Ramón Grosfoguel unpacks the narratives – pseudo-legal and pseudo sacred – that have been used to justify both Israel’s formation and the current genocide it is undertaking.  It is time, he argues, to reclaim both narratives.

The genocidal ethnic cleansing of Palestine is made up of multiple dimensions that are often not fully understood. Due to the urgency of the situation, our priority is focused on the activism against the genocide perpetrated by the State of Israel against the Palestinian people. This is understandable and very important. However, we also need to understand the multiple dimensions that are at stake in the struggle for the liberation of Palestine and the history behind this genocide in order to have a realistic politics of liberation. We cannot rely on the perpetrators of the Palestinian genocide to stop the ethnic cleansing of the territory.

Palestinians are an ancient people that embody a diversity of spiritualities and ancient cosmological traditions. They are the descendants of the ancient Jews, Christians and Muslims who lived in the Promised Land. European Ashkenazi Jews were not the people who lived in Palestine a few thousand years ago, but the descendants of a population that converted to Judaism during an ancient period of Judaic proselitism after the Fall of the Roman Empire. The latter has been documented by Israeli historian, Shlomo Sand, in his book The Invention of the Jewish People (Verso, 2010). What is known in theological language as the Promised Land, the foundational space of spiritualities such as Jewish, Christian and Muslim, is what the Torah indicates as the land that the Hebrew people once inhabited. Hebrew identity is not equivalent to Jewish identity. This is a big mistake in current interpretations of the Torah. Judaism as an identity emerged much later. These clarifications are important to demythologize the foundational narrative of the Israeli state.

Today, this land cries out once again for justice, putting all of humanity on high alert. In the past, the prophetic traditions coming from this land confronted us through sacred texts. However, in the present, the cry for justice coming from the Sacred Land confront us through the mainstream and social media. Once again, we see everyday in the media the “pharaohs” dominating and killing people. Although today modern “pharaohs” no longer enslave Hebrews, they rather murder systematically the Palestinian people. They have been living in this land for several mileniums. If thousands of years ago the victims of the Pharaohs were the Hebrew people, today zionist Jewish settler colonial elites are the new “Pharaohs” in the Promised Land.

Israel´s ethnic cleansing began since its foundation in 1948 as has been documented by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe in his book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Oneworld Publications, 2007). After the Second World War, this type of genocide was recognized in the international law as a response to the Nazi’s practice of ethnic cleansing in European lands, specially in the military campaigns to Eastern Europe. The settler colonialism that the State of Israel has institutionalized since 1948 consists of the illegal occupation of territories through the forced displacement of the indigenous Palestinian populations. There is a high correlation between settler colonialims and genocide. As opposed to “exploitation colonialism,” the objective of the Colonial/Racial State through settler colonialism is not to exploit Palestinian labor, but to take over their territories and assets. This means that the Zionists are not interested in keeping the Palestinians alive, since its goal is to physically expel them from the land. No colonized people give up their lands and assets to colonizers voluntarily. Thus, the settler colonial project is deeply violent.

However, this type of colonialism was not invented by the Israeli Racist/Colonial State, but has been exported throughout the planet for more than five centuries by the European colonial expansion. The conquest of al-Andalus in the Iberian Peninsula in 1492 by the Christian Castilian Monarchy represents perhaps the first case of modern settler colonialism. The same methods of colonization applied to the Jewish, Muslim and Unitarian Christian populations that lived in al-Andalus such as ethnic cleansing, encomienda, forced conversion, and epistemicide, were spread around the world through the European colonial expansion to the Americas, Africa, and Asia. This historical period that began with the conquest of al-Andalus at the end of the 15th century is known as Modernity. Contrary to many eurocentric thinkers today, Modernity is not an emancipatory project but a civilizational project of death that is constitutive of the current world imperialist system.

The responsibility for genocidal settler colonialism against the Palestinians falls, first and foremost, on the elites of the State of Israel. However, the genocidal process of settler colonialism against the Palestinians as indigenous population of the land began with the British empire. The 1917 fall of the Ottoman Caliphate during the First World War, became the opportunity for the British Empire to occupy Palestine. It was British colonialism in Palestine that paved the way for the subsequent creation of the Zionist State in May 14, 1948. Since the famous 1917  “Balfour Declaration”, the British empire began the official support for the Zionist project of establishing a “home” for the Jewish people in Palestinian territory. After the fall of the Ottoman Caliphate, the League of Nations officially granted the mandate over Palestine to Great Britain in 1922, thus making the entire “international community” complicit in the displacement of European Jewish populations from Europe to Palestine. The Zionist settler colonial project and the ethnic cleansing of Palestine began under the British empire way before the Nazi Project to exterminate Jewish people. Why? Because in Europe there was a deep anti-semitism that sought to remove the Jews from Europe and that reached its highest point with the Nazi genocidal anti-semitic project during the Second World War.

