In a chilling echo of past colonial violence, thousands of protesters gathered in a town under colonial rule in the 1940s, raising national flags and calling for self-determination. This scene unfolded not in Palestine, but in Setif, Algeria, under French colonial rule. The attempt by authorities to confiscate the flags sparked a riot, leading to the deaths of several officers and settlers. In response, the colonial army, alongside settler militias and police, bombed villages and homes where they claimed “rebels” were hiding, resulting in the deaths of thousands and the eradication of entire families.
Parallels between French and Israeli occupation
Historians draw stark parallels between these events and Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands. Muriam Hala Davis, a historian at the University of California, Santa Cruz, noted the hypocrisy of European liberation efforts juxtaposed against the maintenance of settler colonies. France’s brutal 132-year colonization of Algeria, which ended in 1962 after a fierce war for independence, shares similarities with Israel’s actions since the Nakba in 1948. During the Nakba, Zionist militias ethnically cleansed at least 750,000 Palestinians to establish Israel.
Israel’s subsequent occupation of more land in the 1967 war led to a prolonged military rule over Palestinians and the expansion of settlements, deemed illegal under international law. Scholars argue that the dehumanization of Palestinians is critical for Israel to justify its occupation and repression, both domestically and to Western allies. This portrayal casts Palestinians as a security and demographic threat, legitimizing violent raids, the Gaza blockade since 2007, and a separation wall in the West Bank.
Over the last 17 years, Israel has initiated five wars on Gaza, euphemistically referred to as “mowing the lawn,” aimed at degrading Hamas’s military capabilities. Palestinian civilians have borne the brunt of these conflicts. Similarly, during the two Intifadas in 1987 and 2000, Israel’s military response to largely nonviolent uprisings resulted in the deaths of thousands of Palestinian civilians.
The enduring conflict and occupation, much like France’s in Algeria, highlight ongoing issues of dehumanization and violent repression in the pursuit of territorial control.