Without getting too lost in the details of what is a “country” and the philosophy around “Rights” and “Existence”, I want to talk about the means through which countries come to exist. Specifically, countries that are born through genocide, ethnic cleansing, forceful land seizure, theft and illegal settlements. Even more specifically, countries like Israel, Canada, the United States and Britain.
Those countries came about through two main factors: 1- Imperialism, the creation of an empire by conquering another peoples’ lands, usually through military force. 2- Colonialism, building on and preserving the conquered lands and resources by a foreign people, as well as imposing their own practices, attitudes and way of life on the native population. Colonialism also includes the annihilation and displacement of the native population by the invading population.
Canada, the U.S. and Britain were born during a time where people did not have the access to information that we have today. With all the information and historical evidence available to us, we still only have a partial picture of how these countries conquered the native and indigenous populations. We do know more than enough to say that all of these countries massacred the native populations of the lands they invaded, destroyed their resources and ways of life. They also enslaved and demonized whoever was leftover from the native populations, forcing onto them extreme hardships and injustice including poverty, and physical and mental diseases among other things.
Israel, however, is the youngest colonialist project out of the four, being only 75 years old, and established directly with the help of the other three countries (as well as other European countries of course). And today we have enough access to information that anyone with a smartphone can watch this project unfold frame by frame and second by second. Every single step that Israel is taking in its attempt to realize this colonialist project comes directly out of the playbook of the other three countries. The theft, annexation and settlement of the land, the dehumanization, enslavement, displacement and genocide of the native and indigenous people of Palestine, stealing the resources, appropriating the culture, all while dehumanizing and terrorizing them.
Following the similar line of religious logic of the other three countries, many Zionist Israelis claim that Jewish people are the rightful owners of the land because 1-they are god’s chosen people (their god of course), 2-their god promised them the land, 3-it is the only way to guard against Anti-Sematism. These points constitute the main tenets of Zionism, the modern political movement started by Theodor Herzl in 1897, stating that, far from being simply a religious or ethnic community, all Jewish people constitute one nation.
In any case, what is similar with all four countries is the use of political and religious laws to justify the conquering of land and the oppression of the native and indigenous population. But where this had seemed to work quite well in the case of Canada, the U.S. and Britain, Israel is having a much more difficult time in accomplishing its colonialist goals. Among the many reasons, Palestinian resistance, as well as resistance by other Arab people, and an increasing outcry by peoples and governments from other sovereign nations, has stalled Israel’s settler colonialist project.
This resistance has become quite the problem for Israel, one which culminated on October 7th 2023, when Hamas resistance fighters attacked Israelis living on stolen Palestinian land. And the way that Israel has chosen to deal with it is by waging war on and completely destroying the whole Gaza strip, and anyone anything in it.
The way that Canada, the U.S. and Britain’s approach has been to provide Israel with a constant supply to money, resources, and of course a near endless supply of military weaponry (especially the U.S. who, for the last 7 months has been sending billions of dollars in military funding to Israel). All the while cutting humanitarian funding to organization like UNRWA, while Israel blocks any aid to Palestinians by land and to a lesser degree by sea. The only aid getting in to Gaza has been dropped by air, in some cases either falling far into the sea, or right on top of Palestinians, killing them and destroying their homes.
Israel’s retaliation against the Palestinians in Gaza is being documented in real time, as a genocide and ethnic cleansing, with levels of destruction never seen before in history, during the last 7 months. And, as the time and Israel’s siege has been going on, more and more people have been waking up to the indiscriminate injustices that Israel has been getting away with.
Social Media, TikTok in particular, has been a great source of insight into and information about what Israel is doing. Facebook and Instagram, to a lesser degree and despite META’s efforts to silence and censor pro Palestine content, have also made it possible for people to mobilize and connect, as well as to share and amplify the plight of the Palestinians.
What we have noticed is not only the shift in the narrative and attitudes that people have towards Palestine and Israel, but also the futility of Israel’s colonialist project in the year 2024. As scholars like Richard Wolff and Ilan Pape have pointed out, Israel is caught in a historic impossibility as the project of Zionism is coming to an end. Indeed, I’ve personally noticed more and more criticism toward all settler colonialist countries. As such, everyday that Israel continues it’s war on the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, is another day it brings itself closer to its own demise.
But what would Israel’s demise even look like? Set aside the probability of an all out regional war with Iran, Hezballah, Syria, and Iraq, what would Israel look like and how could it go on even if it does succeed in completely annihilating Hamas and ethnically cleansing Gaza?
The whole world has now seen the extent of Israel’s brutality and utter and complete disregard for international law. Many countries, especially from the global South have called for sanctions and arms embargo against Israel. The ICJ has already decided that what Israel is doing in Gaza constitutes a plausible genocide, and South Africa is still pushing the case forward. And following Israel’s attack on Iran’s embassy in Damascus, and the killing of the 7 World Central Kitchen aid workers by the IOF, even their allies have begun to change their tune, although very very slightly.
There’s a saying that goes something like “a non state entity wins if it doesn’t lose against a state actor, and a state actor loses if it doesn’t win against a non state entity”. In other words Hamas wins if they don’t get destroyed by Israel, and Israel loses if it doesn’t destroy Hamas. And in this sense Israel is losing more and more each day. 7 months in and Israel is nowhere near ending Hamas, they simply want to keep the war going at this point. Hamas, on the other hand, has succeeded in showing the world the level of atrocities and injustice that it has been committing and continues to commit against Palestinians.
The shame from this loss is sending these colonialist countries, especially Israel, into a downward spiral, leading to more brutal acts against the Palestinians…that’s right, they’re finding new ways to be completely unhinged. Aime Cesaire once said “Before the West finally dies, it will become every day more snarling, more openly ferocious, more shameless, more summarily barbarous and it will disgrace itself completely, on all fronts”, and this is exactly what is happening. Israel has nothing left except to show the world the extent of it’s brutality towards the Palestinians, and the other colonialist countries showing us the extent to which they are ok with sitting back, continuing to arm and support Israel, and watching the genocide unfold.
Now back to the original question I posed at the beginning: Should any country have “A right to exist”? Following everything I have just said, my answer is: No settler colonialist country should have the right to exist, especially when it is founded on the mass murder, mass expulsion, and brutalization of the native and indigenous population. Land back, from Turtle Island to Palestine.
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