Behind the Palestinian genocide there are not only the British Empire and the State of Israel, but also American imperialism and the United Nations (UN) founded after the Second World War. The latter proposed in 1947, through resolution 181/II, the creation of “two States” in Palestinian territory, a plan that was accepted de facto by the Zionists and categorically rejected by the Palestinian people and the rest of the Arab countries. In 1948, was the year the Palestinians call the Nakba, the catastrophe. Close to a million Palestinians were displaced from their homes and territories through massacres. Jewish settlers, the vast majority of them coming from Europe, took over the Palestinians’ land and possessions. The hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who survived the massacres ended up in refugee camps in both Palestine and the Middle East. As for the United States empire, it has been financing and arming the State of Israel since the first day of existence in 1948. Therefore, the responsibility of Western imperialist powers in the Palestinian genocide is enormous, since they are the ones who have been promoting modern, capitalist, Western civilization by all means necessary in Palestine and the Middle East. In this context, the State of Israel is nothing more than the “mad dog” of Western imperialism that acts as the West’s policeman in the Arab world. It is the protector of Western interests in a region rich in strategic resources such as gas and oil. The geopolitical importance of Israel to Western empires is crucial for their global neocolonial designs.

Sooner or later, they will be held accountable for their responsibility in the genocide they have carried out, not only since 1948 with the founding of the State of Israel, but since the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 and the Balfour Declaration of 1917. This genocidal geopolitical project has clearly identifiable perpetrators. They are the ones who have perpetrated the genocide against the Palestinian people to this day and must take responsibility first. However, all of humanity is called to assume its share of responsibility for the genocide that is occurring at this very moment in Palestine. Each of us is being judged spiritually and ethically through the mirror of the Promised Land, forcing us to take a stand. Although we are not the direct perpetrators of this genocide, our indifference to this atrocity makes us complicit. Despite the cover up and fake news, the media has exposed live and in full color the genocide in Gaza before the eyes of the world. Therefore, we are all aware of what is happening in Palestine like never before. We all know that the leaders of the State of Israel have historically dehumanized Palestinians, treating them worse than animals. The intention of genocide has been overtly declared by the Israeli elites, many Israeli citizens and repeated over and over by Netanyahu. Still, the international community keeps watching the genocide without any move to stop the massacres.

The United States insists that the State of Israel has the right to defend itself and, therefore, has been providing it with media propaganda in favor, billions of dollars in aid, and diplomatic and strategic-military support. However, the “right of defense” does not exist in International Law for colonizers and genocidal criminals. It only exists for colonized peoples and victims of genocide. The violence of the Palestinian resistance is legitimated by the international law as “right of defense”, while the state terrorist violence of the Israeli state is not recognized by international law. The State of Israel is a colonial military power with nuclear capabilities that does not need any help from the USA or any Western empire to impose its Will of Power on the Palestinian people and Hamas, who only have stones, and rudimentary rockets (the Qassam 3). Given this enormous inequality in material military capabilities, I am unable to characterize the conflict as a war and, instead, prefer to call it genocide and ethnic cleansing.

Today, the State of Israel has become the new Egypt, while Benjamin Netanyahu is the new Pharaoh and Biden is the big Pharaoh. History has been reversed. The Jews in the Promised Land have ceased to be seen as victims and have become the executioners of a genocide. Now the persecuted are the Palestinians. The ideological justification of this imperial-colonial project is a literal and fetishistic reading of the Torah that betrays the spirit of the commandments, at the same time that it provides a pseudo-sacred argument to give strength and support to the Israeli military who are in the front lines to accelerate the genocidal extermination of the Palestinians.

An elite that defines itself as Jewish and pretends to be representative of all Jews in the world, is persecuting, murdering and committing abuses, torture and genocide against Palestinian children, women, men and the elderly in conditions of absolute vulnerability. Gaza is not an open air prison, but the largest concentration camp in the world today, with more than two million human beings trapped inside. In prisons, at least prisoners receive food, water, electricity, medical care and are never bombed. In concentration camps, the colonizer cuts off services and bombs indiscriminately with extreme cruelty because he seeks the extermination of the colonized.

Gaza is the Warsaw Ghetto of the 21st century. The parallels between the Nazi policies of extermination of Jews and the Zionist policies of extermination of Palestinians are enormous. Similar to the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto, in the Gaza concentration camp the Israeli colonizers control fundamental aspects of Palestinian life such as food, water, electricity, communication and the products that are imported and exported. As in the Warsaw Ghetto, they have destroyed the infrastructure. The Zionists bombed hospitals, schools, mosques, libraries, homes, government offices and much more with full impunity and the complicity of Western Imperialist countries. The cruelty of the State of Israel is similar to the Nazi cruelty in Second World War. They have no mercy because they seek the extermination of the Palestinian people to steal whatever portion of land remains in their hands (15 percent as opposed to 100 percent 75 years ago) and have the full support of Western empires. Although the Nazi regime lost the Second World War, Nazi ideology and institutional practices won the War. Nazi methods continued until today in the violent and criminal methods Western empires have used in the military invasions of Third World countries and in their full support of genocide in Palestine.

