17 days have passed since the initiation by HAMAS of the military operation titled "Al-Aqsa Flood" - in response to continued brutality and occupation of Palestinians and desecration of Islam's 3rd holiest site, Al-Aqsa Mosque. But what is behind this all? So many have told us it was "HAMAS terrorism" and an attack on Jews, but what really is happening?
Since Oct 7th, there has been over 2,500 deaths of Palestinians, including 750 or more children, a low estimate based on earlier reports this week. The Settlers and IDF have demolished homes of Palestinians, shot and killed children, arrested and detained without cause thousands, and turned Palestine EVEN MORE into nothing but a war zone. In the past few days, we have seen Israeli bombardments of hospitals and homes, such as the Al-Ahli hospital, killing over 1,000.
We have seen Palestinians from North Gaza, 1.1 million of them, forced out of their homes, lands, schools, hospitals, jobs, and lives, by the State known as Israel, into the South of Gaza, being bombed on their travels there. This step of removal has also been deemed "impossible" by almost all humanitarian organizations, and the Palestinians themselves. This is an act of aggression, and one of ethnic cleansing. 2.5 million people will be forced on top of each other in an even more densely populated area than even before the declaration of War by Israel.
We have seen constant commentary by the media, universities, governments, celebrities, many demanding we must all condemn HAMAS, and therein, the Palestinian people; we are told to condemn the "violent acts" - painted for us as if ALL of Palestine is a violent "terrorist cell" - and to cry out for the suffering of the "Israelis" while Palestinians suffer and die every single day under Israel's occupation.
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Many of us remain confused about the true history and origin to this ongoing oppression, called a "conflict" or "religious turmoil" by outsiders looking in, and the fact remains that there is a history to the Israeli Project, and it is not one that is commonly discussed on our mainstream media channels, in our schools, or anywhere else. If we are confused, we should not sit back and let someone else tell us what is the truth! We should look for it, study, find documents and read, speak to people, do our research!
So that is exactly what I did.
I took reports from Empire Files, Geopolitical Economy Report, the United Nations, Al Jazeera, declassified documents from FOIA, Freedom Archives, and watched also some documentaries and videos up on Youtube, and compiled a list of connections and interrelations between the historical colonial projects in Britain, the US, and then in Europe broadly - including Nazi Germany - all leading up to the project known as "Israel". I plan to do a follow up podcast episode, but I wanted to get this all on a page first for folks to read and see the basis by which I am making my arguments.
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1st Connection: Capitalism
It goes without saying that from the earliest colonial onslaughts from the Dutch, the Spanish and others, that Capitalism was the fundamental conclusion to this process (historically speaking) and as a mode of production has become the mainstay by which these colonial powers have taken their stolen wealth and enslaved laborers to a higher level of exploitation. Many of the earliest colonial powers still dictate and dominate the world today directly through economic means, political control, social instability, or in bodies such as the UN, NATO, ICC, and other international bodies.
Colonial domination and enslavement have been mainstays for imperial control for some time, but now we had a new system in place to take the labor, wealth, land, and resources and turn them into an even higher profit. It was no longer enough to simply enslave people and kill them for land, resources, and agricultural production, but now that commodity production was beginning to grow and change from individual producers into plantations, manufactures, and factories. They became collective groups forced to come together and work in tandem to each create pieces of what will become a whole product, whether it be dying fabric or cutting it, sowing plants or harvesting them, whatever it may be, none of it was owned or controlled by those producing it themselves.
Capitalism is a system by which the resources, land, factories, laborers, etc. are all owned and controlled privately by a small group of wealthy and powerful people who go on to form governments, media firms, corporations, etc. etc.
From Britain, to France, to the Netherlands, to Spain, to the US, to Germany, all the way down to the "International Community" we have today, the system in place has been Capitalism: social/collective production for private wealth ownership/accumulation. Even including so-called "Israel" which is not a Socialist Jewish homeland but a Secular-Capitalist state with open Fascists in government, the military and the intelligence agencies, whereby production is owned privately, along with resources, wealth and the government administration (bought and paid for with a check signed by the "United States")
2nd Connection: Class Society
This one is connected to the above but if we have a Capitalist system, one based on the exploitation and profiteering off of labor and production, then it goes without saying that there is someone that is being exploited and someone doing the exploiting.
In our historical moment this societal control has been obfuscated and the word "Class" has been made a dirty word. But it is as plain as the eye can see! There is a class society here and around the world where the average person does not control the means of production, their government, laws, media, education system, etc. they are not guaranteed an income, health services, education, homes, etc. In Palestine, Palestinians have no rights, no power, are given no humanity by "Israel" or "Israeli citizens."
