Violence is generally considered to be a means towards an end. Only a mindless nihilist would look at violence and say that here is an activity that is, or should be, an end in itself, not even the US authoritarian regime.
The unfolding events in the Palestinian homeland are forcing us to carefully analyze the problem of violence and its uses, both by revolutionaries and others. In the case of Palestine, numerous Western commentators and pretentious intellectuals rushed to discuss the launch of the Al-Aqsa Flood military operation on Oct 7, 2023, providing their own moral judgments over the Palestinians’ justified use of violence against the Israeli settler entity. It is therefore important to revisit our discussion around the use of violence, as this can lead the revolutionary masses of the world—those who are following closely the events that unfold in the region of West Asia, to a better understanding of how violence should be used, and when it should be applied.
While it comes without saying that armed struggle is an enshrined right for people living under occupation, Western petty-bourgeoise intellectuals—and its humanitarian moguls—are only used to consume Palestinians as suffering animals. As such, they cannot stand the possibility that Palestinians, and their regional allies, can organize and launch a planned military operation against their violent usurpers and subjugators.
The Killing Machine of Colonialism
Following the aftermath of the Nazi defeat in Europe by the Soviet Red Army, the people of Algeria, which at the time was under French settler colonization, marched in various cities, especially Setif and Guelma. This event took place on May 8, 1945. They marched asking for the release of political detainees and the application of more humane treatment of Algerians on their national territory.
How were the marches and protests met by the French authorities? They responded by unleashing a complete massacre. The entire structure of colonial violence was mobilized on the people of Algeria, to such an extent that historical figures claim that around 20,000 to 45,000 people were killed in a single day. Why is colonialism so violent?
Colonialism is a regime instituted and governed by violence, where violence (whether ethnic cleansing or genocide) is foundational to its material and ideological standing. It is always by force that the colonial regime is established, and it is against the will of the people that other people more advanced in the techniques of destruction or numerically more powerful have prevailed. As such, a system that is established on violence can only logically be faithful to itself, and its duration in time depends on the continuation of violence. Yet, this is not an abstract violence. It is not only a violence perceived by the spirit, but also a violence manifested in the daily behavior of the colonizers towards the colonized, it is one that purposedly aims to shorten the lives of the colonized; that is, to kill them.
Contempt, a politics of hate, and incitement to genocide are manifestations of a very concrete and painful violence. Colonialism, however, is not satisfied by perpetrating violence against the present. The colonized people are presented ideologically as a people arrested in their evolution. They are arrested in time, they are impervious and impenetrable to reason, incapable of directing their own affairs, requiring the permanent presence of an external ruling power. Therefore, the inherently barbaric nature of the colonized requires – if not eternally justified – the constant use of violence by the colonizers.
Violence in everyday acts, violence against the past and memory of the colonized, violence against their future. The colonial regime, due to its spider-web nature, requires the exercise of endless violence. This violence is framed as an enlightened struggle, where the forces of light are pitted against those of darkness. Men, women, and children are turned into flesh, no distinction exists because the colonized must be oppressed and clobbered, their lives must be annihilated and shortened.
The history of the colonized people is thus transformed into meaningless, savage, and immoral unrest that must be condemned. It’s not merely displaced from history; it perpetually exists outside of it, as the colonized inhabit a state of suspended time, always positioned beyond its confines.”
Therefore, it is very difficult to understand the violence of the colonized, if it is thought and presented in terms of the ideas disseminated by the colonizers, the imperialists, and thus by the bourgeois philosophy.
For these petty bourgeoisie, violence is a relic of barbarism, and only human animals can resort to it. Violence is bound to disappear under the progress of enlightenment, civilization, and democracy. In fact, for all those who have been brought up under bourgeois ideology, it is natural to have a profound contempt for the people who explain the violence under which the colonized live; they are astonished to see that educated students, for instance, can agree with the likes of ‘’barbaric’’ forces. This is why they rush to condemn it; they want everyone and everybody to do so… how can you dare to make sense, explain, and empathize with these animals? At times, they hold up a false distinction (one between civilians and terrorists), but such a distinction never existed in the first place, it is a twist that bourgeois and colonized legality and rhetoric adopt.
