The war in Gaza is the principal issue in world affairs today. Not just a war between Israel and Palestinians over land and politics in Palestine, it is a defining global struggle in decolonization and national equality. There are other global crises—the Russian nuclear threat as its war in Ukraine continues, economic inequality, and environmental degradation, for example. But decolonization—self-determination and equality of nations—affects the fate and welfare of most of the world’s population. Here I argue for the centrality of decolonization and the growing role of the Palestinian nation within it.
Global Decolonization, 1945–1980
Decolonization, a worldwide phenomenon for over two centuries, accelerated from 1945. After World War II, when 51 nations formed the United Nations (UN), colonial territories demanded national independence and UN membership. Many Asian colonies gained independence in the 1940s, followed by African and Caribbean independence from the 1950s to 1970s. UN membership tripled by 1978, reaching 151 nations. Meanwhile, leaders of wartime Germany and Japan were convicted of war crimes for their actions. The UN adopted a 1948 convention against genocide, outlawing mass killings such as those of Jews and others in Europe.
Campaigns for national independence proceeded quietly for many new nations, but the colonial powers fought hard to keep control of certain colonies. Achieving independence for those territories was essential to the progress of decolonization, but inhabitants paid a heavy price in their campaigns for independence. Post-1945 independence struggles took place in Vietnam, the Philippines, Madagascar, and then Algeria, Kenya, Portuguese colonies, and more.
Amid both war and peace, decolonization advanced. The self-determination of nations came to be accepted widely as a principle of international law. And although UN membership was dominated by ex-colonial nations, the UN’s top structures remained governed by great powers. So, the ex-colonial nations established the G77 organization within the UN, meeting annually starting in 1964 to claim equal rights in international economic and political affairs. The big powers responded in 1975 with annual meetings of what would become the G7 (the U.S., Britain, France, West Germany, Italy, Japan, and Canada), opposing the reforms proposed by the G77. This tension between new nations and the big powers lasted through 1980, and Palestine remained among the colonial territories still seeking independence.
The Palestine National Movement to 1980
Palestine, an Ottoman colony for centuries, fell in 1917 to the British and their Arab allies, which were promised independence. Later that year, Britain shifted from an Arab ally to a Jewish ally via the Balfour Declaration, a memo supporting “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” The British Mandate of Palestine thus became the site of increasingly violent collisions of two forceful national movements: that of Palestinian Arabs (Christian and Muslim) and that of Zionist settlers (of Jewish faith). (See Map 1.)
When Arabs rebelled against disproportionate British land policy in 1939, Britain—having failed to resolve Arab-Jewish conflicts—suggested independence for the Mandate and later announced a plan to relinquish Palestine to the United Nations. In 1947, the UN General Assembly partitioned Palestine into Arab and Jewish sectors (Map 2). And when the British Mandate ultimately ended on May 15, 1948, Zionists declared the state of Israel in the Jewish sector. U.S. President Harry Truman immediately recognized the new nation; the Soviet Union soon did the same.
When forces from Arab states attacked to defend Palestinians, Israeli forces drove them out and seized much of the Arab sector of Palestine. In the process, they expelled 700,000 Palestinians, and 15,000 were killed—an episode known as the nakba. A truce in early 1949 left Palestinian refugees in Gaza (under Egyptian military rule) and in the West Bank portion of Mandate territory, annexed by Jordan (Map 3). 150,000 Palestinians remained in Israel.
Israel was admitted as a UN member on May 11, 1949, but recognition of Palestinian nationhood was postponed. The United Nations formed the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) later that year to provide aid to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, and elsewhere.
In major wars of 1956, 1967, and 1973, Israel defeated Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. In 1967, Israel conquered over a million individual Palestinians by seizing Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Golan Heights, and Sinai (Map 4). The U.S. became the principal ally of Israel, providing substantial military supplies. The U.S. also orchestrated a 1979 treaty to open Egypt-Israeli diplomatic relations and return Sinai to Egypt. Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank—mostly refugees—remained under Israeli rule.
Global Decolonization, 1980–2020
After 1980, worldwide decolonization continued at a slower but still significant rate. Independence movements succeeded in southern Africa, in the breakup and decolonization of the USSR and of Yugoslavia, and in the Pacific islands. Over 40 new members joined the UN after 1978, reaching a total of 193.
