Colonial Reckoning in Middle East

The ongoing war between HAMAS and Israel is a microcosm of a larger conflict between the Muslim world and the Western world that has been unfolding for decades, and the root of this conflict is Western colonialism.  

For centuries, European powers such as France, Great Britain, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Spain invaded foreign territories, enslaved local populations, and claimed the land as their own. It started in the Americas. From 1492 until the 1970s, and perhaps even today, these European nations and their offshoots, mainly the United States, have thwarted any movements for independence across both continents. True independence in many Latin American states, for example, would threaten the economic power of the Western world, and it did. Throughout the 19th century, indigenous Americans in Europe’s Latin American colonies freed themselves from the shackles of slavery and were militarized for independence. And as Europe began to lose its grasp on those countries, it turned to Africa in 1885.  

The Berlin conference was not the beginning of African colonization – that project had begun centuries earlier when millions of West Africans were exported like cargo to European colonies in the Americas –but it represents a formal declaration to eradicate an entirely independent civilization. Colonial practices that had failed in the Americas were revamped or reused across Africa for a hundred and some odd years. In the Congo, for example, King Leopold the Second of Belgium enslaved African males and sent them into the bush to harvest rubber. If they could not meet strict, unreasonable quotas, they were horribly tortured. Women, too, were assaulted and enslaved. Similar colonial tactics were used to oppress millions of Africans throughout the continent and sought to replace their vibrant cultures with Western notions of political development (in fact, only one country, Ethiopia, was able to prevent a colonial invasion).  

Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, governments of the Western world changed their tactics. They came to a consensus that sovereign nations deserve political independence, but because their economies were reliant on systems of oppression, clandestine organizations like the CIA initiated regime changes to install puppet governments whose leaders would work with the United States, for example, to give private corporations discounted access to their natural resources. This practice, referred to as neo-colonialism, crushed local economies in places like Latin America (Guatemala, Nicaragua, Haiti, Chile, Argentina and Brazil, to name a few), Africa, and the Middle East. This is how the clash between the Muslim world and the Western world intensified.  

On 9/11, Al Qaeda orchestrated the deadliest-ever attack on American soil, killing 3,000 civilians. It is, in fact, only one of several attacks on the Western world by Middle Eastern Muslim extremists. In Saudi Arabia in 1996, Al Qaeda detonated a bomb, killing hundreds of Americans in a military housing complex. In Kenya and Tanzania, they used truck bombs to attack two U.S. embassies in 1998. In the years after 9/11, they targeted Germans, Frenchmen and Israelis in Tunisia and Kenya as well. These attacks were both vengeful and a warning for Westerners to stay away. Muslims in the Middle East, privy to the destructive forces of colonialism and the economic repression of neo-colonialism, targeted civilians because a) they had easier access to them, but b) they wanted to communicate that they don’t trust the West and that Western civilians aren’t safe outside of their bubble.  

The attacks of HAMAS on Israeli civilians are similar. Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank feel that the creation of Israel was a violation of their sovereignty. They naturally formed alliances with Muslim nations in the Middle East, like Iran, who share grievances toward the West. As Western nations continue to provide military support for Israel, divisions will grow between the Western world and not only the Muslim world but other Eastern nations as well.  

The colonial developments of the West bred anti-Western sentiments in Southeast Asia, China and Russia, in addition to Muslim territories in the Middle East and North and West Africa. The Cold War marked a clear division between these Eastern nations and the West. The Soviet Union attempted to galvanize countries such as Vietnam, Cuba, China, Afghanistan, Angola, the  

Congo and Zimbabwe against Western ideology, and they funded resistance groups to fight proxy wars in each of these countries. But the West fought back; the Vietnam War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and civil wars in Angola, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan are prominent examples of the global conflict between the East and the West. If China and Russia get involved in the war between HAMAS and Israel, we risk a return to global warfare. The U.S. government and its allies must engage in global diplomacy because the way we handle this war will shape international relations for generations to come.  

To find the best outcome, state leaders should engage directly with one another. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK had a red landline in his home in Hyannisport, Massachusetts, that fed directly to Prime Minister Kruschev’s landline in the Soviet Union. They were able to speak directly to each other, cutting out intermediaries and coming to an amicable solution. Their clear and direct communication staved off what could’ve been a nuclear war between the East and the West. Today’s leaders should mirror similar tactics to maintain stability, but they should also take ownership of the mistakes of previous generations.  

Colonial practices devastated foreign nations and soiled potential alliances. It is important that we own up to these mistakes and aid countries that our Western governments have destroyed. If we continue to turn a blind eye, there will be another war similar to the war between HAMAS and Israel, and millions more innocent people will die.  

If you want to learn more about colonialism and the impacts that it has had on international relations, consider attending one of Professor Billy Keniston’s film screenings. This Wednesday, he’s chosen to screen the film “Concerning Violence” as it is an excellent introduction to Franz Fanon’s classic book, The Wretched of the Earth. According to Keniston, “Fanon’s work is crucial to understanding how the violent conflicts that we’re living through today have their roots in colonialism.”