As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proceeds with a “complete siege” of Gaza – halting supply of electricity, food, water and fuel – left wing media organisation Double Down News has published a video in which UK rapper Lowkey attempts to dismantle some prevailing master narratives around the violence taking place in Israel and Palestine.
Lowkey: “This is not about self-defence, and it never was”
Lowkey begins by asserting that Israel is a colonial power, making an analogy to the British Empire’s invasion of Aboriginal land. “To say Israel has the right to self-defence is like saying Captain Cook when he planted the British flag in the Aboriginal nations of what would later become Australia was somehow self-defence of Britain,” says Lowkey.
Lowkey emphasises that Israel can’t be defined as defending itself given its military occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza. “[Israel] controls what goes in and comes out of Gaza. It controls the electricity in Gaza. It controls the seas of Gaza. It controls the skies of Gaza,” he says. “This is not about self-defence, and it never was. You are gaslighting the entire world and we have had enough.”
The ongoing violence is not a battle between two equal sides, as Lowkey explains. “When you look at a place like Gaza, you are talking about [16] years of some of the most comprehensive sanctions that have ever existed in human history,” he says. “When you look at the difference between a nuclear armed, technologically advanced army, armed by all of the great powers, to people where somehow they find a way to resist their situation, there is zero parity in this context.”
The killing of innocent civilians – as both Hamas and the Israeli state are accused of doing – is a war crime and should be condemned. But as Lowkey says, you can’t speak accurately about the nature of the violence in the region without acknowledging the disparity of power. “One side is the occupier, the other side is the occupied,” he says, referring to Israel and Palestine, respectively.
He continues, “How is it possible that we seem to be more concerned about defending the right of a colonial, settler, ethnic cleansing entity to continue business as usual – which is besieging and ethnic cleansing – than we are bothered by the fact that colonialism still exists.”
Lowkey provides further context on the extent of Israel’s ongoing settler colonial project, referring to the state of affairs in the West Bank. “There are 440 Israeli colonies in the West Bank, housing over half a million illegal settlers who are armed and have control of over 80% of the water in the West Bank,” he says.
“Those settlements are deemed illegal by UN Resolution 2334,” adds Lowkey. Watch the complete video below.
Lowkey: The Israel Palestine ‘Conflict’ in Under 10 minutes
Organisations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem have formally condemned Israeli authorities for committing the crime of apartheid against Palestinians.
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