This is a writhing saga that knows no end. The saga of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Palestinian scholar Yasmin Daher speaks in an interview with George Yancy about the power of prejudice and its practice in the Zionist entity of Israel in her book Black Bodies, White Gazes. Based in part on Frantz Fanon’ Black Skin, White Masks Daher described as a structural and habitual way of racially distorting the world in binary and hierarchical terms, buttressed by ideological, material and institutional power.
The political roots of racism against Palestinians are tied to the history of the establishment of the State of Israel. Israel was founded as a settler-colonial project on the land of Palestine. Ontologically, Zionism was based on the negation of the Palestinian person, symbolized in the Nakba (the 1948 expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland). This negation takes many forms and dimensions, including imprisonment, displacement, land and home confiscation, cultural appropriation, direct killing, destruction of the future, restriction, and many other practices. The history of the Nakba, which has been extensively documented, reveals the power dynamics and control mechanisms employed by Israel to suppress, subjugate and negate Palestinians.
The repression of the Palestinian people since the Nakba is ongoing and systematic. The ideology of Zionism is heavily based on having the Palestinians seen by the Zionist Israeli occupiers through the lens of an inferiority complex. This is so they can continue the massive process of land seizures and evictions of Palestinians from their homes. The 7 October attack and Gaza war that was provoked by this is just the surface of the never-ending dehumanizing of the Palestinians. The right-wing administration and coalition of Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu is the extreme culmination of the systematic repression and brutality that reigns in the occupied territories. Having any type of peace would require the Israelis to give up those controls over the Palestinians.
The logic behind the checkpoints, which you mentioned in your question, stems from the desire to control, monitor and create an apartheid reality where Palestinians live in a parallel, albeit narrow and distorted world. For instance, Israel builds large, fast highways for settlers while Palestinians are left in a burning box for hours during the scorching summer just to reach their land, a hospital or a workplace. The checkpoint is, of course, a symbol of the master’s “superiority,” demonstrating their physical and material ability to humiliate the Palestinian. A Palestinian might have to wait at a checkpoint for permission from the master, who could be a soldier no older than 20 years old. The logic reproduced in Israel’s actions is a reaffirmation of “sovereignty”: Who owns the house?
The Palestinians have long faced living under the Israeli thumb. The world the Zionist regime has created in the occupied territories is one in which the Palestinians are the destitute. Have the Israelis ever been justified in the restrictions and checkpoints they impose on the Palestinians? There is no definite answer here. Israel’s relentless use of “administrative detention” and constant surveillance and the use of checkpoints have long been a point of contention for the Palestinians and the militant groups fighting for their freedom. The Israeli occupiers like Netanyahu and his ilk appear to love lording their brutality and narcissism over the Palestinians. But beneath the surface what will prove to be the breaking point of the imposition of these “security measures” by Israel? This is a spark that could turn into a raging fire that could engulf the entire region.
Meanwhile Netanyahu has not changed his stance on waging the relentless war in Gaza.
Despite the building fury in Israel over Benjamin Netanyahu’s inability – or refusal – to agree to a ceasefire deal with Hamas to win the release of the hostages, the embattled Israeli premier is sticking to his guns. The discovery of the bodies of six Israeli hostages, murdered by Hamas, has ignited disgust and anger at Netanyahu’s handling of the conflict in Gaza. But even after half a million protesters took to the streets on Sunday, and with a general strike on Monday by Israel’s biggest labour union, a senior minister from Netanyahu’s own Likud party has told the Haaretz newspaper: “It’s unpleasant to admit, but Netanyahu will push for a deal only when the streets are burning.” The minister added: “Right now, he fears [Itamar] Ben-Gvir and [Bezalel] Smotrich more than he fears the families of the hostages.”
Far-right ministers Ben-Gvir and Smotrich want the fight with Hamas to continue until the bitter end. These ultra-nationalists even support the recolonisation of Gaza and appear to be spoiling for a war with Palestinians in the West Bank. Netanyahu cannot silence or sack them. He needs their support to prop up his fragile coalition.
Netanyahu appears to be stuck between a rock and a hard place over the safety of the remaining hostages. Whatever move he makes could alter his political trajectory. This man a radical Zionist national is still a politician at heart, and is more concerned about maintaining his power at the expense of public opinion. The radical coalition partners Ben-Gvir and Smotrich don’t give a care to the hostages, their capture by Hamas is more of a means to continue the war so as to massacre the Palestinians. These men are just as dangerous to have in power as Hamas in Gaza. When you have a trio like Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich then you have to ask yourself from a country as powerful as the United States is this the form of leadership you want to support?
Israel’s ruling coalition is hell-bent on instituting legal reforms that would see Netanyahu’s ruling coalition in the Knesset overrule the Zionist state’s judiciary. This move had seen mass protests across the country against the government before the 7 October massacre. Now as the three most pig-headed and narcistic of the political class in Jerusalem continue their war it will depend on how the international community responds. Pressure from the global community on the political class can only help.
Article written by:
Yacoob Cassim
Journalist at Radio Al Ansaar
