ISRAEL ISN'T SEEKING PEACE, BUT AVOIDING JUSTICE

In this 2023 clip, Irish Member of Parliament Richard B. Barrett contested that Israel is interested in peace, pointing to Israel’s long record of continued settler-colonial expansion as it continues to seize control of Palestinian and Syrian lands.

Israel was created to advance Western imperialism and destroyed over 500 Palestinian villages and expelled 750,000 Palestinians from their homes when the settler colony was established in 1948, known as the Nakba by Palestinians.

In 1967, Israel began its illegal occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, Syria’s Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula (which it gave back to Egypt after a peace deal).

The colonial occupation and expansion continue to this day. For example, as of 2023, over 730,000 Israeli settlers occupy the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to Brussels-based NGO International Crisis Group.

In this clip, Barrett argued Palestinians have a right to protect themselves from Israeli apartheid, as laid out in a 1990 UN General Assembly resolution.

To Pan-Africanists, Israel's tactics recall colonial methods that Africans fought to uproot: Land theft, racial oppression and collective punishment. Zi*nists had considered occupying parts of Africa before settling on seizing Palestine. Over the decades, Israel has shared counter-insurgency tools, repressive policing measures, and surveillance technologies for governments to use against Africans and grassroots social movements worldwide.

Therefore, African solidarity with Palestine is not symbolic but historical and strategic. Anyone invested in the liberation of Africa must see Israel's refusal to end its onslaught in Gaza for what it is: A refusal to end apartheid and settler-colonialism. Peace is impossible without justice, and justice requires decolonisation.

Video credit: @partisan_12 (X)