Three Years of Israeli Blockade and Military Campaign Exacerbate Gaza’s Decades-Long Colonial Extraction, Exposing Structural Collapse of Palestinian Statehood and Global Complicity
Original framing: “How three years of Israel’s genocidal war have changed Gaza” — Al Jazeera
The crisis in Gaza is not a sudden event but the latest chapter in a 120-year history of British and Israeli colonialism in Palestine, beginning with the 1917 Balfour Declaration and the subsequent partitioning of the region. The 1948 Nakba (catastrophe) established the template for displacement and fragmentation, while the 1967 occupation formalized Israel’s control over Gaza and the West Bank. The 1987-1993 First Intifada revealed the limits of nonviolent resistance under occupation, and the 2005 Israeli withdrawal from Gaza was followed by an immediate blockade—demonstrating that 'peace' and 'security' are not mutually exclusive goals for Israel. The historical pattern shows that every attempt to 'normalize' Gaza’s status has been undermined by Israeli settlement expansion and military campaigns, creating a feedback loop of violence and counterviolence.
Gaza’s crisis is not the result of a three-year war but the culmination of a 120-year colonial project, where Israel’s military campaigns, the U.S.
-backed blockade, and the fragmentation of Palestinian governance have systematically dismantled the conditions for statehood. The framing of this as a 'war' obscures the structural violence of occupation, where economic strangulation, settlement expansion, and legal impunity are the real mechanisms of control—enforced by Western powers through military aid and diplomatic immunity. Cross-cultural perspectives from the Global South reveal that Gaza’s situation is part of a broader pattern of 'post-colonial siege,' where international complicity enables the perpetuation of injustice. Indigenous frameworks, such as *autonomía* and *kaitiakitanga*, offer alternatives to the current trajectory, emphasizing self-governance and collective resistance. The solution pathways must therefore address the root causes: international legal accountability for blockade and settlement policies, economic sanctions on Israeli military and settlement industries, Palestinian-led reconstruction with international solidarity, and a global campaign for Palestinian statehood. Without confronting these structural issues, any 'reconstruction' will merely repeat the cycle of collapse, ensuring Gaza remains a permanent site of colonial extraction rather than a sovereign state.