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Debunking Settler Colonialism

(Aish) Dr. Yvette Alt Miller - Wall Street Journal editor Adam Kirsch's latest book, On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, and Justice, is about a concept that's become trendy over the past decade. The toxic ideology glorifies Hamas and wants to see Israel wiped from the map. He notes that, "In America, in Australia, in Canada, 99% of people are in the category of settlers: everyone who's not an indigenous person. That includes recent immigrants and people descended from slaves. You're saying the problem is not with a few people but with everyone." Yet in countries where the vast majority of the population is considered a "settler," there is no practical way to "decolonize" an entire country. With one exception: the Settler Colonial movement has seized on Israel as a nation where an idealized indigenous movement might actually succeed in driving out people whom Settler Colonial studies sees as "illegitimate" - the Jews. Calling Israel a colonialist state is nonsensical: there has been a Jewish presence in the land since ancient times. Jews began moving to present-day Israel in large numbers legally while it was ruled by the Ottoman Empire; and Arabs continue to live in modern-day Israel in large numbers and retain their customs and language and freely exercise their religion. The dismantling of Israel has emerged as a central tenet in Settler Colonial studies. Every single societal problem is related to the false notion that Jews are illegitimately occupying Palestine. "Israel is the only place in the world where there's an active conflict involving what's thought of as Settler Colonialism," Kirsch explains, whereas a violent overthrow of the non-indigenous populations of the USA, Canada or Australia is virtually impossible. The fact that this necessitates supporting Hamas, whose stated goal is killing all Jews, is immaterial. "Young people today who celebrate the massacre of Israelis and harass their Jewish peers on college campuses are not ashamed of themselves, for the same reason that earlier generations were not ashamed to persecute and kill Jews - because they have been taught that it is an expression of virtue."
2024-09-29 00:00:00
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