War on Gaza: Why Frantz Fanon’s words are more relevant today than ever: Opinion
Israel’s ongoing violence against Palestinians, including the genocide in Gaza, have left many searching for historical and moral frameworks to make sense of the brutality.
The works of Martinique-born anti-colonial psychiatrist Frantz Fanon from the mid-20th century offer a valuable tool. Although none of his major works directly address Israel’s colonisation of Palestine, they offer timeless observations about the axioms of political and armed struggle within the context of decolonisation.
From a Fanonian perspective, the war on Gaza is fundamentally a colonial war, coming decades after Europeans shattered and displaced a pre-existing community from their land.
Better known as the Nakba, the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine led to the destruction of around 530 villages and towns, as 750,000 Palestinians were made refugees to facilitate the creation of Israel.
The Nakba was not an isolated historical moment, but the foundation of a continuing project. Today, 77 years later, Palestinians continue to endure siege, bombing and deprivation – conditions made possible by a Zionist ideology that sees them not as human beings, but as obstacles.
