Mushtaq Bala
In recent days, the world has erupted in celebration at the temporary cessation of bloodshed in Gaza and the surrounding territories. Across continents, people are rejoicing as if peace has finally arrived. Yet, beneath the relief and rhetoric lies a painful truth: this is not peace — it is merely a pause. The core issues that have defined the tragedy of Palestine for generations remain unresolved.
The world may wish to believe that the conflict has subsided, but the reality is that a settler-colonial process — one that began decades ago — continues beneath the surface, both politically and psychologically. To understand Palestine is to understand the long, unbroken chain of colonial conquest that has shaped the modern world.
Colonialism Revisited: A Pattern of Power and Plunder
History is replete with the stories of civilizations that were dispossessed, uprooted, and silenced in the name of “progress.”Long before the state of Israel emerged, Europe had perfected the machinery of colonization. The process began with the brutal annihilation of indigenous civilizations in the Americas. The Red Indians — now called Native Americans — once lived across the North American continent in thriving, complex societies. European settlers arrived, seized their lands, and decimated their cultures. The vast empires of the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas in Central and South America were crushed by Spanish and Portuguese colonizers, their populations ravaged not only by war but also by diseases carried from Europe.
The same pattern repeated itself across continents.
In Australia, British colonizers displaced the Aboriginal population, transforming their ancestral lands into penal colonies and new European settlements. In Africa, the story was equally grim — particularly in South Africa, where Dutch and later British settlers institutionalized racial domination and expropriated fertile lands through apartheid-like systems. Even Algeria bore witness to this process when French settlers occupied vast tracts of land, subjugating the local population under the guise of civilization.
This global phenomenon — settler colonialism — was not a series of isolated acts. It was a deliberate, systematic expansion of European power designed to control land, labor, and identity. Its essence lay in uprooting indigenous populations and replacing them with colonizers who claimed divine or civilizational justification.
Israel: A Modern Manifestation of an Ancient Process
Seen in this light, the formation of Israel was not a unique or religiously motivated event, but rather the continuation of a European colonial mindset transplanted into the heart of the Arab world. The ideology that drove European imperialism — the right to occupy, to redefine, to displace — found a new expression in the establishment of Israel.
What unfolded in Palestine mirrored the older pattern: the expulsion of native inhabitants, the destruction of their villages, and the systematic reconfiguration of the land to accommodate new settlers. Over time, this became normalized through political alliances, strategic narratives, and a distorted moral framework that justified colonization under the banner of security and divine promise.
But beneath the political layers lies a deeper moral and historical question:
Can any peace be durable when it rests on the dispossession of another people?The Cold War and the Collapse of Anti-Colonial Support.
There was a period in modern history — particularly during the mid-20th century — when the global balance of power allowed for anti-colonial movements to resist such injustices. The post-World War II era, fueled by ideological contestations between capitalism and socialism, gave birth to revolutionary movements across Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
The Soviet Union and socialist bloc extended support — military, diplomatic, and moral — to anti-colonial struggles from Vietnam to Angola, from Mozambique to Palestine. The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) became a symbol of resistance within this global wave. Arms, training, and solidarity flowed through sympathetic states, nurturing the dream of self-determination for oppressed peoples.
However, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, this ideological and material support system disintegrated. The new unipolar world — dominated by market-driven politics — left revolutionary movements isolated. Global solidarity was replaced by selective morality. The same powers that once denounced colonialism began to rationalize it through the language of geopolitics, counterterrorism, and economic partnership.Meanwhile, the spirit of collective resistance in the Global South — once vibrant and uncompromising — gave way to fragmentation, internal conflicts, and political expediency.
The Crisis of the Muslim World : Between Faith and Silence
In this vacuum, the Muslim world was expected to rise morally and politically to defend the principles of justice and human dignity. Yet, much of it has remained divided — preoccupied with internal rivalries, regional ambitions, and survival politics.
The tragedy of Palestine has, therefore, become not only a story of occupation but also a reflection of the Muslim world’s intellectual and moral paralysis. The rhetoric of unity echoes in conferences and declarations, but on the ground, silence prevails where action is required.
For a progressive Muslim mind, this silence is intolerable. It signifies the erosion of a once dynamic civilization that valued justice as a divine imperative — a civilization that once produced thinkers, scientists, and leaders who questioned tyranny and stood for the oppressed.
Beyond Borders: The Moral Challenge of Our Time
The Palestinian question is not a conflict between two religions or two peoples — it is a struggle between colonization and conscience, between power and justice, between historical denial and moral awakening.Every demolished home in Gaza, every uprooted olive tree, and every child displaced from ancestral soil speaks to a universal truth: that colonialism has not died; it has evolved.Its new form wears the language of democracy, the machinery of surveillance, and the rhetoric of “security.”For the world to change course, it must first confront this hypocrisy — that peace cannot coexist with occupation, and freedom cannot thrive under domination.
Conclusion: The Test of Humanity
Palestine today is not merely a geopolitical issue; it is the mirror of our collective humanity.
It compels us to ask:
How long will the world tolerate injustice packaged as peace?How long will the oppressed be told to wait for a justice that never arrives?History reminds us that civilizations rise not by their power but by their principles.If the global community truly seeks peace, it must rediscover its moral compass — and begin by acknowledging that the story of Palestine is not over.It is the unfinished chapter in the long narrative of colonialism — and the ultimate test of whether humanity has learned anything from the past
Mushtaq Bala is Editor-in-Chief of Kashmir Pen, an award-winning filmmaker, cultural comme tator, and advocate for peace through narrative media.
