“Settler Colonialism” is Not Just About Israel

There has been much written about the ideological underpinnings over the years which led to the hostility to Israel and Jews on many campuses after October 7.  

Seeing the world as divided between oppressors and oppressed, with Western countries falling into the former category, set the stage for the eruptions. Israel was seen as a representative of the West in the Middle East, and therefore put in the category of an oppressor, even after the greatest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust took place on October 7. 

What gets less attention, but is equally important to understand, is why an issue that was not an American one should have aroused so much passion and emotion among young people across campuses. Here we need to look at Adam Kirsch’s excellent book “On Settler Colonialism” for guidance. 

Kirsch adds depth to the reading of the origins of the hostility to Israel by referring to the pervasive presence of this theme, that some view the world as divided between settler colonialists, who are guilty of every sin imaginable, and the victims of settler colonialism, whose predicament justifies their anti-colonial violence.

America, Australia and Canada are the prime exemplars of this settler colonialism in that they took over land that was not theirs and displaced huge numbers of indigenous peoples.

Most significantly, as Kirsch points out, what goes a long way to explain the level of emotion behind the encampments and protests is that this ideology is not simply about the past, but rather an ongoing reflection that the process of settler colonialism continues to dominate in these countries. And, most particularly, it targets as its main focus the United States in its seizing the land from Native Americans. Kirsch puts it succinctly: the language of civil rights is to perfect America; the language of decolonization is to reject it.

Simply put, in this paradigm, the Americans are illegitimate occupiers of this country and guilty of genocide against Native Americans. Of course, the logical conclusion of this ideology is that America should return the country to its original peoples which, of course, is a non-starter in practical terms. 

Facing this gap between ideology and practical reality, those who articulated the theme of settler colonialism found the perfect solution when Hamas committed its massacre on October 7. Not only were the supposedly all-powerful Israelis shown to be vulnerable both militarily and from an intelligence perspective, but this was the perfect opportunity to push the agenda blaming settler colonialism here in America.

Now October 7 opened up an opportunity to give expression to this frustration by, in effect, stressing how Israel, a state supported by the U.S. and its Jewish community, was illustrious of the devastation brought on by colonialism. And Israel’s new perceived vulnerability offers, unlike in America, a real chance to undo history and satisfy at least partially the decolonization agenda. 

The powerful emotions — for example by the Cornell professor who called what happened on October 7 “exhilarating” — were truly a reflection of their seeking an ideological solution for America, far more than for the Palestinians.

It is this connection to American history that evoked the extreme emotions. While some protestors openly attacked America alongside Israel, including burning the American flag, the American factor was not upfront, but rather implied amid all that was happening. After all, was there ever such passion in America for the Palestinian cause?

The connection to the American past was tacitly seen as well in the fact that the protestors not only justified October 7, but they never demanded any solution for the Palestinian problem except the ejection, if not the killing, of all Jews from Palestine. This is exactly what they were arguing for in America — but the demand for it in Israel was seen as more realistic, which, in their belief, could influence things in America.

In sum, the anti-Israel, antisemitic activities in the U.S. over more than a year would not have happened if not for the inculcation of anti-Western views, particularly on campuses, over many years.

At the same time, the passions that underlay these months of protests over a foreign issue, which on the face of it did not affect Americans directly, was a product of the frustration of the anti-colonialists here in America. 

It offered the opportunity to the protestors, call it sublimation, to generate the feeling that if they pushed for it passionately in a place where they believed it achievable – Israel – they could ultimately achieve similar results here in the United States.