Palestine, Our Homeland Issue #4

We begin by giving thanks to God for the blessing of this moment—to tell the story of Palestine as we know it, and to share our perspective of the world as we live it. We speak for our people whose story has so often been silenced, distorted and stolen. From the roots of the olive groves of our ancestral homeland to the exile of the diaspora, Palestinians carry with them the essence of humanity, beauty, and grace. Palestinians rise with an unwavering spirit, patient in sorrow, defiant in hope. It is our deep sense of duty—born of love, memory, and truth—that kindles a light within us, guiding us to stand against injustice and to speak with clarity and courage in the face of silence. 

Nelson Mandela once wrote that: 

“The oppressed people and the oppressors are at loggerheads. The day of reckoning between the forces of freedom and those of reaction is not very far off. I have not the slightest doubt that when that day comes truth and justice will prevail… The feelings of the oppressed people have never been more bitter. The grave plight of the people compels them to resist to the death the stinking policies of the gangsters that rule our country… 

To overthrow oppression has been sanctioned by humanity and is the highest aspiration of every free man.” ~ Long Walk to Freedom, The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela. 

Zionism, as a political ideology, seeks to establish and maintain an 

exclusive Jewish state in historic Palestine (i.e., from the river to the sea). As a native of the land, from a Palestinian perspective, Zionism is a racist regime whose realization is conditional on the dehumanization of Palestinians and ethnic cleansing of Palestine by the Zionist entity known as Israel. 

In the past two years, we have witnessed the unyielding spirit of the people of Gaza while enduring genocide and erasure by the Israeli Zionist regime. Though Palestinians are backed by the truth, international law, and solidarity of those who still hold dear the values of justice and freedom, the world continues to normalize Zionism, and with it, normalize racism. 

For over a century, governments and institutions have been two siding genocide in Palestine. Even the establishment of the state of Israel came from a racist perspective: that European Jews have a right to Palestine because of what they have endured during the Nazi holocaust, without any thought about the inalienable right of Palestinians to their own homeland. The past two years have revealed an uncomfortable truth: a Palestinian’s right to life is conditional on making the Zionist feel safe, on the Palestinian submitting to injustice and giving up their humanity. 

This logic is not limited to the West, it is also echoed by authoritarian regimes in the Arab and Muslim world who, in reality, are subcontractors of oppression repeating the same narrative out of political convenience. 

A striking example of this is the repeated invocation of the two-state solution” each time the Zionist entity reveals its true face of injustice and brutality. Governments, media outlets, NGOs, and corporate institutions rush to defend this ideological illusion that frames Palestinian self-determination as a privilege, not a right, limited to a mere fraction of our homeland. Rarely do they acknowledge the crimes being committed or the perpetrator of these crimes: the State of Israel. 

Many well-intentioned activists embrace the narrative of state recognition, celebrating it as progress toward justice. In truth, State recognition is not a step towards justice for Palestinians; rather, it is an attempt to save Zionism from itself by claiming that there is some room for justice for Palestine in an international system that was created by imperial colonial powers to control the rights of those oppressed rather than grant them those rights. What they’re really saying is, “if Palestinians can be quiet victims, stop resisting oppression, accept the theft of their land, abandon their right of return, and disarm so the Zionist entity (that has been ethnically cleansing Palestinians for a century) can feel safe’, perhaps then, we might give them peace”. 

Canada’s Prime Minister, Mark Carney, echoes this sentiment in his repeated calls for a so-called “Zionist-Palestinian state.” What does this mean in practice? 

This normalization of racism and of Israeli crimes is not confined to politics. It seeps into every arena of life. Despite global pressure from activists, sports bodies, including FIFA, have refused to suspend Israel’s team from competitions, blatantly ignoring the overwhelming evidence of war crimes and the International Court of Justice’s statement that, “Israel is illegally occupying the West Bank and Jerusalem.” (Advisory Opinion of 19 July, 2024; Legal Consequences Arising from the Policies and Practices by Israel in the Palestinian Occupied Territories Including East Jerusalem) As United Nations experts recently warned, 

“Sports must reject the perception that it is business as usual… Sporting bodies must not turn a blind eye to grave human rights violations, especially when their platforms are used to normalise injustices.” (https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/un-experts-call-suspension-israel-international-football-amid-unfolding) 

What the world has witnessed in the past two years, what Palestinians have endured for over a century, is not only the denial of a homeland and humanity itself, but the insistence of a world determined to normalize racism, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and genocide. 

Our governments, schools, universities, institutions, and corporations, have all contributed to this normalization. Genocide, racism and apartheid against Palestinian people has been legitimized rather than shamed as a crime against humanity. If you’ve ever wondered how the world lived on while the Nazi Regime carried a holocaust, or how people cheered on the KKK’s violence and lynching of Black Americans, just look at how the world is allowing Israel to steal our lands and kill our people. 

This normalization of Israeli state terrorism has forced Palestinians and their allies to water down how they express support for Palestinians. Afraid to be seen as “radical” or “hateful,” you will find many of us negotiating with a system that refuses to negotiate with us. In the workplace and classrooms alike, the priority is not to confront Zionism as a racist and criminal ideology, rather, immense effort is made to suppress the discussion of Palestinian suffering, It is referred to as a “conflict” or a “war,” instead of the blatant mass murder of civilians through state-sanctioned violence. 

In light of the above, we have decided to write about Palestinian resistance, in many of its forms. This Issue of Palestine, Our Homeland, is an imperfect one, one we struggled with, one that made us realize how deep the arrow of hate pierced our collective consciousness and how tightly the colonial chains still bind our minds. We found ourselves trying to explain, justify, and humanize ourselves for the world; to show them we are peaceful beings undeserving of the inhumanity we face, the erasure of our culture, land, and people. Through this issue, we hope to remind you, as we have reminded ourselves, that the right to life, freedom and dignity is inherent to us as human beings. As you read through the articles, we hope that we have taken a step towards breaking those chains and towards inspiring you to do the same.