Settler colonies maintain domination thru layered architecture that absorbs criticism.
Resistance [even nonviolent] is neutralized because these shields are economic,
institutional, and social mechanisms that redistribute attention, resources, and moral
authority to preserve
structure.
As far as attention is something we pay, this is thread is a very rudimentary sketch of a
political economy of attention within the framework of nonviolent resistance to settler
colonies
and their genocidal logical conclusions.
Strikingly obvious as it may appear colonized ppl and the third world are robbed not only of
capital, but also of the ability to
outline and execute their resistance to the theft and exploitation of capital and labor, and
their narratives. This pushes towards a resolution outside of the agreed boundaries of
liberal
world order and capitalism, and in turn used to delegitimize anti colonial action.
But when the colonized and indigenous are acting within said boundaries, this interlocked
architecture of shields is immediately deployed to shut down nonviolent resistance as well
The case here will be palestine, following beinart's crossing of BDS picket line, but it can
be
equally applied to many other cases. BDS is unique in the sense that it is a big, coherent,
non
governmental movement and thus require personal discipline as opposed to
other countries such as: russia, venezuela, the dprk, cuba etc are obstruction to western
imperialism and thus are state- or globally-sanctioned and do not require any specific
discipline (this is true regardless of what you think of these countries) and in themselves
these are examples that show that liberal world order knows quite well when to deny its
citizens
of informed personal decision making because it acknowledges the effectiveness of sanctions
to
produce submission, which is why it would not let it apply to israel.
The first and most primitive shied is the human shield:
with this, one the society hides behind the actions of individuals or small groups to
absolve
itself of collective accountability. it works dialectically-- either behind a few bad seeds
or a
few good seeds that is: settler violence in the west bank is seen as non-significant and
unrepresentative of israeli society. although there is no meaningful action against them by
israelis and they are incorporated into the government and are taken into account in any
decision
While the "few willing israelis" and the "makers of no other land" and standing together.
although are admittedly fringe and mostly outcasted and frown upon by israelis, are seen as
the
figure of the enlightened individual: the humanitarian celebr, the critical journalist etc
it's culture industry. it absorb[s] moral critcism and redirect attention from systemic
exploitation to questions of personal virtue or exceptionalism. symbolic dissent is
commodified,
functioning as a moral buffer. moral outrage is converted into reproduction of settler
legitimacy these are presented as proof of the settler state’s openness and moral
legitimacy. the structural violence of dispossession, exploitation, and extraction
untouched.
this is because
there is absolutely no systemic way an israeli could turn to dissent the few that are are
practically adventurists, not people who attended a talk in TAU, nor
should
any movement count on sporadic talks to cultivate anyone. israelis have shown immense
disdain to
hearing anything that does not reinforce their supremacist tendencies
Cooperating with these range between the harmless or useless to full on normalization like
in
the case of azizi. who goes as far as saying beinart spat on the face of the [Palestinians]
who
came for his defense. conveniently ignoring the palestinains who made beinart apologize
the second shield is institutional: it is where TAU falls. it is were intuition of the "good
faithed" thinkers break. TAU, or any
other university in israel, is not distinct from the israeli war machine. it is part and
parcel
with it, and fro, here the first crucial mechanism of BDS is sets into motion. universities,
ngos, courts, and think tanks mediate
critique through procedures, technical debates, or regulatory oversight. Institutions are
embedded in the economic and political logic of occupation: MIC sponsorship embeds
settler-aligned priorities in research, policy, and institutional decision-making. no
institution in israel is
independent of the iof or israel's defense industry. and espcially so with the universities
who
train thousands of iof soliders in different programs each year and offer different research
opportunities, hackathons, competitions and career paths into the
israeli military-industrial complex.
It is like that by design, institutions in israel are meant
to appear harmless and undeserving of boycott to delegitimize intl action against them.
This layer also includes media complicity. it cultivates and mediates different aspect of
popular outrage in either support of seemingly innocent israeli institutions or malignant
international forces that range between BDS and mamdani.
It's culturally repugnant it
ensures that the audience know that maccabi fans did nothung wrong, or don't need to
suffer
any repercussions even if they did, that the charming israeli teens who raped a british
tourist
in greece, the sorry solider who just wants to vacate after serving ungodly
amount of days in gaza carrying out the genocide, but then coming back with either ptsd or
guilt. the sde teiman heroes who just wanted to rape a palestinian hostage.
and it goes all
the
way up to israeli journalist doing reservist roles in the iof or joining the iof
to different missions, going as far as pushing the button to bomb a lebanese house, with
practically no outrage at all, since it is ACTUALLY completely normal from the israeli pov.
attention is always diverted outwards, dissent on this is showing the "dirty laundry"
The last shield is civilizational
in this case the civilization itself is a shield. the settler state presents itself as the
guardian of civilization, law, and universal values. Critique becomes morally illegible:
opposition is framed as anti-progress or anti-civilization. boycotts, divestments, and
sanctions
are absorbed into narratives that protect the settler
state’s moral and political authority while leaving occupation and accumulation intact.
Civil society, institutions, and MIC-linked networks converge to create a totalizing shield
mechanisms
that distribute the consequences of resistance across social, economic, and
political
layers so that extraction and settlement are insulated from disruption by constantly
diverting
attention. securing imperial intrests under the guise of moral and legal legitimacy it
should be
noted that israel weaponized each layer against [Palestinians]. it is the now
famous
"every accusation is a confession".
So a maggot like beinart can come give a useless talk in
an
israeli university and gaza can't have a university at all for alleged hamas links this goes
way
further, literally every point here is somethign that israel accused
palestinains
of, mostly completely without any basis, while having complete impunity to carry out every
crimes is accuses palestinians of committing in, but doing so in vast scales the settler
colony
embeds its MIC thoroughly so that in every instance removing it will be
seen
as too disruptive to the social order of the settlers to be taken seriously by hegemonic
powers.
the key is that the settlers should never feel uncomfortable, never confronted never have
any
repercussions for their genocidal actions. it does not matter what you pay
attention to because every aspect is meant to reproduce this exact logic: you can not
meaningful
disrupt the colony and you are not allowed violence to do so either. you can just submit
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[A]
