Settler Colonialism and Resistance

SETTLER COLONIALISM AND RESISTANCE

There are several types of colonialism: one is settler colonialism. A historian defines it as follow: “Large numbers of settlers claim land and become the majority. Employing a ‘logic of elimination’, …they attempt to engineer the disappearance of the original inhabitants…”

The US, Canada, Australia, Argentina and arguably Israel are examples of settler colonialism. Many supporters of Israel allege that they are the legitimate occupiers of the land they now control because they settled there over 3,000 years ago, and that the Arab Palestinians came later. But the Palestinians have been there for at least 1,600 years so they have a strong claim to the land.

In any case, settler colonialism is ugly: witness the US treatment of indigenous people. Settler colonialism causes resistance, leading to charges by the settlers against displaced people that violence by the displaced shows that they are “savages” or “human animals”, not worthy of decent treatment. The dehumanization of the oppressed leads to continued violence. 

Sources: American Historical Association, Perspectives on History, 10/1/2015 and The New York Times, 10/29/23 and 12/10/23