The history of colonization is naturally filled with bloody conflicts between the plunderer nations and the plundered ones. All the different conflicts such as the British empire’s conquest of India, the slaughter of indigenous people in central and south America by Spanish and Portuguese forces in 18th and 19th century, the colonial presence of US army in its neighboring countries, and even the Algerian war of independence against French colonizers, regardless of the differences in their geographical and political backgrounds, share a significant commonality and that is how the aggressive, colonizing force has narrated the story of them.
To better understand the roots of this common point, we may need to conduct a serious study of the historical and literary foundations of the Western colonizers, but even by looking at the surface of them, we may be able to point out some key elements of such narratives. “Dehumanization” of the colonized culture and people, and “Decontextualization” of the events that have taken place in those lands are two of the most apparent elements in the colonial narration of its own deeds. An important tool for doing so is to use deceitful terms and phrases.
The Western public mind has a history of fooling itself and others by using deceitful language. It has used the word “freedom” to further enchain men and women in consumerism and worldly lusts. It has called its own arbitrary understanding of human rights, “universal and unconditioned.” It has championed the indiscriminate rule of law but hires “double standards” while reacting to similar actions of its enemies and allies, and it has shamelessly put the label “terrorist” on almost anyone who has not adhered to their expansionist wills.
The examples of using this type of language in service of and hand in hand with dehumanization and decontextualization are observable in various colonial narratives. It is seen in French writers’ accounts of Algerian revolutionaries. Such is also the case with Spanish and Portuguese records of resisting natives in South America. The reactions to slave revolts in the 19th century US is also filled with this type of language. They were all “utterly surprised” in the face of such “savagery” and “barbarism.” They could not understand why these “uncivilized people,” have “suddenly” decided to spill the blood of their white masters “without any provocation,” and resist against getting “civilized.”
This type of narrative and attitude was heavily criticized among intellectuals as a result of both power struggles between the European powers and the heroic resistance of the oppressed nations. The US colonial reach, which had no serious rival after the WW2 and the cold war, once again revived this attitude and language in the case of the Zionist regime — a regime that guarantees the colonial interests of US in the West Asia region.
The cancerous Zionist regime itself has been a colonial, usurping regime from the beginning of its existence. The burnt houses and people of Deir Yassin in 1948, the expelled Palestinians who left their homes in 1967, the lands on which the Oslo accord is being violated on by settlements, and the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood bear witness to this valid claim. Just like its European ancestors, the Zionist regime paved its way to domination by force. It has not fell short of any other colonizer in criminality by firing at civilians, burning them alive, killing their children, taking their lands, and pillaging their towns.
In 2006, people of Gaza were made to pick between a gradual, humiliating death, and expelling the Zionist occupiers from their city. The Gazan people picked the latter. Ever since, this well-armed, bloodthirsty nation has turned the Gaza strip into the world’s biggest open-air prison. The ones who claimed to be the victims of the alleged Holocaust imprisoned their own victims in the history’s largest concentration camp. They rationed drinkable water, electricity, and food, and, just like dangerous criminals are treated in prison, only gave exit permission to those in critical conditions — even that was not practiced and remained on the papers.
So, in order for you to get a taste of colonial narrative, you need to turn a blind eye to the lines that you just read and read the following lines:
The members of Hamas, a terrorist group, breached the concrete walls around Gaza, which is of course something that usually exists around every city in the world; attacked the fortified Zionist settlements, which is also the case with every other normal town to be fortified; engaged in armed clash with civilians in those settlements who carry weapons only for the fun of it; killed the totally innocent young people who had threw a party next to the most densely populated area in world. These bloodthirsty terrorists did not even show mercy to women and children. They beheaded anyone they could see on their way. Our proof of this claim is that we repeated it over and over in mass media around the world, and that would compensate for our lack of evidence. These ruthless beasts use their own families as “human shields” and spread themselves across the city so we would have to level an entire 2.2 million populated city to the ground in order to fight them back in “self-defense.”
The Palestinian nation and the Muslim Ummah have been the victim of such narrative and attitude for centuries. Now, 40 years after the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the sapling of resistance has grown into a mighty tree that has enabled the Muslim Ummah withstand the tides of colonial intellectual and military attacks. Their rejection of the colonial narrative has caused a genuine shock in the mind of the white master. The white master of this story should know that this is just the beginning of an era which may be called, a time to face the consequences of your own mistakes.
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