Iron Dome intercepted most of the rockets launched by Hamas in the recent offensive. Palestine has no such advanced defense system. While Israel receives billions in aid from the United States annually, Palestine received about 500 million dollars from the United States from April 2021 to March 2022. This represents about an eighth of the value of the aid package the United States is preparing to send to Israel right now. In a further reflection of this imbalance in power, United Nations data shows that far more Palestinians than Israelis have died since 2008. There is simply no way to describe Israel other than as a colonial state due to the obvious power it holds over all aspects of the lives of Palestinian people.
In the coming days and weeks, American media and politicians will demonize the Palestinian people and paint them as the villains in this conflict. The lines between Hamas — a terrorist group — and the Palestinian people will be blurred and obfuscated. This narrative is plainly untrue, no matter how much it is parroted and drilled into American minds. The Palestinian people have struggled under the cruelty of Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid for far too long. It is time to recognize this reality and support their struggle for freedom.
Theodore Brita is a senior majoring in political science.