Shireen Abu Akleh’s death exposes colonial solidarity

The assassination of world-renowned journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh galvanized protest the world over, with many across the political spectrum taking to the streets in a display of their indignation at the Israeli encroachment of the most basic human rights. However, there was an exception in several Western states, in particular Germany and America. In Berlin, police banned a vigil in memory of Shireen. In the US, while a handful of progressives have spoken out in support of cutting aid to Israel, most Democratic politicians produced their usual ethically lethargic response, and Republicans remained violently silent.

Anyone following events in Palestine will undoubtedly not be surprised at these reactions. However, with the assassination of Shireen, we get a full display of a new epoch of blatant violence. Shireen was an American citizen, a journalist who worked for the most influential media outlets in the middle east. And while the US prides itself on defending its citizen, from its second amendment to going around the world to ensure the safety of its people by destroying others, when it comes to Abu Akleh, and other Palestinian Americans, Israel is treated differently.

These grim reactions following Shireen’s killing point to the colonial solidarity between Western, and non-Western, states.

Colonial solidarity with the U.S. and Germany

The term colonial solidarity can be understood similar to the ‘special relationship’, that nebulous phrase deployed to end all critique of Israel or justify the indiscriminate cutting down of Palestinians. Colonial solidarity also refers to capitalist states supporting other capitalist states in their absolute drive to extract profit beyond their borders by all means. This leads to the erosion of democratic values (internally and externally) as is typical of colonialism; the marginalization of public wants in favor of self-interest; the deliberate convolution of abhorrent acts of violence and coercion; all to extract profits outside their geographic locations to benefit a few within their geographic locations.

The idea of colonial solidarity goes back decades if not centuries, a brief look into its history helps us conceptualize these relationships. In the later 19th century, fringe Zionist ideas emerged that suggested antisemitism was absolute and that Jew and gentile cannot live side by side. This idea did not appeal to most Jews and in fact Jewish people were over represented in socialist internationalist movements. Enter Theodor Herzl, a Zionist ideologue who believed that super powers should support in their cause. After WWI, Chaim Weizmann took Herzl’s idea to practice and suggested “a Jewish Palestine would be a safeguard to England.” Suggesting Zionism would ensure British colonial support in the region. Seeing how British colonialism had important routes in that region, this suggestion was well received. This started the violent history of settlement, occupation, colonialism and apartheid. 

Fast forward decades later, when the US emerged as the super power post WWII, this colonial arrangement was revisited. In reference to Saudi oil, a state department memo read “where the oil resources constitute a stupendous source of strategic power, and one of the greatest material prizes in world history…” The new superpower, and its capitalist class, eyed out the middle east’s “stupendous” riches. Only, colonial adventurism was not an option due to geopolitical complexity (the Arab nationalist wave at the time and cold war complexities) and the simple fact that it would be expensive. In a Machiavellian maneuver, the US sought to cultivate a ‘special relation’ with Israel; where Israel receives diplomatic cover, military and financial support and in turn, America gets a client state in the region with a fraction of the cost. 

Let’s turn to Germany. Germany’s reasoning for stopping the vigil, and subsequent crack down of protests, is the supposed “antisemitic nature” of pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Preemptively trying to quash any antisemitism, which has been legally stretched to encompass a broad array of acts and criticisms as to render the charge disingenuous. Nonetheless, protests did break out, where dozens were arrested, and prominent members of the Palestinian community were brutally attacked. 

Germany should always learn from its past, as every country or indeed any ethical person should, but this introspection can sometimes be toxic when hedonistically guided. The laborious work of Dr. Norman Finkelstein demonstrates just how toxic this guidance has been throughout the latter half of the 20^th century, where reparations were demanded without exception or investigations, claiming that Holocaust survivors had only a few years to live, and once the money was paid, instead of going to those survivors, they would go to pro-Zionist and pro-Israeli groups. 

Of course, reparations should be paid to those affected, and are still being affected, by historic crimes, to alleviate the sufferings of those affected, and atone for criminal acts. But this commodification of trauma has extended well beyond reparations, into the through the promotion of Zionist ideas. This coercive pressure has encouraged political disengagement with the suffering of Palestinians, the promoted a lack of accountability for Israeli violence. 

The assassination of Abu Akleh has shined a bright light on this ‘special relationship’; which the US has permeated media and thus politics. In the case of Germany, historical guilt has turned into a pathology, where reality is based on trauma, and in a sinister turn Zionist reparation groups play the role of Germany’s therapists.

More so Abu Akleh’s murder shows democratic functions are slowly being replaced with oligarchic ones. 

In the U.S. the response to her killing shows how elite interests have been prioritized, to the point where even the basic tenets of democracy, free speech and a free media, is being put to test. The response was to suggest that the testimonies of the journalists with Abu Akleh shouldn’t be taken at face value, and that we should depend on the established media who have been pushing faulty logic. Flooding the media sphere were headlines with “Al Jazeera journalist” as if Abu Akleh is some different species of journalist. Abu Akleh is an American citizen and Al Jazeera is an established media outlet, those two facts show us to which direction this oligarchic practice is heading.

Or in the case of Germany, traumatically crippled as to prioritize its toxic overcorrection of history as opposed to siding with those being ethnically cleansed. When the Berlin police contested protests because of a minority antisemitic voices that by no means represented the majority, they’ve revealed that they are more cautious about the minute unrepresentative voice more than the assassination of a journalist.

The reach of colonial solidarity

Abu Akleh’s murder also exposes how far this ‘special relationship’ goes in non-Western countries, such as Sudan. Being a pro-democracy Marxist activist in Sudan and a psychotherapist, I’ve witnessed first-hand Israel’s help in supporting the 25th October coup leaders, and the psychological trauma suffered by protestors, and citizens in this climate of military fear.

In Sudan, there has been widespread condemnation of Abu Akleh’s assassination but this condemnation is not displayed in the meaningful way in the media. However, Sudan’s normalization with Israel has been covered extensively and praised almost unanimously. This normalization is being driven by neoliberal politicians looking to financialize the economy while the majority of the public does not support it. The funding Sudan received after normalizing mostly went to the pockets of politicians, IGOs, INGOs and other top down institutions that are pro-financializaton, not the people (with the exception of one program that saw to hand out $5 a month to people, but only if the government bans subsidies which has caused more damage than good). Again, here we see the symptoms of the ‘special relationship’ — a minority of elites making decisions against the will of the majority, and neglecting the suffering of Palestinians.

In the assassination of Abu Akleh, we see the erosion of democracy in Germany and the US, we see the hindrance of the democratic processes in Sudan (and elsewhere). All this to keep erect and cement the colonial relationship between these countries and continue financialization and commodifying trauma for the sake of profit. These are the products of colonial solidarity.