This story was originally published by Prism.
“What happened to the Palestinian nation is a shame to all of us.” – Nawal El Saadawi
The Israeli occupation of Palestine has unfolded into an escalated genocide capturing the world’s attention. Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza and repression in the West Bank has led millions to ask, “Why won’t anyone stop this?”
People make societies work, but yielding power to political bodies and institutions for the maintenance of those societies gives rise to a paradox: placing responsibility for revolution and even liberation in the hands of authorities whose interests are diametrically opposed to those goals. Instead, they have the ability to hold us back and distort an international predicament. The problem is that this world, which has been shaped by colonialism and violent dispossession, is not serving us. Palestine shows us why in many ways. So, dissecting U.S. interests and global capitalism and situating solidarity across borders can provide some clarity regarding how we shape a world much different from the one we currently inhabit.
The commercial and political power that allows the U.S. to assert its dominance is fortified by the modern formation of what we know as the “nation-state.” This international order augments itself through monopolies on violence, trade, and movement. After two world wars, an earth that was once organized into traditional empires saw the birth of many new independent nations. National territorial states and the aspirational hopes of sovereignty represented the best intentions of masses of people rising up against colonialism, genocide, and imperialism. Populations around the world rested their dreams for better lives in representation facilitated through statehood. The problems of treating this arrangement of political organization as quintessential for liberation movements are now laid bare.
In many people’s ideal world,........