From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. Despite the way that Western media has framed the so-called conflict, what we are witnessing is the most egregious, violent process of settler colonialism in recent memory.
The framing of the occupation as a “conflict” is itself illusory — the Israeli state is built from and established through violence. The first Nakba, which took place in the late 1940s, saw the dispossession of over 750,000 Palestinians, with 15,000 Palestinians killed in the process.
There is often a call for Palestinian activists and pro-Palestinian allies to condemn violence on both sides. Honi rejects the presupposition that there is any parity worth acknowledging in this situation. It is true that all civilian deaths are tragic and violence against civilians ought to be condemned. However, without recognising that the colonial violence which Israel inflicts on Palestine is the originating cause of all violence, we implicitly legitimise the overt power of the apartheid state.
Currently, Israel occupies the Gaza strip where two million Palestinians currently reside, and the power imbalance between Israel and Palestine is stark. Israel boasts one of the largest militaries in the world, worth over $25 billion USD, and is supported by major Western powers such as the United States and the United Kingdom. After a continuous military blockade of the Gaza Strip — lasting sixteen years — Israel has ceased transport of all supplies into Gaza. They have closed all crossing points to the enclave, meaning that those displaced by the conflict have no safe place to turn to.
Despite this, the media — and Western allies of Israel — often point to Israel’s right to “self-defence,” particularly in response to recent attacks by Hamas. Hamas is characterised as a fringe Islamic terrorist organisation and framed as a uniquely dangerous anti-Israel threat. However, we must think critically with the ways we use terms like “terrorist”. Islamophobia necessarily plays a role in constructing the view that Hamas is the main brutal force worthy of condemnation in this so-called conflict. Though this is not to sanction the civilian deaths caused by Hamas, their retaliation needs to be viewed in the context of Israeli violence.
Is the bombing of civilian hospitals not a terrorist act? Is the denial of basic needs such as water and food not a terrorist act? Is the operation of an apartheid state not a terrorist act? Israel is a terrorist state enacting brutal violence on the Palestinian people. Resistance is justified.
If we look at the numbers since the conflict escalated three weeks ago, this asymmetry is clear. Though more than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel since the Hamas attacks commenced, over 4,300 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes. Whilst Israel has access to organised and well-equipped military, the Palestinian resistance has only basic combat and guerrilla warfare. Whilst Israel has access to food, water, and electricity, Gaza is left to starve and suffocate. This is not a war. This is not a conflict.
This paper is created, produced, and distributed on stolen Indigenous land. To advocate for First Nations justice in so-called Australia but be silent on those beyond our shores is to be ignorant and hypocritical. To fight for Indigenous justice here, is to fight for justice everywhere.
As students studying at a colonial institution, we have a duty to combat the systems and mechanisms of colonisation and commit to justice. As a result, we ultimately must uphold the struggles of other Indigenous communities worldwide and acknowledge that resistance internationally is intertwined. At our University, our student fees are used to fund partnerships that benefit apartheid and genocide; from “experience” OLEs to weapons manufacturing, our fees convert to bloodshed.
After a 3 year halt due to COVID-19, the University has resumed sending higher management to Israel for University related conferences. For a University that boasts to teach “leadership for good”, it demonstrates that its “leadership” is one that promotes settler-colonialism, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing. This is filtered down to the University’s recently introduced “OLES2155: Experience Israel” which legitimises the state of Israel, allowing the university to be complicit in Israel’s settler-colonial Zionist project. On the unit website, the OLE claims to teach students “an introduction to contemporary Israeli culture and society”, however what is not underlined is that this “culture” is one of 75 years of forced oppression and occupation.
It’s easy to feel as though we are miles away from this so-called conflict, feeling as though we have no power or strength against a power-backed colony. However, as a mass body, we hold power over management and whether we allow our fees to translate to corpses. We must continue to hold management under scrutiny and continue to mobilise and rally against bodies of administration that do not represent staff or students. We need to interrogate Zionist entities on campus. We need to continue to support groups and contingents on campus that advocate for a free Palestine — Sydney Staff from BDS, Students for Palestine, USyd NTEU Branch, the Autonomous Collective Against Racism, and the Student Representative Council. It was not until push-back from students that management stopped their consideration of adopting the IHRA definition of antisemitism — where the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance considers the “targeting of the state of Israel” as an antisemitic manifestation. Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism. Despite collective effort from bodies at USyd to fight against pressures from the IHRA, the University of Melbourne became the first University earlier this year in January to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism. We need to use our collective power to scrutinise all institutions across Australia that are complicit in colonial oppression.
To criticise Israel is nowhere near equivalent to being antisemitic. To be against antisemitism is to be against all forms of discrimination. We stand fervently against antisemitism and Islamophobia. Neither of which will be tolerated or excused. In the path to freedom of justice, there is no space for any form of prejudice. To be anti-Zionist is to reject all forms of discrimination. To legitimise and accommodate a state that was built on stolen land and continues to practice genocide is to be discriminatory. The mass murdering and ethnic cleansing of Palestinian men, women, and children cannot be justified. Apartheid will never be acceptable, resistance will always be justified.
When you step out onto the streets, you are joining a worldwide movement. Your actions are not confined to Town Hall or Hyde Park. These marches are reverberated across the globe, adding to the collective voice that challenges hegemonic Western media and Zionist ideals that permeate our society. This solidarity does not end when Western media stops broadcasting violence in Gaza. Or Jenin. Or Nablus. Or Sheikh Jarrah. This solidarity does not end until all of Palestine is free. This solidarity does not end until all Indigenous lands achieve justice and freedom.
Franz Fanon once said, “I am a patriot of all the oppressed peoples in the world.” This patriotism is an integral form of activist thought as it means that the global struggle of Indigenous people for their land is sacrosanct in one’s thinking of the world. Amidst the current attacks on Gaza and easily the second Nakba, we are losing sight of things more and more. We assume you feel as hopeless and angry as we do every day but there’s an innate privilege in experiencing this sadness from the comfort of this relatively peaceful colony of Australia.
From Gadigal to Gaza, from Wiradjuri to the West Bank, from your Nakba to our Invasion Day — we are united in solidarity with the struggle for liberation and decolonisation.
