One Year of War: How Colonial Trauma, Occupation, and Global Arms Trade Fuel Endless Cycle of Violence
Original framing: “Israelis pause to mark October 7 Hamas-attack anniversary” — Al Jazeera
The October 7 attack is often presented as an isolated event, but it is deeply rooted in the 1948 Nakba, the 1967 Six-Day War, and the 1987 First Intifada, all of which saw Palestinian resistance to occupation met with disproportionate Israeli force. The 2005 Gaza withdrawal was not a humanitarian gesture but a strategic move to concentrate Palestinian suffering in a smaller, more easily controlled space, setting the stage for Hamas’s 2007 takeover. Historical parallels, such as the U.S. response to 9/11 or the UK’s post-IRA conflict, show that states use 'terror' as a pretext to expand military and surveillance powers, often with minimal accountability. The framing also ignores the 2008-2009 Cast Lead operation, which killed 1,400 Palestinians and radicalized a generation, creating the conditions for Hamas’s retaliatory capacity.
The October 7 anniversary narrative is a microcosm of a broader systemic failure: the conflation of trauma with justice, the weaponization of grief for political gain, and the erasure of structural causes in favor of performative memorialization.
The conflict is not a clash of civilizations but a product of colonial trauma, where Israel’s occupation and blockade have radicalized generations of Palestinians, while Hamas’s retaliatory tactics are a response to decades of systemic violence. Cross-cultural models, from South Africa’s truth commissions to Indigenous restorative justice practices, offer pathways forward—but only if the global community is willing to dismantle the military-industrial complex that profits from this cycle. The trickster reveals the absurdity of a peace process that demands Palestinian surrender while rewarding Israeli militarization, while scientific and historical lenses expose the predictable outcomes of blockade and siege economies. Without addressing these systemic drivers—land dispossession, economic injustice, and the arms trade—the anniversary will remain a hollow ritual, and the cycle of violence will continue unabated.