Through aggressive policies, big-power influence also grew in the 1980s: The World Bank led small countries into big debts, and an arms race brought the 1992 collapse of the Soviet Union. Further, the G7 group created the World Trade Organization in 1995 (outside the UN), ensuring that only wealthy nations reaped the full benefits of free trade.
Meanwhile, in Gaza and the West Bank, there was no progress toward independence, leading Palestinians to rise up in a 1987 popular rebellion, the intifada, which continued until 1992. (During this time, Hamas, a militant, religious-nationalist organization demanding Palestinian independence, gained support in Gaza.) The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)—while in exile in Algiers—responded in 1988, declaring Palestinian independence. Palestine gained recognition from Arab states, the Soviet bloc, as well as other Muslim states.
The Oslo convention of 1993, advertised as a step toward Palestinian independence, made the PLO subordinate to Israel and was therefore rendered powerless. At the same time, Hamas expanded the social services it provided in Gaza. But in 1997, the U.S. declared the group a terrorist organization—and tended to increasingly treat all Palestinians as terrorists as well. Demonstrations led to a second intifada in 2000, after there were no results from the Oslo process. It ended when Israel withdrew its troops from Gaza in 2005. In Palestine’s legislative elections of 2006, Hamas won most seats in Gaza; a year later Hamas seized political and military control of Gaza.
As for the big powers, their continued aggressive policies did not necessarily benefit them. After the Asian economic crises of the 1990s, the G7 created a more representative group of nations, the G20, adding 13 large nations to the G7 core. But after an even larger global financial crisis in 2007–8, several of the G20 nations formed BRICS (Brazil, India, China, and South Africa, plus Russia), to favor global trade reform. In addition, the rapid economic expansion of China had an ambivalent impact: China acted as a big power once its GDP reached and exceeded that of the U.S., yet Beijing still met with G77 countries to support their economic claims as a developing nation. U.S. policy, meanwhile, ignored decolonization. By 2020, the U.S. sponsored a set of “Abraham Accords” to open diplomatic relations between Israel and the wealthy nations of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, but Washington neglected the Palestinian question.
The Gaza War, 2023–2024
Hamas, among the Palestinian groupings, was best placed to dramatize Palestinian significance and dissatisfaction. And the Abraham Accords may have encouraged Hamas to plan attacks on Israel. On one day, October 7, 2023, Hamas killed 1,140 people in Israel—and took more than 250 hostages. Within 11 days, Israel’s response in airstrikes and ground invasion had led to 6,700 fatalities in Gaza. (In another year, fatalities in Gaza had risen to a reported 44,000.)
On October 31, 2023, the large-scale bombing of Jabalia, Gaza’s largest refugee camp, confirmed the genocidal strategy of Israel’s response. This led numerous nations to break relations with Israel. The United States, on the other hand, continued supplying and supporting Israel’s war in Gaza. In fact, the U.S. supplied the great majority of Israeli war materiel at a cost of at least $20 billion during the year after October 7. (This is roughly equal to Israel’s announced 2023 military expense of $30 billion per year.)
Israel wages its war not only against Hamas forces but also against women, children, journalists, UN personnel, schools, hospitals, and refugee camps. Assassination of national leaders, including Yahya Sinwar of Hamas, often with many additional casualties, became a standard policy of the U.S. and Israel. But somehow, Hamas, its fighting forces, and the Palestinians of Gaza continued to hold out in the face of Israeli attacks. They have refused to flee and have resisted more effectively than in any previous Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
In January 2024, South Africa submitted a charge of genocide against Israel (under the 1948 genocide convention) to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. Israel responded politically, claiming that UNRWA employees had led the Hamas attack on October 7. The UN disproved the claim, but UNRWA finances suffered. And last month, the International Criminal Court issued an order for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on charges of war crimes.
One may say that the U.S. and Israel are quite isolated on the issue of Gaza, as support for Israel is limited throughout the rest of the world. Although G7 meetings announce support for Israel’s war effort at its annual meetings, most G7 nations do not repeat those statements independently. The G20 (which includes all G7 members) supports Palestine independence at its annual meetings. Further, Palestine now has diplomatic recognition from 145 nations.
