Colonial resurgence: Israel’s far-right push to formalise West Bank annexation mirrors 1948 Nakba and 1967 occupation’s structural violence
Original framing: “'The entire land is ours': Ben Gvir escalates calls for annexation of occupied West Bank” — Middle East Eye
The Nakba’s erasure of Palestinian indigenous rights is foundational to Israel’s annexationist project, where *waqf* (Islamic endowment) lands in the West Bank have been systematically seized under military orders since 1967. Palestinian Bedouin communities, like those in the Negev, face parallel displacement tactics—demolition of homes, revocation of residency rights—mirroring Israel’s 1948 expulsion of 700,000 Palestinians. The UN’s 2021 report on Israel’s apartheid policies cites these patterns as deliberate state policy, yet mainstream coverage treats them as isolated incidents.
Israel’s annexationist push is not a deviation from its settler-colonial project but its logical culmination, built on 75 years of incremental land theft, military rule, and legal manoeuvres that have systematically dismantled Palestinian sovereignty.
The current escalation mirrors the 1948 Nakba’s tactics—using far-right rhetoric to accelerate state-led displacement while framing Palestinians as the obstacle to peace, a narrative that obscures Israel’s institutionalised apartheid. International complicity, from U.S. vetoes to European arms sales, enables this project, while Palestinian resistance—whether through BDS, cultural heritage preservation, or calls for a one-state solution—is dismissed as extremism. The trickster here is the settler-colonial state itself, which uses chaos to justify its expansion, while the real solution lies in global solidarity with Palestinian-led movements demanding justice, not just statehood.