The colonized, when confined to a narrative of victimhood, suffering and misery, is often welcomed by everyone, even among the most liberal factions of the colonizers. However, when the colonized take action to challenge their state of misery, accusations and condemnations swiftly follow. The colonizers often perceive those who analyze the violence of the colonized as acting in bad faith, dismissing their explanations as absurd sophistry meant to rationalize the actions of people they view as inherently stupid, barbaric, and terrorist, lacking any capacity for reasoned thought.
And so, one has the impression that for the colonized, humanity began with the arrival of those brave settlers. However, it does not take an incredibly brilliant mind—or perhaps one that is not brought up under bourgeois ideology—to realize that when people are caught in a web of three-dimensional violence: temporal (over their past, present, and future) and spatially (over their bodies, institutions and spirit), then the colonized is soon brought before the problem of ending the colonial regime by any necessary means. Revolution becomes a historical necessity.
A Historical Necessity for the Colonized
Colonialism drives the colonized people into revolt, because in daily life, the colonizer’s project opposes the oppressed people’s desires; and the colonized organize themselves under the influence of numerous causes of different aspects: social, religious, national. Then, they elaborate their revolutionary ideas in order to liberate themselves.
In doing so, the colonized people respond to the orchestrated violence. However, this endeavor faces a formidable challenge: the colonizers not only strive to preserve their own existence, meaning their self-preservation, but they also grapple with the necessity of redefining self-preservation as new values, truths, and morality. Their actions are inherently transformative, aiming to overturn bourgeois colonial ideologies and consign them to the dustbin of history. The call for freedom and the actions taken to achieve it embody the struggle for decolonization, wherein the colonized reclaim their humanity, agency, right to self-determination, and the liberation of their land. These actions symbolize a quest for selfhood and freedom that transcends the physical, conceptual, and psychological barriers of violence imposed upon them.
In launching their counter-violence against the colonizers and settlers, the colonized demonstrate a level of careful planning and discipline that defines the objectives of their revolutionary endeavor. Unlike the colonizers, who often target children, women, and indiscriminately destroy infrastructure, hospitals, educational institutions, and residential areas with utmost savagery, the colonized focus their attacks on military and army units. Furthermore, they treat prisoners from the colonizer community with a humanity that often surprises even the settlers themselves.
However, the colonizers ultimately perceive this revolutionary call as an existential threat. They experience physical and moral fear, and this double fear is translated into aggression and severely homicidal-genocidal conduct. In fact, as the Israelis did in the aftermath of October 7, they started pinning all their genocidal fantasies on the colonized Palestinian people. Driven by a powerful guilt complex, they think that, if the Palestinians should come to rule over us, they would certainly treat us like we used to treat them. This is where the entire charade of lies concerning the beheaded babies and raped women comes into the picture. Once again, the attempt is to reduce the history of the Palestinians to one of senseless and barbaric acts of violence.
Toward the Path of Liberation
It is important to say that, when the Algerians revolted in 1945, they indeed faced massacres. Yet, nine years later, a revolutionary war started that eventually led to the liberation of the country from French Colonialism. The military operation of October 7, 2023 has set the Palestinians on the path of liberation of their homeland. The path is fraught with obstacles and bloodshed, but the Palestinians and their regional allies have come to terms with a very crucial historical fact. For people living under colonization, there are historical necessities and inevitabilities that must be confronted to liberate themselves. Violence, then, is only a tool that is required to regain one’s existence. Unfortunately, it does not matter what Western progressives and academics think, because there will be no NATO-led bombings coming to liberate the Palestinians, and the latter know this too.
Matteo Gladio
Al Mayadeen