To date, the U.S. has vetoed four United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions for a cease-fire in Gaza. This has led to more and more calls for an end to veto power in the in the council, plus appointment of new UNSC permanent members. The September UN Summit for the Future led to even more discussion on this topic.
The Future of Palestine, Israel, and Decolonization
Broadly, the principle of decolonization has the majority of global support. Yet Israel’s new attacks on Syria, with U.S. arms, extend the Gaza war. This issue will not go away: Decolonization will remain a priority as long as ex-colonial countries find that they have not yet achieved equality with other nations. Nevertheless, Israel and the U.S. claim an exception.
So, in a region populated by seven million Jews in Israel and seven million Palestinians in occupied Palestine and Israel, can two adjoining nations exist in peace? Here are my expectations on eventual outcomes of the global struggle to stop the fighting and, ultimately, achieve Palestinian nationhood:
- A settlement will eventually recognize Palestine as a nation equal to others.
- The settlement will be under UN auspices, led by nations not yet identified.
- The ICJ and ICC will complete their judgments on genocide and war crimes in Gaza.
- A new generation of Palestinian leaders, highly experienced and educated, will emerge.
- Israel will make amends for its war crimes and recognize Palestinian national equality.
- The United States will make amends for its participation in the war crimes of Gaza.
Thanks for that summary; it is rare to see such a complete and economic recounting of the events leading to the current war against the Palestinians.
One question to me is, does what is happening really constitute colonialism? In my experience, colonialism involves the invader establishing an economic connection through which value may be extracted that benefits the colonial power. There were periods in which there was some economic connection, but that seems long ago (ending during the intifada?). It seems that instead, the most constant feature of the relationship between Israel and its neighbors in the Middle East, is one of the acquisition of land and power. This is consistent with the goals of Zionism. It is probably no worse than most historical wars of conquest, but in view of the goal of bringing about a world in which war is minimized, this conflict stands out as cruel and deplorable.
Whether it is colonialism or just plain conquest, there is little difference to Palestinians. I would say that the major difference is that in conquest, an extreme polarization occurs, in which each side paints the ethnic group of the other as evil and deplorable. In fact, one will see that those in power of each respective state use hate and vengeance to garner support from their populations. They do this by characterizing the other as less than human. A lack of respect is used as the irritant to mask the policy of conquest (or colonialism), creating a polarization of attitudes that extends beyond the immediate parties, infecting the world.
In this regard, one might suggest that Israel is effectively a a colonial outpost for the United States — a foothold for American power. However, during the Biden administration, it seems that it may be the reverse — Israel (especially Netanyahu) has been using the strong political support of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) for Zionism to affect the media and hence the political atmosphere, to make opposition to weapons deliveries politically dangerous.
Dear Prof. Manning,
Thank you for this lucid background piece, which I have shared with educators in my network. As a world historian who takes the widest possible view on such matters, your article offers hope. This refreshing piece tells the story economically and with excellent framing.
To Curt (my brother the innovative astronomer):
Yes, I agree that economic colonization is different from conquest. Settlement is different too, though all have been labeled as colonization. There’s the U.S. colonization and absorption of peoples of the American West (and parallels in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, etc. – including genocide). Also struggles of Greeks and Turks; of Kurds and Armenians; and Alsace and Lorraine between France and Germany or Chinese and Russians in Manchuria. Palestine too has its economic colonization: even with the intifada, many Palestinians have worked for Jewish employers. I agree that Israel acts as a colony of the U.S. and also gives commands to the metropole. For an earlier parallel, the days of White Australia brought similar, race-based commands to the U.K. So I think Curt has brought up more ways that Palestine fits into the story of colonialism and I offer thanks for them. One difference for the case of Palestine is today’s global sentiment for equal rights of nations, which calls attention to abuses..
1. There is a growing literature on settler colonialism and the Israel/Palestine case fits well into that concept.
2. The armed expulsion of Palestinians began in 1947 well before the date of the UN partition (see Ilan Pappe). Pappe argues (based on archival research ) that the Arab invasions of 1948 were largely motivated by desire to intercede on the behalf of the Palestinian victims of ethic cleansing not desire to destroy Israel.
3. The story gets more complicated with the mass expulsion of Jews from all Middle Eastern and North African Countries. About half the population of Israel/Palestine are refugees or children of regugees.