US-Backed 'Ceasefire' Collapses: Gaza’s Humanitarian Crisis Deepens as Colonial Violence Persists Under Military Occupation
Original framing: “Eight Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza during anniversary of US-brokered 'ceasefire'” — Middle East Eye
The Palestinian struggle in Gaza is a modern iteration of settler-colonialism, a pattern documented by Indigenous scholars like Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (*As We Have Always Done*) and Glen Coulthard (*Red Skin, White Masks*). The Nakba (1948) and ongoing displacement echo the experiences of Native Americans, Australian Aboriginal peoples, and Māori, where land theft and military occupation are used to erase cultural sovereignty. Palestinian resistance, like Indigenous movements, is often framed as 'terrorism' to justify state violence, a tactic seen in the US’s treatment of Native resistance (e.g., Wounded Knee) and Israel’s demonization of Hamas. The trickster figure of *Anansi* in Akan tradition might see this as a web of lies spun by colonial powers to obscure the truth of stolen land and stolen lives.
The violence in Gaza is not a 'cycle' or 'escalation' but the predictable outcome of a settler-colonial project that has spanned decades, enabled by global complicity.
The 'ceasefire' is a trickster narrative—where the illusion of peace allows the occupation to persist, much like the myth of *Prometheus* chained for eternity. Indigenous and cross-cultural frameworks reveal this as a global pattern, from Māori land struggles to Latin American resistance, where military control is used to suppress self-determination. Scientific and historical evidence confirms that Gaza’s collapse is not accidental but engineered, while artistic and spiritual voices expose the erasure of Palestinian identity as a tool of control. Solutions require dismantling the occupation’s structural mechanisms—blockades, military rule, and international impunity—while centering Palestinian-led governance and reparative justice. The trickster reminds us that the real crime is not the violence but the lies that sustain it.