The Western Imperial Influence in Indigenous Palestine

Zionism. It’s a political ideology which dates back to the 19th century, wishing to establish a Jewish ethno-state in the land of Palestine, of which existed a minority of indigenous Jews, at the time. This movement was particularly motivated post-nazism with 249,000 Jewish settlers migrating to Israel in 1949 - seventy two years later, statistics show that around 43% of the worlds Jews live in Israel. This sort of usurp and annexation of land cannot be achieved by a single political ideology at the wheel, there has to be some passengers, which raises the question - what role did the West (particularly Britain and the United States) play in fuelling the zionist movement and establishing a Jewish ‘homeland’? Starting with the Balfour Declaration, President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as ‘Israel’s capital,’ mass funding, and trade of arms from Britain and the U.S to Israel, it becomes a clear axiom that Britain and the U.S hold the gun with their Israeli allies…

The Balfour Declaration dates back to 2nd November 1917 whereby the British foreign secretary at the time, Arthur James Balfour, sent a letter to the Angelo-Jewish community promising full support of the establishment of a Jewish ethnic state in Palestine, this was primarily motivated by MP Lord Shaftesbury, who prior to the declaration, in the late 19th century state campaigned for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. He realised that ultimately, advocation wouldn’t cut it, so to speak and instead Britain would have to actively act as imperialism assistants - thus prompting the Balfour Declaration. This resulted in a British mandate in Palestine between 1917 and 1948, where around 750,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes during the Jewish-Arab war in 1948 (of which 350,000 still cannot access their homes, villages and land, as these are occupied by settlers within the post-1948 Israel borders) — which saw a major establishment of Jewish land in Palestine, ultimately a feature of the declaration which looked to establish a 90% occupation of Palestinian land. With the mandate and declaration in place, this also granted access for Israel to form its own governing institutions in preparation for the establishment of the ethno-state (thus preparing for the mass exodus aforementioned in 1948). The motive of this declaration is pretty ambiguous with many claiming much of the government were zionists at heart, or the fact the establishment was sympathetic towards the jewish communities due to persecution in Europe, or even to side with the jews in the Soviet Union and the U.S to stay in the war longer until victory. However, whatever the motive, this was an act of imperialism prompted by the empire to establish illegal settlements to displace indigenous Palestinians against their will.

On the 6th December 2017 President Trump signed a declaration for Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel. Trump claimed that this move would “mark a beginning for a new approach to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.” What ensued was far from Trump’s wishful thinking, with mass protests by Palestinians as this declaration dismissed the fact that they claim Eastern Jerusalem, as-well as the complete violation of the 1993 Israel-Palestinian peace accords which states that the final discussion of the state of Jerusalem will be held in latter peace talks, ironically, President Trump made clear that: “the US will not take a position on any final status issues”. The consequences of the protests were devastating, with what was described as the deadliest day of violence since the 2014 Gaza War - with 52 Palestinians killed and 2,400 injured by Israeli troops. David Keyes, spokesperson for the Prime Minister, claimed in an interview that: “Of course it isn’t a massacre. What is an attempted to defend Israel and we are doing what any state would do which is to defend itself from an onslaught.” This again pedals the narrative of Palestinians giving back as hard as they receive, however, Palestinians were throwing stones, while the Israeli troops were using high quality, state of the art military equipment (supplied by the UK and US). This declaration was condemned by many Western Governments (Theresa May claiming that it would be ‘unhelpful in terms of prospects of peace in the region’) and Eastern regions (Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia), however, this didn’t encourage the US government to withdraw. Yet again we see western policy having seriously detrimental effects on indigenous Palestinians by granting Israel power over Palestinian land, with the help of media discourse portraying the Palestinian retaliation in a hyper exaggerated light.

Continuing with modern contributions to the progression of Israeli imperialism of Palestinian land from the U.S, figures in 2020 by the BBC show that the US gave £2.7B to Israel, of which the majority was military aid, this came from an agreement for £26.8B in military aid between 2017 and 2028. Israel then use these funds to purchase state of the art equipment such as 8 KC-46A Boeing ‘Pegasus’ aircraft for an estimated £1.7B, as well as the iron dome and other defence systems bought for £353.9M of the £2.7B fund. So not only do these funds help to destroy Palestinian communities in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, they also help to protect Israeli settlements, should Hamas retaliate. Their western counterparts are just as generous with contributions with an Independent study revealing that British made components were used by the Israeli forces in Gaza airstrikes on 10th May this year, killing 232 Palestinians, of which 65 were children. In terms of funding, figures show that since the conservatives were elected in May 2015, around £400M has been supplied in arms to Israeli, thus including bombs, ammunition and aircraft. Again, we see the west acting as accessory to imperialist motive, very much like a mother new to the area filling up and tying the water balloons for her kids to hit the neighbours kids with, only instead of benign projectiles it’s military grade warplanes and machine guns and the neighbours have lived there for generations. However, after these airstrikes Prime Minister Boris Johnstone took to social media and tweeted: “I am urging Israel and the Palestinians to step back from the brink and for both sides to show restraint. The UK is deeply concerned by the growing violence and civilian casualties and we want to see an urgent de-escalation of tensions.” While the pathetic attempt at neutrality is comical, what you’re really seeing is a dangerous political discourse to distract from the fact that the UK is pointing a condemning finger with one hand and supplying with the other to, ultimately, throw petrol on the fire of the demolition of Palestinian settlements and the mass genocide of its people on British watch.

Conclusively, the mass ethnic cleansing of indigenous Palestinians and the siege of their land is an act of imperialism unmatched in duration, with the mass exodus after the Jewish-Arab war of 1948, to the current situation of exacerbating imperialism, as death tolls continue to grow, villages that have stood through generations demolished without reason, airstrikes, tear gas, road blocks, checkpoints, no free movement from the Gaza Strip, rape cases of Palestinian women by IDF soldiers, scarce electricity, little to no medical supplies (aid is often intercepted), a lack of clean water, no passport, mass segregation and ultimately, a complete violation of UN laws of human rights. Despite what western political discourse spouts, the Palestinians aren’t in ‘conflict’ with Israel, they are resisting an illegal occupation that dates back decades. But while this occupation is actively carried out by zionists on the ground, metaphorically speaking, the UK and US hold the gun with Israel, with equal amounts of blood dripping from their war-hungry, capital driven hands, from the Balfour Declaration to current continual funding, a Jewish ethno-state in Palestine has always been their agenda.