Internal Colonization Concept Explains Palestinian Experience in Israel
A concept termed 'internal colonization' is presented as a crucial framework for understanding the situation of Palestinians within Israel, who live under Israeli citizenship but face ongoing colonial control. This perspective argues that colonial domination did not end with Israel's establishment but continues through the control of land, resources, and the Palestinian population within the state's borders. The Oslo Accords are criticized for exacerbating this by politically and geographically separating Palestinians, effectively marginalizing the 1948 occupied territories from the broader Palestinian cause and framing it as an internal Israeli issue.
The concept of internal colonization, developed by Palestinian-Canadian academic Eliyahu Zureik, posits that Palestinian citizens of Israel are not merely experiencing discrimination but are subjected to a comprehensive colonial power dynamic. This includes land confiscation, fragmentation of Palestinian geography, resource appropriation, demographic restructuring, and the imposition of a legal and economic system designed to maintain Zionist project supremacy. Citizenship, in this view, becomes a tool for managing the indigenous population rather than an antidote to colonialism.
This framework is deemed particularly relevant today in light of new Israeli plans targeting the Galilee, the Triangle, the Negev, and coastal cities. The article contends these are not development initiatives but continuations of an old colonial policy, adapting its methods to serve the evolving colonial project. The goal is to expand Jewish settlement presence around Palestinian communities, reshape the geographic and demographic landscape, and pressure the remaining Palestinian space that survived the Nakba.
The article traces these policies back to Israel's early years, emphasizing that the treatment of Palestinians who remained in the country involved subjugation, land confiscation, and military rule until 1966. It highlights that colonialism was embedded within Israel's legal and institutional systems, creating a seemingly legitimate framework for control. The separation of Palestinian refugees expelled in 1948 from those who remained as citizens, coupled with the confiscation of refugee property, is presented as a key element of this colonial equation.
Furthermore, the article criticizes the international community, particularly Western powers, for overlooking Israel's colonial structure while promoting its image as a democracy. The 1967 occupation is seen as further deepening the separation, with the West Bank and Gaza becoming a distinct international issue while Israel was normalized within its recognized borders. The article argues that the occupation, initially presented as temporary, evolved into a gradual settlement project, with recent discourse openly advocating for exclusive Jewish sovereignty over all of historic Palestine.
The Oslo Accords are again criticized for solidifying this division by focusing on the West Bank and Gaza as the core of the Palestinian issue, leaving Palestinians inside Israel disconnected from the national project and relegated to the status of 'Arab citizens.' This, the article states, reinforced the fragmentation initiated by Israel, separating internal colonization from the occupation of 1967, rather than recognizing them as parts of a single, evolving colonial project. The current expansion of settlement activity near Arab towns in the Galilee and Triangle, and the transformation of Palestinian coastal cities into 'mixed cities,' are presented as extensions of this long-standing logic of land control and the reshaping of Palestinian space.
The article concludes by calling for a shift from conceptual discourse to concrete political and social resistance among Palestinians in Israel. It urges them to view themselves not as a separate minority but as an integral part of the Palestinian people, connected to the broader struggle for Palestine. This requires rebuilding popular committees and national frameworks, linking the fight against land confiscation and settlement to issues of organized crime, housing crises, poverty, unemployment, and state-sanctioned violence. The ultimate goal is to expose the unity of the colonial project from the river to the sea and dismantle the system of control established since the Nakba, countering Israel's narrative of being a democracy separate from its colonial origins.
