Colonialism

The Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa (HSRC) funds initiatives including the Middle East Project of the Democracy. Together, these organizations published “Occupation, Colonialism, Apartheid? A re-assessment of Israel’s practices in the occupied Palestinian territories under international law,” which claims that Israel is practicing “colonialism” rooted in building a “colonial enterprise.” The report concludes “Israel bears the primary responsibility for remedying the illegal situation it has created. In the first place, it has the duty to cease its unlawful activity and dismantle the structures and institutions of colonialism.” The report has been widely cited by international organizations, including the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) report in 2017, “Israeli Practices towards the Palestinian People and the Question of Apartheid.” These statements are inconsistent with the historical and factual evidence. Specifically:

1. Jews Were Colonized and Displaced from Israel: Jewish individuals have had a long and continuous presence in the Middle East, particularly in what is now modern Israel. In addition, for over two millennia, Jews have been the victims of repeated conquest, forcing many into exile across the globe. The argument that Israel is a colonial project consistently ignores that Jews were colonized and displaced from Israel not once, but repeatedly over thousands of years. For example, during the Babylonian exile in 586 BCE, hundreds of thousands of Jews were forcibly exiled from the Kingdom of Judah. Honourable Roy Altman writes in Quillette: “History itself makes plain that, if anyone has ‘colonized’ the Land of Israel, it has been the succession of Muslim armies from Arabia, Egypt, Damascus, Baghdad, and Turkey (not to mention Christian Crusaders, Roman and Byzantine emperors, and British colonists) that ruled Jerusalem as foreign occupiers for almost two millennia. Throughout all these occupations, thousands of Jews remained in the Land of Israel. We know this because archaeologists in Israel have found Jewish synagogues and cemeteries dating all the way back to the 1st century AD. And new discoveries are often being made. In 2025, for instance, archaeologists excavated a Jewish synagogue in the Yehudiya Nature Reserve, located in Israel's Golan Heights, dating back to the 6th century AD.”
2. Demographic Context for Assessing Claims of Colonial Dominance: “Power,” “domination,” and “expansion” are all terms that have become defining characteristics of colonialism. Roy Altman writes, "Golda Meir once quipped to then-Senator Joe Biden, Israelis have a secret weapon: 'We have nowhere else to go.' Israel, in other words, wasn't created to enrich (or expand the influence of) any European power. It thus cannot be—and has never been—a colonialist state." Israel does not fit within a colonial framework because Israel was founded for the safety of Jews and not for territorial domination.
3. A Jewish State Is Not “Discriminatory” nor is it “Colonial”: Proponents of the argument that Israel is a colonial state argue that Israel’s Jewish identity implies religious dominance and oppression. NGO Monitor’s report argues that “there is no fundamental incompatibility between Israel’s identity as a Jewish state and the protection of equality for all its citizens.” As stated clearly in Israel’s Declaration of Independence, all Israeli citizens, regardless of race or religion, can freely express themselves in Israel. In addition, the Pew Research Center reports that Jews make up only 0.1 percent of the world's population, compared to 2.3 billion Christians and 2 billion Muslims. There is similarly only one Jewish state in the entire world, whereas there are X Christian states and X Muslim states. It is therefore a double standard to characterize Israel as a colonizer while ignoring the reality that Jews are overwhelmingly a global minority and lack the demographic dominance associated with historical colonial powers.
4. Israel is one of the Greatest Examples of Decolonization: Israel is one of the greatest examples of modern and historical decolonization, and the claim that Israelis are colonizers entirely discounts that Jews are indigenous to the land of Israel. Dr. Sheree Trotter, an academic Indigenous to New Zealand, argues that the State of Israel is "the most successful land-back project, the greatest decolonization project," and that "from my Māori perspective, a key point is that there was always a continuous Jewish presence in the land; they kept the fires burning, and that is what Indigeneity looks like to us." Altman further provides that "Jews, not just in Israel, but all over the world, share a common DNA ancestry — DNA that, as dozens of genetic studies have shown, spread from the Levant (where Israel is today) thousands of years ago. Israeli Jews also speak the same language, practise the same religion, and share a deep cultural and historical connection to the Jews who have lived continuously in Israel for thousands of years.” The narrative in which Jews are "foreign to the land they now govern" is rooted in an inaccurate portrayal of Jewish history.
5. Arab States Shaped Much of the Current Political Landscape: NGO Monitor’s report, “Neo-Orientalism: Deconstructing Claims of Apartheid in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict” argues that “The existing territorial and political division of the Palestinian population results not from Israeli policies of “domination,” but rather from geopolitical factors impacting the history of the conflict, including Arab rejectionism, the 1947 UN Partition Plan, Jordanian and Egyptian control over the West Bank and Gaza respectively, the Oslo Accords (mutually agreed to between Israel and the PLO.”
6. Politically Fueled: The argument that Jewish indigeneity contradicts Palestinian historic presence lacks clear reasoning. NGO Monitors report argues, “An intention to secure the right of a people to reside in their ancient homeland, alongside Palestinian communities, cannot be said to entail an intention to establish and maintain a relationship of ‘domination and oppression.’”

On June 22, 2023, the Yale Journal of International Law published an article by Maryam Jamshidi, “Sanctions’ New Colonizers,” which argues that USA’s sanctions on Iran are an example of modern American “imperialism” and “colonialism.”Jamshidi states, “In this current moment of U.S. financial imperialism and economic sanctions, a host of ‘new’ colonizers have emerged. These colonizers include private plaintiffs holding unsatisfied civil judgments against so-called terrorists, terrorist organizations, or countries designated by the U.S. State Department as state sponsors of terrorism. Through two federal statutes—the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) and the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act (Iran Threat Reduction Act)—these private plaintiffs are able to enforce their final judgments against the properties of these terrorist entities, which have been blocked pursuant to certain U.S. sanctions regimes.”

1. USA has a responsibility to protect its population and borders against security threats:

As stated by the United States Department of State, sanctions on Iran are a direct response to security threats that risk not only the security of the United States but also the entire world. Numerous reports by governments, international bodies like the IAEA, and NGOs detail the ongoing threat of the Iranian regime, legitimizing the US’ sanctions targeting it.

1. Trade Restrictions for Human Rights Purposes Do Not Constitute Colonialism: The World Trade Organization outlines that a key principle of international trade is “predictability,” explaining that “investors and governments should be confident that trade barriers (including tariffs and non-tariff barriers) should not be raised arbitrarily.” The Government of the United States is not imposing arbitrary bans on Iranian imports but is acting within its discretion in imposing a ban on a country that fails to comply with international law and human rights.
2. IMilitary Sanctions are not an act of “Domination”: The relationship between the Islamic Regime in Iran and the US is fundamentally different from the modern definition of colonialism, particularly because imposing just-cause sanctions on Iran does not meet the threshold of partaking in a “practice of domination, which involves the subjugation of one people to another.” Not only does Iran have sovereignty, but it is also arguably in a position of global dominance, demonstrated by its production and military capabilities.