settler colonies maintain domination thru layered architecture that absorbs criticism. resistance [even nonviolent] is neutralized cuz these shields r economic, institutional, and social mechanisms that redistribute attention, resources, and moral authority to preserve structure+
omer@sunnoxygen
Nov 28 25
View on Twitter
israel has functionally no civil society or third sector. it is like that by design. the military-industrial complex is woven into the very fabric of the society to shield it against any meaningful resistance. civil shields are just one category up from human shields
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 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 plaestinains 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 missionx, 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 palestinains. 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
Missing some tweets in this thread? Or failed to load images or videos? You can try to .