Qalandar Bux Memon

English | اردو What motivates the desire for Third World solidarity is the shared history of oppression by a common oppressor. In 2009, a few academics, supported by long standing left-wing activists, founded Pakistanis for Palestine, a Lahore based group that aimed to support Palestinians in their struggle for statehood. Critics—which include Pakistanis—of course, wonder why, given Pakistan’s own issues, we bother to advocate for the Palestinian struggle. Here I want to reply to that critique, but before doing so let’s get some of the facts straight about the occupation of Palestine and the nature of the Israeli state for, without background, we cannot understand solidarity work. I. Israel is a settler colonial state.  Edward Said offers us a pertinent definition of imperialism, and settler colonialism. In his book Culture and Imperialism, he writes, “Imperialism means the practice, the theory, and the attitudes of a dominating metropolitan center ruling a distant territory; colonialism, which is almost always a consequence of imperialism, is the implanting of settlements on distant territory.”  Settler colonialism, in turn, requires the transfer of a large population to the colonized area. Israel can be viewed as a settler colonial state historically, but the term also has explanatory and analytical […]