Israel and its supporters: A shared history of “colonial migration”

With the issue of Palestine now plastered on the front pages of media outlets across the world, many have found the unequivocal support of Israel’s supposed friends and backers, more revolting than the regime’s heinous crimes against Palestinian civilians.

For many years, we have spoken and written about the crimes of the Zionist regime, but we have paid less attention to its supporters and friends.

Among English speakers, it is famous that “no friendship is an accident” and that “a real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.” We have also constantly heard in our own(Iranian) culture that a person is known by their friends, so judge them by their friends. With this logic, we must ask what kind of relationship Israel has with the West that makes politicians belonging to Western countries willing to give up their dignity by acting in contrast to their constant claims of human rights and the right of self-determination for nations?

The United States, Canada, England, Australia, Germany and France have been the main supporters of Israel for many years, particularly during the recent days of conflict between Palestinians and Israel.

Has the powerful Israeli lobby in the West helped with Western politicians’ backing of the regime, or do the West and Israel have common interests in West Asia? Perhaps these interests are so important that it allows the U.S. and its allies to perceive the ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians as an Israeli right. Some of them seem to believe that Israel’s recent war crimes against the besieged Gaza strip can be seen as a natural response aimed to combat “Islamist extremists” and “terror groups”.

We might be able to find some of these assumptions to be true. Perhaps the West does have a vested interest in the continuation of Israel’s occupation of Gaza. But I believe that the West’s unapologetic bias would still prevail if no interests were at stake or if Israel did not have a powerful lobby in the West. There is a hidden factor that binds the emotions of Israel and its supporters deep within their existence. What is this hidden factor you ask? A shared historical experience!

Almost all of these countries’ histories have a intrinsic relationship with massacre, colonization, enslavement, and displacement of indigenous peoples.

In fact, their history begins or matures with these concepts, and it is here that we can better understand that friendship between Israel and its supporters is not coincidental, but rather “settler colonialism” is the unique characteristic of their historical identity.

The issue of colonialism in this form, which is the most brutal form possible, is not about looting the resources of a land or even exploiting and profiting from its people, but rather about the life and existence of the indigenous people of a land. Elan Papé, an Israeli historian who has been critical of Zionism for years, describes this phenomenon as follows: “Settler colonialism is the migration of individuals in search of a new identity and place to live, and for this purpose they go to lands where indigenous people live, and it is not limited to Palestine alone. This event has also occurred in America, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, where white settlers have been able to seize lands and replace themselves with the indigenous inhabitants through various methods, and often through genocide.”

In the context of applying this tragic situation to a historical example, American historian John Mason, in his book “A Brief History of the Pequot War,” shows how Europeans engaged in the massacre of Native Americans upon entering America. They resorted to tactics such as spreading deadly diseases, forced displacement, destruction of homes, and enslaving the survivors, ultimately annihilating the Native American population under the justification that they were a superior race and the other was inferior. Undoubtedly, this historical narrative echoes a similar event that we have been witnessing in recent days, years, and perhaps decades, and now we can more comfortably understand that “Israel is a proponent of a kind of colonial theology that has evident roots in the savage history of the West, and today it cannot be justified except as a form of genocide with the support of its backers who have deep links with such history.”