Palestine, Our Homeland Issue #2
We are grateful to God for this opportunity to share with you the untold stories of Palestine. Whether under the weight of occupation or the shadow of exile, Palestinians continue to rise with the same indomitable spirit, resilience, and graceful defiance. Our sense of duty fuels our spirit with a fierce determination to resist erasure and to stand up against injustice.
The recent ceasefire in Gaza was a historic turning point, marking the first time in 76 years of brutal occupation that Palestinians have been able to return to a home they were forced out of. After decades of exile, dispossession and systemic erasure, this return is not just a physical act, it is a profound declaration of survival, defiance and refusal to be exiled once again.1 Palestinians in Gaza are returning to lands that have been ravaged by the Israeli occupation’s 15-month genocidal campaign, to places where their homes once stood, now reduced to rubble. The world stood by, watching helplessly as Gaza was obliterated before their eyes. Yet despite the devastation, Palestinians in Gaza are returning stronger than ever. This return is not merely a reclamation of land, it is a reaffirmation of their unbreakable bond to their homeland and a bold rejection of the occupation’s dream of their erasure.
Since Israel began its genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, its military has killed at least 62,614 people and injured at least 111,588 others. Those who have survived the conflict have lost nearly everything. Meanwhile, in the West Bank, Israel has killed 905 people, injured 7,370 and detained at least 14,400 others.2
After October 7, most Palestinians understood well that Israel will do what it always does, which is kill innocent people and destroy their homes. This reaction by Israel is not by any means special to it. History is full of examples of colonists committing crimes against natives that resist erasure and expulsion.
The history of the past century in Palestine can only be understood by looking at the relationship between a colonizer and the native. Early Zionists such as Theodore Herzl and Ze’ev Jabotinsky made no mistake in understanding this relationship.
In 1923, Ze’ev Jabotinsky wrote what constitutes a seminal text in the history of Zionism titled the “Iron Wall” which outlines the belief that the only way to deal with the Palestinians was through military strength that is so harsh that they give up on resistance.
This was essential to the survival of Zionism because according to Jabotinsky “every native population in the world resists colonists as long as it has the slightest hope of being able to rid itself of the danger of being colonised.”
Jabotinsky notes that there is no misunderstanding between Palestinians and Zionists. Zionists want to colonize Palestine through immigration and to become the majority in Palestine and Palestinians want to preserve their lands and rights from being stolen from them. This is why the colonizer always looks at the native with such indifference because they see the native as a temporary obstacle to reach their objective. The native will always resist this attack on their integrity and security, which is what all natives do.
Jabotinsky summarizes the Zionist project by stating that:
“Colonisation carries its own explanation, the only possible explanation, unalterable and as clear as daylight to every ordinary Jew and every ordinary Arab.
Colonisation can have only one aim, and Palestine Arabs cannot accept this aim. It lies in the very nature of things, and in this particular regard, nature cannot be changed.”
Considering the above-mentioned relationship between the colonizer and the native, when Palestinians return to their homes in Gaza after a 15-month genocidal campaign, they have demonstrated a level of resilience that shatters Jabotinsky’s Iron Wall and the natural aims of the colonial regime, which is ethnic cleansing and expansion.
Many people may be confused as to the images of Palestinians in Gaza celebrating after the announcement of the ceasefire. In fact, the reason why they celebrate isn’t only because they survived a live aired genocide where the whole world watched as Palestinian children were getting killed daily. Rather, it is because as Palestinians, we understand that our existence is resistance. For Palestinians in Gaza, they understand that living in a tent on top of rubble that was once their home, is a crack in the foundation of the Iron Wall.
That being said, there is a systemic nature to the colonial project. It doesn’t end with a ceasefire; Zionism has only ever worked to consistently ethnically cleanse Palestinians out of Palestine and to perpetuate their exile. This attempt at erasure takes different forms such as genocide, apartheid, illegal occupation, discriminatory laws, and international policy with partners that will help maintain the colonial project.
The genocide in Gaza is a flagrant example of how the Zionist colonial project is immoral and unjust. The settlements in the West Bank are proof of how systemic this injustice is. Moreover, the ceasefire is in no way an end of the ongoing genocide in Gaza where Palestinians still face extreme deprivation of food, health and safety.
In this edition of Palestine, Our Homeland, we will be speaking of Palestinian refugees and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (“UNRWA”). We will discuss how the Zionist regime is still working tirelessly at ethnically cleansing Palestine by banning UNRWA and how Palestinians are still resisting erasure after 76 years.
Footnotes
Oliv Branch Team
