The war waged by Israel, United States, and Europe on the Palestinian people is the same colonial war that was—and continues to be—waged on Africans worldwide. After the end of World War II, the UN, dominated by European countries, created the modern state of Israel for the European Jews who suffered under Hitler’s murderous regime. This settler-state, however, was not simply created out of thin air, but was formed by uprooting the Palestinians from their homeland and creating a poor attempt at legitimacy by dubbing it “Israel.”
Israel is the biblical land promised to the Jewish descendants of Abram (Abraham) by the Old Testament God. For some Christians and Jews, the creation of the Israeli state is the manifestation of the same one promised by God. Disregarding the fact that Zionism was a political movement popularized by Theodor Herzl—an Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist, with the first Zionist congress (1897) and historically backed by colonizing states such as Great Britain—forcefully displacing any group of people is simply an act of war.
In this same Zionist congress, it was declared that “Zionism strives to create for the Jewish people a home in Palestine secured by public law.” This ‘public law’ is the same one that backed and perpetuated colonialism and neo-colonialism on Africans and non-European peoples in general. It was under this same ‘public law’ that Great Britain offered 600,000 square miles of land in Uganda for Zionist settlement. Western support for the Zionist movement continued through British support historically and U.S support contemporarily—most notably with the warm relationship former U.S. President Trump had with Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel.
After the death of Herzl and the years preceding Word War I, the Zionist movement began to spread propaganda throughout Europe in what is now called the “Jewish Renaissance.” During this time, Russian youths emigrated en masse to Palestine as ‘pioneers.’ This immoral migration continued to the point that by 1914, there were 900,000 people in Palestine. This endeavor was also supported by the likes of Baron Edmond de Rothschild, a French Jew of the bourgeoisie. In 1917, Great Britain demonstrated its continued support for the Zionist movement by pushing the Balfour Declaration that promised its support for the creation of a Jewish settlement in Palestine. By 1933, Jews made up 20% of the entire population.
British support seemed fickle, however, when it restrained Jewish immigration in 1939 because of the outbreak of World War II and the rise of Hitler. For Britain, angering the entire Arab world by continuing to support Jewish settlement in Palestine was just not worth the trouble at that moment in time. The end of WWII, however, and the Nazi devastation of the European Jewish population reinvigorated the fight for the creation of the immoral, settler-colonial state known as Israel.
This was met with immediate resistance by neighboring Arab countries which is now known as the First Arab Israeli War of 1948. This ended with Israel as the clear victor as it gained even more land and caused the fleeing and expulsion of 20% of Palestinian Arabs. Many wars (like the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War) continued to break during the latter half of the 20th century and the end of each saw the growth of Israel occupation and the waning of Palestinian lands and peoples.
It is absolutely crucial to understand Israel, the Zionist settlement of Palestinian land, for what it so clearly is: colonial terror on Palestinian peoples. It is the vestige of the perpetual war waged on colonized peoples of the world. Like Kwame Ture said, “Imperialism is like a sponge that is never satisfied until it has sucked up everything; in order to live, the Arabs are going to have to fight.” In order for all of us to survive, we Africans must link up with Palestinians and fight the miseducation and propaganda of the West.
The continued violence on Palestinians today must be understood as the same colonial power that murdered and displaced Africans within and without the continent. As Africans, the atrocities committed against the Palestinians concern us directly for we know better than anyone what it means for our land to be taken from us.
Homeland or death, we will win!