The True History and Legal Meaning of Colonialism in the Holy Land: The 2042 B.C.E. Project

Abstract

One of the most inexplicable uses of certain Marxist terms, such as colonialism, imperialism and settler-colonialism is with regard to the State of Israel, a frequent target of Marxists, and ethnic Jews, the descendants of the indigenous people of the modern State of Israel, who are often referred to as Zionists. Though there are no logical connections between the policies and acts of the State of Israel or Israeli citizens, on the one hand, and the complaints of Marxists regarding domestic American strife and discrimination, on the other hand, that has not stopped Israel from being a prominent target of Marxist groups like Black Lives Matter. In fact, anti-Israel activism, and castigating Israel as a settler-colonialist entity, have become central planks of the Black Lives Matter movement and even radical American politicians such as Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Because Marxist terms are now being weaponized in ways that are utterly at odds with the history and meanings of these terms, and those weaponizing the terms allege that they have legal import in questions as to the legitimacy of the State of Israel, this paper will explore the most frequently used terms and how such terms have been historically applied in various situations. After providing definitions for the terms, this paper will apply these terms to the history of the Jewish claim to Israel to determine whether there is any basis for theories of colonialism, imperialism and settler-colonialism being applicable to Israel and Zionism. Finally, the history of those who make competing claims to the land, including Palestinian Arabs and Muslims generally, will be reviewed to determine whether it is these parties who are more properly characterized as colonialists, imperialists or settler-colonialists.

The purpose of this article is not to present a Marxist point of view with regard to the three terms, colonialism, imperialism and settler-colonialism; rather, this article intends to take a legal view of these non-legal terms to determine whether the terms should have any legal effect vis a vis the rights of people to self-determination and to also examine the internal consistency of the use of these terms by Marxist activists and Marxist scholars across different peoples and states.

PLEASE NOTE: This is a second draft and has not been uniformly formatted in Blue Book style and remains subject to review, comment and revision to reflect comments received, typos discovered and other matters.

Keywords: colonialism, settler-colonialism, imperialism, decolonization, islam, zionism, Israel, Arabs, Palestine

JEL Classification: K33, P10, P20, K00, N15, N45, N95, K39, K29, K49