[News] Stop the re-creation of ‘Indian country’ in the Holy Land

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Palestine: Stop the re-creation of ‘Indian country’ in the Holy Land




By Julia Good Fox

Jan 13, 2009
During a meeting at Wi’am, a conflict resolution 
center in historic Bethlehem, a gentleman shared 
a moment of either resignation or despair with 
our delegation: “It’s not part of their mentality 
to let us live as Palestinians.” Their mentality 
was a reference to the collective actions of the 
U.S. and Israel – actions which clearly 
demonstrate more than a desire to destroy the 
spirit of self-determination among the Palestinians.

Bethlehem and other cities, towns and villages in 
the West Bank are enclosed by the notorious 
apartheid walls and barriers and are tightly 
controlled by the Israeli military. Furthermore, 
the West Bank itself is imprisoned by the 
apartheid barrier, as is its neighbor 25 miles 
away, the Gaza Strip. (The West Bank and the Gaza 
Strip also are known as the “Occupied 
Territories.”) This horrific nesting doll set of 
containment has its heart of darkness squarely 
embedded within the United States. When one 
replaces the misleading and tightly-controlled 
rhetoric that predominates mainstream U.S. media 
with the actual first-hand witnessing of the 
algebra of conditions that Israel, sponsored by 
the annual $2 billion in military assistance from 
the United States, imposes on a basically unarmed 
and defenseless Palestine, one cannot help but 
solve the equation: Israel’s objective, with U.S. 
backing, is not to destroy the Palestinian will 
to sovereignty and so to compel them to surrender 
to a life under occupation. Rather, the intent of 
the U.S. and Israel is to coerce and forcibly 
remove the Palestinians out of the region completely.

As indigenous peoples, we are not amateurs to 
this game. We have inherited the meme (albeit it 
lies dormant in some of us who still insist on 
protecting the fort) that provides insight into 
the politics and culture of occupation, 
colonization and removal – wherever it occurs.

The intent of the U.S. and Israel is to coerce 
and forcibly remove the Palestinians out of the region completely.

Contrary to widely-held beliefs, the crisis in 
Palestine is relatively recent in origin. As 
historians and scholars will remind us, Jewish 
people generally thrived and lived in respectful 
coexistence with Christians and Muslims in 
Palestine while they were subjected to prejudice 
(and far worse) in Europe and the United States. 
It was only during the mid-20th century that 
sustained violence began to occur between the 
populations – when the U.S. and Europe, out of 
their collective guilt for allowing the Shoah to 
happen, formed the state of Israel on top of Palestine.

This formation did not occur on empty land. Known 
as “Al-Nakba” (Arabic for “the Cataclysm”), this 
1948 event involved the expulsion of an estimated 
one million Palestinians from cities and 
villages, massacres, torture and rape, and the 
destruction of nearly 500 Palestinian villages. 
Zionism, which activist Gabe Camacho has 
correctly described as synonymous with manifest 
destiny, is the hegemonic ideology of the 
colonizers in the Holy Land. And one of the ideas 
of Zionism/Manifest Destiny is the concept of 
“Indian country,” an anti-human rights activity 
that the U.S. exports internationally.

“Indian Country” is a U.S.-designated term for 
our remaining and secondary homelands; however, 
the term also is common in the U.S. military and 
colonization parlance such as when it was 
employed in the invasion of Vietnam or as seen in 
the ongoing occupation of Iraq. We see this term in action, too, in Palestine.

Although we and the Palestinians are at different 
places in the politics of colonization and 
decolonization, as survivors of manifest destiny 
(and often combatants against present-day 
cultural practices of anti-Indianism), we 
immediately – and viscerally – recognize the 
extraordinary historic and contemporary parallels 
between the Palestinians and our nations and 
tribes. Perhaps one of the most recognizable 
similarities that we encounter is the theft and 
fractionalization of Palestinian land, a process 
that we might know better as “removal” and 
“allotment.” A strengthened and stabilized 
land-base is the basis of self-determination, and 
the Palestinian struggle to liberate and protect 
their land certainly resonates with our people.

We immediately – and viscerally – recognize the 
extraordinary historic and contemporary parallels 
between the Palestinians and our nations and tribes.


While in Palestine last summer, I saw billboards 
and other advertisements for new housing 
developments for Israelis (on land stolen from 
the Palestinians); Israelis are given financial 
incentives to move to these areas, much like how 
the settlers were provided for by the United 
States regarding our lands. Yet, land theft, no 
matter how it is sanitized or censored in the 
political, educational and cultural arenas, is an 
attack on human rights. Land theft also is in 
violation of the UN Genocide Convention which 
recognizes that such robbery is accompanied by an 
assault on the families, languages, religions and 
spirituality, and other cultural practices of a 
tribe or nation. The theft of a people’s land 
results in the fracturing of the community and 
families, directly interfering with social 
relationships, economies and languages. It brings 
intergenerational consequences for families, 
especially children. Indigenous peoples recognize 
the relationship between land and the well-being 
of a people, and are on an intimate basis with 
the damage that occurs when this relationship is 
severed by military force and ongoing colonization.

Thankfully, the U.S. and Israel’s land theft and 
other anti-human rights practices are monitored 
not only by Palestinian and United Nations 
agencies, but also by Israeli-based human rights 
groups, such as B’Tselem, and counter-recruitment 
organizations, including New Profile, which seek 
not only to document these atrocities but also to 
bring to a halt, using public pressure, these egregious practices.

Apart from this invasion, Palestinians are 
punished by the Israelis for speaking Arabic.

Meanwhile, the current U.S.-Israel’s one-sided 
war in the Gaza has resulted, so far, in the 
death of more than 800 people, injury of 
thousands, and as yet undisclosed damage to the 
infrastructure and environment of the area. Apart 
from this invasion, Palestinians are punished by 
the Israelis for speaking Arabic. Palestinian 
families are forcibly separated and the Israelis 
are incarcerating the men at alarming rates. 
Palestinian land continues to be seized and there 
exists Palestinian villages that are officially 
“unrecognized” and thus shut off from resources 
such as water and electricity. Palestinians are 
portrayed as terrorists – modern day savages – in the mainstream media.

As indigenous peoples, we can supplement our 
local and tribal self-determination activity by 
setting aside just a few hours to locate and work 
through an international political or human 
rights organization that promotes informed 
solidarity and intelligent mutual support with 
the Palestinians. In doing so, we can bring to a 
halt the U.S. and Israel’s attempt to re-create 
“Indian country” in the Occupied Territories.


Julia Good Fox (Pawnee) is on faculty in the 
Indigenous and American Indian Studies Program at 
Haskell Indian Nations University. In 2008, she 
was a member of the Third World Coalition 
delegation to Israel and the Occupied West Bank.

Find this article at:
<http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/opinion/37520499.html>http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/opinion/37520499.html



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