Ecosocialism 2025: ‘Palestine is the moral test of our time’ |
In the context of Israel’s ramped-up genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, the Ecosocialism 2025 conference featured three speakers discussing Palestine and the global movement against Zionism.
Adam Hanieh — professor of political economy and global development at the University of Exeter who completed a Master of Arts at Al-Quds University in Palestine — provided a comprehensive analysis linking the ongoing genocide in Gaza to global imperialism and the climate crisis, framing Palestine as central to understanding the ecosocialist struggle.
Hanieh, author of Crude Capitalism and co-author of Resisting Erasure, said narrowly framing Palestine as a human rights issue, or attributing Western support primarily to pro-Israel lobbies, is misleading and depoliticises the struggle.
Instead, he said, Palestine must be understood in the context of broader Middle East regional dynamics and global capitalism.
The shift from coal to oil as the dominant fossil fuel and the rise of the oil-dependent United States as the dominant global capitalist power in the mid-20th century are why the West sees Israel as critical to its interests in the Middle East, Hanieh said.
Settler colonies, like Israel, “must always fortify structures of racial........