World Politics & Imperialism

It says something about the colonial reality of Palestinians that as a Jewish supporter of the campaign for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel, I am often accused by Israel supporters of “singling out” Israel – as if the idea were mine, something I picked up from left-wing kooks or “self-hating” Jews looking for an excuse to wear a kefiah.

From the Komagata Maru carrying 376 Punjabi passengers and the SS St. Louis travelling with 900 Jewish asylum seekers, to the boats with 600 people from China's Fujian province and the Ocean Lady that docked in B.C. last year with Tamil refugees - there is something about boatloads of migrants that triggers a national hysteria.

We have entered a whole new, crisis-ridden and conflictual period in world history. The combination of George W. Bush’s disastrous occupation of Iraq and the global economic crisis has ripped apart the unipolar world order the United States attempted to construct after the Cold War.

Haitians have suffered mightily for repeatedly defying and defeating the imperial order.