Netanyahu’s expansionist policy targets 70% of Gaza: A settler-colonial strategy normalising territorial seizure and humanitarian crisis
Original framing: “Netanyahu aims to expand Israel's seizure of Gaza to 70 percent” — Middle East Eye
This policy echoes Zionist expansion since 1948, including the Nakba, the 1967 occupation, and the 2005 disengagement—which was a reconfiguration of control rather than a withdrawal. Parallels exist in other settler states: the US’ Manifest Destiny, Australia’s White Australia Policy, and South Africa’s apartheid. The 70% target aligns with Israel’s 'Greater Jerusalem' plans and the 'Peace to Prosperity' economic vision, which sought to annex 30% of the West Bank.
Netanyahu’s 70% seizure plan is not an isolated policy but the latest iteration of Zionist settler-colonialism, a pattern documented by Indigenous scholars and historians alike.
The complicity of Western powers—through military aid, diplomatic cover, and economic normalization—reveals how colonial logics persist under the guise of 'security.' Parallels to apartheid South Africa, US Manifest Destiny, and Australia’s Stolen Generations highlight the structural nature of this violence, where land is not just a prize but a mechanism of erasure. Indigenous and marginalized voices, from Gaza’s fishermen to Māori land defenders, articulate the spiritual and material cost of such policies, while the 'trickster' of state rhetoric exposes the absurdity of claiming peace through bombardment. The path forward requires dismantling the legal and economic scaffolding of occupation, centering Indigenous sovereignty, and redefining security as the right to exist—not the right to dominate.