London | Book Launch: “Palestine … it is something colonial”

Join us at the P21 Gallery for the launch of Dr Hatem Bazian’s latest work ‘Palestine… It is something colonial.’ The evening will begin with an introduction to the Decolonising the Minds series from Amrit Publishers followed by a discussion of the book and Q&A with Dr Bazian.


Book Launch: “Palestine … it is something colonial”

In 1902, Theodor Herzl, the founder of political Zionism, wrote to Cecil Rhodes, the Minister of Colonies for Great Britain: “You are being invited to help make history. It doesn’t involve Africa, but a piece of Asia Minor; not Englishmen but Jews … How, then, do I happen to turn to you since this is an out-of-the-way matter for you? How indeed? Because it is something colonial.” The occupation of Palestine was the last settler-colonial project the British empire commissioned, and this colonial project is still unfolding more than one hundred years later.

In centering Palestine’s modern history around settler-colonial discourses, Hatem Bazian offers a theoretical basis for understanding Palestine while avoiding the pitfalls of the internationally supported “peace process” that, on the one hand, affirms settler-colonial rights and, on the other hand, problematizes the colonialized and dispenses with the ramifications of the colonial project.