Millions of Palestinians worldwide live in forced diaspora and are cut off from their homeland by Israel’s colonial practices and policies. The Zionist movement — and later, Israel — has forcibly displaced more than half of the Palestinian population and in turn has created numerous laws, regulations, and military orders such as the Prevention of Infiltration Law and military orders 1649 and 1650 to prevent Palestinians from returning to their homes and properties. Israel marks Palestinians who try to do so as “infiltrators,” and has deported or even shot at them on sight. Israel has created a privileged colonial status, which in all facets of life, including the political, social, and cultural levels, is superior to that of non-Jewish Palestinians. Whether this system is labeled as apartheid, colonial rule, or Zionist state ideology, it is a manifestation of control and domination of one people over another that leaves no room for alternative interpretation.

Israel’s colonial grip on Palestinian identity