Colonization confines indigenous and native peoples, not only spatially but also psychologically. Continuous colonial repression, subjugation, and attempts at erasure redirect the energies of those struggling for liberation to the immediate, and hinder the capacity to imagine possibilities for alternative futures.
The breaching of the Israeli colonial barrier that imprisons Gaza on October 7th was a decisive moment in the Palestinian struggle for liberation: It signified a colossal challenge to the power disparity between the Israeli regime, as colonizer, and Palestinians, as a colonized people. Moreover, it offered a glimpse into how maps and geographies may be redrawn in the process of a liberation struggle, and how the detrimental status quo might be transformed. Importantly, for a brief moment, it brought into the realm of possibility what was once unimaginable—namely, that the imposed borders of the Israeli regime, much like the regime itself, are both vulnerable and impermanent.
As we work to reconstruct that which we’re able to, we must not lose sight of the power of such a paradigm shift. Rather, we must use it as an entry point for re-envisioning what the contours of a decolonial future may look like.
Al-Shabaka Roundtable, Genocide in Gaza: Global Culpability and Ways Forward, November 2023
Alaa Tartir, Program Director of Al-Shabaka, Engaged Scholar, Global Citizen 