Colonialism, dissociation and genocide

The international community’s lenience towards Israel’s genocide in Gaza mirrors the complacency and complicity in the early years of Zionism. What we have seen through decades of Zionist colonisation in Palestine is the international community moving away from the stipulated human rights and international law violations to chart a new course of which violations can be debated, normalised and accepted.

As Israel announced its intention to completely occupy Gaza and ethnically cleanse the area from Palestinians, reactions from within the settler-colonial, genocidal enterprise varied from the outright supportive to partly outraged. The worst part of this compromised spectrum is that even the expressed anger still finds shelter in colonialism. And one cannot forget that genocide, in Israel’s case, is a colonial tool.

“We are finally going to occupy the Gaza Strip,” Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich stated. “We will stop being afraid of the word ‘occupation’.” No courage exhibited there, referring to Israel only as an occupying power is the image Israel tolerates as it normalises colonialism, which is what should define Israel. Smotrich added that Israel will not retreat from Gaza, “not even in exchange for hostages.”

On the other end of the colonial spectrum, the Hostage and Missing Families Forum reiterated that the Israeli government is prioritising “territory over hostages.” However, the forum added, “The plan approved by the cabinet deserves the name ‘Smotrich-Netanyahu Plan’ for giving up on the hostages and its abandonment of national and security resilience.”

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The colonial framework is evident here. What is the meaning of national and security resilience in a colonial context? The hostages were intentionally abandoned as part of Israel’s plan to ethnically cleanse and colonise Gaza. Let us not forget that Israel used the Hannibal Directive to kill its own citizens on 7 October – what does this say about Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rhetoric on bringing the hostages back?

More importantly, had this genocide occurred without the premise of eradicating Hamas, how would Israelis really feel about the ongoing genocide in Gaza? Would Israel’s settler-society link the genocide to colonialism? Or is colonialism, which is the foundations for this genocide, be completely excluded from the equation as it is now?

This reflects back to the truth of the Palestinian narrative, which has been repeatedly discarded and talked over. Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their own land for Zionism to establish Israel. On a smaller scale, Israel’s settler society has now experienced a similar scenario – the hostages are indeed being sacrificed for territorial gain.

Is it not time to pay heed to Palestinians when they speak? When they point out the colonial atrocities they have suffered since before 1948? Zionist colonialism caused 7 October to happen and Israel has been careful to announce its intention to colonise Gaza in steps that were purportedly walked back, only to resurface savagely at opportune moments.

Had there been no hostages, how would Israelis react to their government colonising Gaza? The dissociation between colonialism and genocide, or the privileges associated with colonialism by the colonisers, prevent a complete narrative from forming. And that problem is contributing to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.