In the world there are those who labor and work to live, and those who live off the labor of others- I'm not meaning the unemployed and downtrodden! I'm meaning the bankers, CEOs, corporate heads, hedge fund managers, stockbrokers, and others with names far too annoying and corporate to learn, who sit in offices and have cocktails at lunch. This group of people dominates, along with the government, media, education system, Police, Military and intelligence agencies, the rest of us, and lives off the spoils of our taxes, debt, and labor.
3rd Connection: Genocide
When we look at the history of the United States, Britain, France, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, and many other nations we have to try very hard to ignore the fact that each and every one of these nation-states took part in some form or another of ethnic cleansing, colonialism, slavery, and genocide to become what they are today.
Genocide is a term used widely and with differing meanings, but we must say clearly that genocide is a clearly defined and recognized process, not an abstract one, but a material practice which all the European Powers, the US, Australia, Canada, Mexico, and other nations have taken part in, and many still have yet to face their judgement for.
Genocide is an intent to destroy in part or in whole a national, ethnic, religious or racial group, such as by A) killing members of the group, B) causing serious bodily or mental harm to the group, C) deliberately inflicting conditions on the group that would lead to bodily, or mental harm, D) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, and E) forcibly transferring children from the group out of the group to another.
In October of 2021, the US was found Guilty of Genocide on 5 counts against Black, Brown and Indigenous Peoples - Police Killings, Mass Incarceration, Prisoners of War/Political Incarceration, Environmental Racism and Public Health Racism. If every one of the former colonial powers had a tribunal of this sort, they too would be found guilty of committing massive inhumane and torturous crimes against humanity, called Genocide.
There is clear cut evidence across history to prove that the way in which land, resources, enslaved labor, colonies, production, etc. were all advanced and taken by the European powers was through genocidal practices, allowing them to succeed in their building of Empires. If it wasn't without brutal and torturous murdering, enslaving, segregating, not feeding, not educating, not letting people give birth, not letting people move around as they please, then the Africans, Asians and Latin Americans would have never been conquered. It was through Genocidal actions that Europe was created, that the US was founded, the Nazi Germany and Fascists in Europe came to power and, it is by Genocide that Israel has come into existence and stayed its ground- Genocide of the Palestinian people.
4th Connection: Manipulation
Whether it is the media, religious ideology, or what have you, the masses of people around the world have been lied to. Many of us, we say we know that it is "the victors who write history" and yet, very few of us recognize that we are living that reality/"history" today.
How is it that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, all these slave owners, colonialists, religious zealots and Capitalists have come to be made heroes? Through manipulation and information control. How is it that zealots like Theodor Hertzl or Ben Gurion, have become national heroes? Through manipulation and information control. How is it that Napoleon, the Kings and Queens of European Empires, and those great "philosophers" who justified it all, are still seen as meaningful, memorable, viable figures of historical importance? I bet you know my answer.
Two things must be clearly understood:
1) The history of Jewish and Islamic peoples/societies has not been one based solely on conflict, but in one point of history was one of brotherhood, along with Christians.
2) Israel is not a religious entity, but a political project funded and created by British Colonialism and then US Imperialism.
I point to these two things because they are the biggest foundations by which the lie of "Israel" has been founded. Hertzl and Ben Gurion did not found Israel, Britain did. Through their mandate in Palestine after the first world war and the European support for emigrating Jews to leave Europe and find a "homeland" in already inhabited land. Israel did not found a "nation for the Jews" but a nation of settlers, some who happen to be Jewish by practice or birth. The State of "Israel" is not a Jewish State, but a Secular-Zionist State. The difference being that Judaism is against the brutality and violence by which the State of "Israel" (which the Torah says is against Judaism as it forms a ethno-religious project, called a "State" for the Jews, solely) and the crimes against the Palestinian people; whereas, the Zionists called for this in their first conference in 1897.
The same way US history has ignored and cleansed the Indigenous peoples from the face of the Earth (and history books), is the same way that the Nazis tried to do so to the Roma, Jewish, Black and other "non-Germans", is the same way "Israel" is trying to rid Palestine of Palestinians, Jewish, Christian, or Muslim.
Conclusion: Colonialism is alive today, and must be defeated!
If we look into our history books there is much to be saddened by, and if we look to social media today the same is true. But we must not become depressed, we must not give up hope! If we do not see the actions being taken by everyday Palestinians as something to be hopeful about, then maybe we have our minds mixed up. Do we want a continuation of the occupation, apartheid system, and Genocide? No? Then what EXACTLY do we want? And how are we going to be willing to get it?
All Power to the People of Palestine! Down with Israel! End the Occupation!
End Occupation EVERYWHERE!