Resisting Erasure: Capitalism, Imperialism and Race in Palestine

One statement the authors make in the introduction to Resisting Erasure: Capitalism, Imperialism and Race in Palestine (Verso Books, 2025) encapsulates book’s essence: “We hope to de-exceptionalise the question of Palestine.” The prevailing concepts of the Zionist colonisation of Palestine do not consider the wider imperialist context. Religious conflict, the image of Israel upholding Western democracy and the humanitarian paradigm are either intrinsically flawed or, in the case of the latter, depoliticising Palestine and Palestinians.

As the book makes the case for settler-colonialism and dispossession, Hanieh, Knox and Ziadeh state, “for settler-colonialism to have analytical strength, it must be framed as one form of the broader expansion of European capitalism.” The book shows how European colonialists justified their plunder of non-capitalist societies through racial superiority over the indigenous which, as seen in the case of Palestinians, facilitates subjugation of the people and legitimises colonial violence through the colonial framework.

To understand Palestine through the capitalist exploitation, the authors stress that “Palestine needs to be grounded in an understanding of the Middle East and its place in an oil-centred global capitalism.” After World War II, oil replaced coal as the most sought after fossil fuel, and the US became the world’s leading super power. Against a backdrop of US interference in the region post-war, US support for Israel increased, particularly after June 1967. US support for Israel, the authors note, is directly linked to the latter’s settler-colonial character, with benefits for both. While Israel requires US support to maintain its colonisation of Palestine, Israel safeguards the US from regional threats. Globally and historically, Israel also supported US interference in other countries.  The US War on Terror created another permanent racial narrative in which the US sought to integrate Israel into the Middle East through normalisation.

The current political scenario is contextualised within the historical framework, notably the 1948 Nakba, the 1967 Naksa, the Oslo Accords, the Intifadas and the creation of the Palestinian Authority. Central to these is how Israel’s ongoing expansion and the altering of Palestinian labour, economics, class and society, have contributed to the erasure of Palestinians.

The Oslo Accords, particularly, subjugated Palestinians further to Israeli control due to the limited powers bequeathed to the PA, increased settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, and the implementation of a system in which all Palestinian independence and autonomy was eroded. The PA’s security forces increased Israel’s control over the Palestinian population. As the authors write, “The PA security forces, funded and openly trained by Western military and intelligence agencies, received the largest component of the Palestinian budget.”

As colonialism and capitalists restricted Palestine’s economy, the Palestinian capitalist class flourished through connections with the PA and Israel, creating further inequality within Palestinian society and advancing neoliberal policies.

Meanwhile, framing the Second Intifada as the end of the peace process does not address the fact that the Oslo Accords were designed to entrench Israel’s control over the Palestinians and, as a result, further erode both people and their anti-colonial struggle. Notably, “Oslo also pushed aside the key demand of the Palestinian struggle – the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and land, normalising an illusory pragmatism rather than tackling the foundational roots of Palestinian exile.”

Neoliberalism is also seen in the context of the 2005 disengagement from Gaza under Ariel Sharon, which increased Palestinian dependence on humanitarian aid as Israel tightened its restrictions and imposed an illegal blockade, thus facilitating the strip becoming a testing ground for colonial dominance. The Oslo process, the authors note, is “in clear continuity with what exists today: a direct thread connects the 1990s to the 2023-24 Israeli genocide in Gaza.”

“The exclusion of Palestinians,” the book states, “is not just a byproduct of Israeli state policy – it is foundational to its existence.” Israel’s settler-colonial capitalism is based on its racialisation of Palestinians, and this in turn fuels global racism against Palestinians. Which is why, the authors argue, Palestinian solidarity requires a consciousness that prevents the isolation of Palestine. Minorities worldwide are curtailed by the same politics and technology that Palestinians face daily, which points towards the global capitalism order supporting the colonisation of Palestine.

The book also shows how racism and dispossession of the indigenous by the European colonisers was “directly codified in the League of Nations Mandate System”. Under the guise of advancing countries, European colonialism expanded its projects in the Middle East. The Balfour Declaration is one example of racial superiority applied against the Palestinian people, and through which, after the Nakba, various forms of control and subjugation ensued, leading to the security narrative that Israel perpetuates worldwide to justify its colonial violence, as well as genocide, against the Palestinian people. This discourse is also largely disseminated by the US, which in turn frames anti-colonial resistance and Palestinian solidarity as support for terror, while forcing activists worldwide into maintaining a ‘balanced’ language that feeds into the diplomacy serving Israel’s colonial expansion.

Keeping in mind the global dynamics with which Israeli colonialism is intertwined and vice versa, Palestinian liberation also confronts the same dynamic. This ties in to Ghassan Kanafani’s analysis of colonialism and imperialism and places Palestinians in a central position not only to understand the current politics, but also as a realisation of the wider struggle that needs to be fought.