Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za
3-minute read
24 April 2025 | 14:36 CAT

Families walk through the rubble in Gaza, carrying what remains of their belongings — a quiet testament to survival amid devastation. (Getty Images)

Political analyst and author Phyllis Bennis has called for a radical reframing of the conversation around Gaza, urging a deeper reckoning with the long and violent history behind Israel’s current war. Bennis, a senior associate at the Transnational Institute, says the narrative that begins on October 7 is both “disingenuous” and “historically dishonest.”

“If you start the clock on October 7, you’re going to have one very narrowly defined version of history,” says Bennis. She traces Gaza’s devastation back through a century of colonial violence, emphasising the 1948 Nakba, when over 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their homes, as the root of today’s conflict.

Bennis challenges the mainstream Western media for ignoring decades of blockade, occupation, and displacement. “Even before 2007, when the blockade of Gaza began, and 1967, when Israel militarily occupied the territory—this was a story about dispossession and settler colonialism,” she explains.

Her analysis draws striking parallels with other settler colonial regimes. “In the U.S., the model was extermination of Native Americans. In South Africa, it was labor exploitation. In Israel, it was mass expulsion,” she says. “These are choices settler-colonial regimes make to claim land—choices rooted in racial supremacy.”

Bennis labels the current Israeli assault on Gaza as genocide, rooted in settler colonial ideologies. “We’re not talking about a war. This is a genocide. Genocide has a legal definition, and what we are witnessing fits that,” she asserts.

However, she remains hopeful. Highlighting recent global mobilisations, especially among youth in the U.S., she notes, “This solidarity movement was once fringe. Now, students and activists of all backgrounds are standing up in unprecedented numbers.”

The key, she says, is sustainability. “This must be a long-term fight—just as apartheid in South Africa didn’t fall overnight, Palestine’s freedom won’t either. But the movement is growing, and history tells us that change, while slow, is possible.”

“It’s all about when you start the clock,” Bennis concludes. “Because that determines whether you understand history—or erase it.”

Listen to the full interview on The Daily Round-Up with Moulana Junaid Kharsany and Political analyst and author Phyllis Bennis here.