Decolonizing Genocide in Settler Colonialism: Indigenous Studies to Palestine

We identify the primary features of six historical cases of genocide in colonialism, four which are clear settler colonialism, and then apply this analysis to the historical conflict development and ongoing genocidal ethnic cleansing in Palestine. Our primary cases, (based on published work) include (chronologically): Taino-Arawak of Ayiti (Hispaniola); Mattaponi (Powhatan) of the Virginia Colony; the Lenape (Delaware) of Pennsylvania; Māori of Aotearoa (New Zealand); Tolowa Dee-ni' of California; and Dakota/Lakota of Minnesota/Dakota Territory. The primary features of these genocides arising in colonial constructs are applied to the historical development of Zionism (like Manifest Destiny), leading to the creation of the State of Israel and ethno-national existence of Palestinians within three constructs (inside Israel as ethnically identified second-class citizens; living under Apartheid (vs “settlers”) in the West Bank; ethnic cleansing (to genocide) in Gaza. We find the characteristics of state suppression mobilizing settler populations in order to seize land and declare sovereignty range from violent dispossession, to an active ethnic cleansing and maintenance of apartheid by settlements (vs Palestinian towns and cities) to genocidal suppression (much like the cases above) and to outright genocide (acting under cover of war, also found in the historical cases). Finally, we identify contemporary strategies to decolonize the above cases within fields of Indigenous studies, and posit the application to current conflicts in the “Middle East” of broader Palestine