{"id":97261,"date":"2025-04-24T14:44:55","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T12:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/?p=97261"},"modified":"2025-04-24T14:44:55","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T12:44:55","slug":"gaza-a-century-of-displacement-fuels-todays-genocide-says-political-analyst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/gaza-a-century-of-displacement-fuels-todays-genocide-says-political-analyst\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaza: A Century of Displacement Fuels Today\u2019s Genocide, Says Political Analyst"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za<\/a>
\n3-minute read
\n24 April 2025 | 14:36 CAT<\/p>\n

\"\"

Families walk through the rubble in Gaza, carrying what remains of their belongings \u2014 a quiet testament to survival amid devastation. (Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u2019s current war. Bennis, a senior associate at the Transnational Institute, says the narrative that begins on October 7 is both \u201cdisingenuous\u201d and \u201chistorically dishonest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you start the clock on October 7, you\u2019re going to have one very narrowly defined version of history,\u201d says Bennis. She traces Gaza\u2019s 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\u2019s conflict.<\/p>\n

Bennis challenges the mainstream Western media for ignoring decades of blockade, occupation, and displacement. \u201cEven before 2007, when the blockade of Gaza began, and 1967, when Israel militarily occupied the territory\u2014this was a story about dispossession and settler colonialism,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

Her analysis draws striking parallels with other settler colonial regimes. \u201cIn the U.S., the model was extermination of Native Americans. In South Africa, it was labor exploitation. In Israel, it was mass expulsion,\u201d she says. \u201cThese are choices settler-colonial regimes make to claim land\u2014choices rooted in racial supremacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennis labels the current Israeli assault on Gaza as genocide, rooted in settler colonial ideologies. \u201cWe\u2019re not talking about a war. This is a genocide. Genocide has a legal definition, and what we are witnessing fits that,\u201d she asserts.<\/p>\n

However, she remains hopeful. Highlighting recent global mobilisations, especially among youth in the U.S., she notes, \u201cThis solidarity movement was once fringe. Now, students and activists of all backgrounds are standing up in unprecedented numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The key, she says, is sustainability. \u201cThis must be a long-term fight\u2014just as apartheid in South Africa didn\u2019t fall overnight, Palestine\u2019s freedom won\u2019t either. But the movement is growing, and history tells us that change, while slow, is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s all about when you start the clock,\u201d Bennis concludes. \u201cBecause that determines whether you understand history\u2014or erase it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen<\/strong> to the full interview on The Daily Round-Up with Moulana Junaid Kharsany and Political analyst and author Phyllis Bennis here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za 3-minute read 24 April 2025 | 14:36 CAT 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\u2019s current war. Bennis, a senior associate at the Transnational Institute, says the narrative that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":97262,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28,4998,4997],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-ummah","category-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2182380031-scaled-e1733253256526-1468x710-1.jpg?fit=1468%2C710&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0QIf-piJ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 02:17:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}