by MUBARAK ALI
After reaching its zenith, classical imperialism may have declined but its institutions and traditions have remained for historians to study and understand. After evolving through different stages, its objectives were accomplished by justifying the process on moral, religious, political and economic grounds.
When the Europeans discovered the three continents — North America, Africa, and Australasia — they propagated that these were lands without people. It meant that the land was no one’s property and, therefore, could be occupied and used by the imperial powers.
In North America, the settlers occupied land by depriving native tribes of their property. This argument is advanced in the The Frontier Thesis by historian Turner. On the other hand, Australia became the dumping ground for convicts and criminals, who were transported from Britain to work as cheap labour. It was the government’s policy to shift its excess population to the newly discovered continents.
…
In the modern period, Israel is emulating the methodology of classical imperialism to strengthen its state. By propagating that Palestine was a land without people, it justified its occupation and use for cultivation as well as settlement. Israel also adopted the policy of terror on the Palestinians to appropriate their property. Its terrorist organisation is responsible for genocide of the Palestinians. In Deir Yassin (1948), the whole population of the village was massacred. This terrified the people from other villages and they fled from Palestine to take refuge in different Arab countries. As the Jewish population was not large enough to counter the Palestinians, the Israeli government encouraged the Russians, Eastern Europeans and the Middle Eastern Jewish communities to come to Israel and settle there. The policy of colonisation still continues.
After the 1967 war, Israel occupied East Jerusalem, West Bank and Golan Heights. Israel is systematically building new houses in the West Bank as well as expelling the Palestinians from East Jerusalem on a variety of different pretexts.
Dawn for more