Occupation No More!

Image created by Zuhaa Asrar

 

By: Anshu Shah | Published November 2023, Edited April 2024

“For those everywhere struggling against racism and for freedom, the Palestinian people continue to serve as an inspiration because they have endured and remained steadfast for so long, refusing to give up and accept permanent subjugation and injustice,” said U.S. civil rights leader Angela Davis.

The Palestinian struggle will be remembered as one of the most pivotal moments of the 21st century. The blatant genocide and war crimes are disgraceful to watch. Since World War II, the U.S. has given more than $124 billion to Israel — more military assistance than any other country by far (Al Jazeera, 2023). Doing this while rejecting calls for a ceasefire shows the U.S. is directly funding genocide with no hesitations.

“1 2 3 4 … Occupation no more! 5 6 7 8 … Israel is a settler state!” chanted demonstrators at the UNC Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) sit-in in front of the South Building on Friday, Oct. 27.

The phenomenon of settler colonialism is the vehicle for the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The violent ideologies of white supremacy and Zionism drive settler colonialism to destroy entire communities while seeking to replace them with settler states. Through methods such as apartheid, land encroachment and militarization, Israel and other settler states have established themselves and removed indigenous peoples. The psychology behind these projects is to disembed indigeneity, eliminating the natives’ claim of being the rightful owners of their land (Wolfe, 2006).

“If I wish to substitute a new building for an old one, I must demolish before I construct,” said Theodor Herzl, father of Zionism, in his 1896 manifesto Der Judenstaat.

The Nakba, meaning “catastrophe” in Arabic, occurred in 1948 with the mass displacement of the Palestinian people and destruction of their livelihood. Between 1947 and 1949, the Israeli military destroyed 530 villages and killed around 15,000 Palestinians (PCBS). Now, as Israel calls for Palestinians to evacuate the Gaza strip, it can’t help but feel reminiscent of the Nakba.

“Right now, one goal: Nakba! A Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of 48. Nakba in Gaza and Nakba to anyone who dares to join!” wrote Ariel Kallner, a member of parliament from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political party, Likud, on social media after the Oct. 7th Hamas attack.

Israel is a very powerful tool for the U.S.’s agenda in the Middle East — functioning as a way to influence the oil market, support the military-industrial complex, and keep a long-term military presence in the region. Wars are profitable for the U.S. as weapons manufacturers and arms contractors benefit from the business and profits created by mass death.

“There is no apology to be made. None. It is the best $3 billion investment we make,” said Joe Biden on June 5, 1986, in a speech to the Senate. “Were there not an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interests in the region.”

As the U.S. continues to send billions to Israel and fund endless wars in the Middle East, Americans continue to struggle to pay rent, afford groceries and drown in student loan debts. Israelis reap the benefits of universal healthcare and endless U.S. aid, while Americans are told universal healthcare is implausible. Why are our taxpayer dollars being used for foreign wars and genocide instead of solving our domestic problems?

“We refuse our tax dollars, being used for Gaza’s slaughter!” protesters chanted at a recent rally. “Disclose! Divest! We will not stop, we will not rest!”

Student activists point out how the taxpayer dollars and tuition money that fund UNC’s endowment are connected to the genocide of Gaza. The UNC system has a $10.3 billion endowment, and UNC-Chapel Hill’s specific endowment is worth $5.3 billion. These endowments are suspected of holding investments, bonds, and/or financial instruments to arms companies that profit from Israel’s war on Gaza and in companies accused of anti-Palestinian actions according to the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) guidelines.

Student activists demand that their tax dollars and tuition money not be used in genocide. They demand UNC-Chapel Hill and the UNC System must disclose what the endowment is invested in and divest from companies complicit in Israeli-conducted genocide, apartheid and occupation.

“Our money is inextricable from the profits built out of the jets, bombs, drones, and surveillance systems that maintain the illegitimate state of Israel. The continuance of the university, and its status as a so-called ‘public ivy,’ is intricately and deliberately woven with the money of American imperialism,” wrote UNC SJP in their Open Letter to the Chancellor, Provost, and UNC Executives.

The idea of chaos and violence born from a post-colonial partition drawn by the British sounds awfully familiar. The histories and futures of South Asians and Palestinians are both quintessentially anti-colonial struggles, and the need for solidarity is greater than ever.

In the words of Aboriginal activist Lilla Watson, our liberation is bound together. Let us fight for it.

References:

Al Jazeera (2023). “US House passes $14.5bn military aid package for Israel,” Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/3/us-house-passes-14-5bn-military-aid-package-for-israel

PCBS. Nakba 60, pcbs.gov.ps, chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Portals/_pcbs/PressRelease/nakba%2060.pdf

Wolfe, P. (2006). “Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native,” Journal of Genocide Research, 8:4, 387-409, DOI: 10.1080/14623520601056240. https://www.tandfonline.com/action/showCitFormats?doi=10.1080%2F14623520601056240

Ghaddar, A. & Grover, N. (2023). “What Israel-Hamas war means for global oil market,” Reuters, https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/what-impact-will-israelhamas-war-have-oil-2023-10-13/

Resources:

These resources were provided by UNC Community Justice, Abolition and Antiracism (CJAA). We thank them for their activism efforts and their support.

Websites:

  • The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement working to end international support for Israel's oppression of Palestinians: https://bdsmovement.net/

  • Decolonize Palestine has many educational resources: https://decolonizepalestine.com/

  • Visualizing Palestine has multiple reading materials: https://www.visualizingpalestine.org/

  • The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in Occupied Territories: https://www.btselem.org/

  • Conversation with Mustafa Barghoti on CNN (through Twitter)

  • A 20-minute film that details the brutality experienced by Gaza at the hands of the Israeli government: Gaza in Context

  • “An intergenerational collective of activists, organizers, practitioners, creators, thinkers, artists, scholars, healers, water and land protectors, life-givers, and life-sustainers … committed to achieving Palestinian social and political liberation by confronting systemic gendered, sexual, and colonial violence, oppression, and dispossession: Palestinian Feminist Collective

  • “A multi-faith, multi-racial coalition that works to dismantle structures of oppression and state violence in the fight for human rights and basic dignity for all people in Durham, North Carolina, in Palestine, and across the globe.” This organization and its partners made Durham the first city in the U.S. to end police training exchanges happening in Israel: Demilitarize! Durham2Palestine

  • A visual history of Black-Palestinian solidarity by Salam Awad.

Reports:

Short Reads:

Books:

  • Khalidi, R. (2020) The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017.

  • Kayyali, A.W. (1979) Zionism, Imperialism and Racism.

  • Becker, R. (2009) Palestine, Israel, and the US Empire (free on Kindle).

  • Said, E. (1993) Culture and Imperialism (access free PDF here).