Therefore, the Promised Land once again places all humanity before a spiritual and ethical mirror. Which side are we on? On the side of the perpetrators of the genocide or on the side of the victims? It’s time to take a stand! No one can ignore it, since there is no neutrality. Even those who consider themselves neutral are taking sides in favor of the oppressors by not struggling against the genocide.

Western states are trying to restrict pro-Palestine demonstrations. In countries like Great Britain, for example, they are trying to ban the use of the Palestinian flag to distract from the Zionist genocide and Western imperialism. In France, the state banned and repressed the demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine, while simultaneously organized official pro-Zionist demonstrations. During the 2015 terrorist acts in Paris, 25 people were killed. Western Imperialist leaders (including Netanyahu) all went to Paris and led a march against the killings. Today there are more than 11,000 Palestinians killed in less than two months and no Western leader has said anything against the Israeli massacres. On the contrary, they are all supporting the Isreali genocide against the Palestinians with international declarations and the transfer of weapons and funds.

Furthermore, an enormous amount of high-impact fake news has circulated, not only about the Palestinian people, but also about Hamas. However, it has been proven that Hamas has not beheaded any babies and that the alleged massacre of Israeli civilians described by the Israeli army and Western media is not as it has been represented. Israel has published a list of the names of those killed on October 7, and the vast majority were military personnel. According to Isreali witnesses that survived, Hamas did not attack the civilian population, but rather the Israeli army was responsible for the majority of civilian deaths. There are complaints from Israeli citizens who escapted alive on October 7 accusing the Israeli army of shooting at civilians instead of waiting for them to clear the area. With what objective? That of accusing Hamas before international public opinion and being able to justify a premeditated genocide. In other words, they have launched a media manipulation operation of fake news to fabricate public opinion on a global scale. Despite the attempt at covering up what really happened, the entire truth has been made public. Those who wish to know the truth will be able to do so, while those who do not wish to know will keep their blindness. Humanity is divided between those who actively or indifferently support the genocide in Palestine and those who fight against it.

We find ourselves in a deeply spiritual and messianic moment: either we organize and stop this injustice, or we move unfailingly towards the destruction of life on Planet Earth. The production, reproduction and development of life must be humanity’s highest priority. We must defend life and stop those who have been destroying it for the past five centuries or else life on Earth is in danger of becoming completely extinct. This is the challenge we face. It is time to act. We repeat: either we act in favor of life or, otherwise, we contribute to its destruction. There is no middle ground or neutrality, since those who act from a supposed neutrality allow the dominators to continue with their genocidal colonial projects. If Israel consummates this genocide with impunity, the genocides in progress will be accelerated, the door to new genocides will be opened and the plan of the Davos financial elites to make a good part of humanity disappear as a “solution” to the civilizational crisis that we face will be accomplished. The Genocide against Palestinians is not just a laboratory of the American and Israeli military industrial complex to rehearse their new weapons, it is also a lab for the extermination of human beings.

But there is hope in front of us! After the USA’s defeat in the Middle East wars, the Axis of Resistance is stronger than ever. Israel cannot stand a simultaneous crossfire coming from Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. From an ethical point of view, the Palestinians are not only right, but also have the full support and solidarity of the people from all over the world who oppose the abuses, arrogance and cruelty of the Zionist state. The Israeli settler colonists are weak. They cannot stand a war inside close to their homes, where they are not safe anymore. This is why we might see the end of the Zionist state in our lifetime. Moreover, the rise of China and the multipolar world and the decline of Western Empires is rapidly shifting the world geopolitics in favor of Palestine. Given that the two state solution is obsolete, what we are going to see is a one-state Free Palestine with several faith and nations living together in peace.

In this spiritual moment in which we find ourselves as humanity, we must become ethically aware and decide on which side we position ourselves and where we wish to direct the future of humanity. Once again, the Promised Land cries out for justice and urges us to become better human beings. We must overcome individualistic modern egocentric subjectivity and become more merciful, supportive and community oriented human beings. Otherwise, we are heading to hell, that is, to the definitive destruction of life. Western capitalist modernity as a civilization of death has put humanity before a dilemma: we affirm life or we affirm the extermination of humanity. Palestine is a turning point. In Palestine, the future of humanity is at stake between the anti-imperialist forces of liberation that the prophets always announced and the imperialist powers of the Pharaohs, Emperors and Kings. Palestine is the focal point of anti-imperialist struggles today. The unipolar world of Western imperialism is in terminal crisis and in its decline it is becoming more violent and destructive. The freedom of Palestine will be a major defeat to Western imperialists forces and will support the struggle for the affirmation of life. The Palestinian victory will take humanity to a higher level of consciousness. Let’s do justice in Palestine to save humanity from the “phraoohs” of our times! From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!!!

Ramón Grosfoguel is is a professor of Chicano / Latino studies. He is internationally recognized for his work on decolonization of knowledge and power as well as for his work in international migration and political-economy of the world-system. He has been a research associate of the Maison des Science de l’Homme in Paris for many years.