Juan Cole: Israel’s Colonial Revenge Genocide in Gaza is only the latest in a Long History of such Massacres

Juan Cole discusses Israel’s Colonial Revenge Genocide in Gaza is only the latest in a Long History of such Massacres

Such vendettas against civilian populations have been routinely pursued by colonial militaries in the wake of a forceful challenge to their control. We must be clear-eyed and recognize that such revolts have sometimes been characterized by the deployment of the most horrific terrorism against the settler population by the indigenous resistance. The main characteristic of the phenomenon, however, is the disproportionate response by the settlers and their colonial military, so that the number of indigenous people killed is orders of magnitude higher than the casualties among the settlers. Another frequent trope is the patriarchal justification of subsequent massacres by pointing to settler women and children killed. This rhetoric drove London’s repression of the first Indian Great Rebellion against British rule in 1857-1858.

Emphasis Mine

As Cole points out, this disproportionate response is a feature of a settler-colonial society. One example from List of massacres of Indigenous Australians is:

March 1797. After Aboriginal Australians killed two British settlers, a large punitive expedition was organised which surprised and dispersed a native camp of about 100 people, killing an unknown number. The armed group then returned to Parramatta to rest. Pemulwuy, a noted Aboriginal resistance leader of the early frontier, followed them into the town, demanding vengeance for the dispersal. A skirmish (known as the Battle of Parramatta) then occurred between Pemulwuy's group and a collection of British soldiers and settlers. One of the settlers was injured, but at least five Aboriginal Australians were shot dead with many more wounded, including Pemulwuy.

Emphasis in Original

This example does not explain why the two (2) settlers were killed as part of Battle of Parramatta. This is the standard history of a settler-colonial society in which all atrocities start with the actions of the colonised, never in the context in which the actions occurred. One is left with the impression that the colonised are just blood-thirsty barbarism who act without reason. Consequently, the settlers believe that they are left with no other option than genocide. For to admit a rational basis for the actions of the colonised is to undermine the settler-colonial project.

In his book, "The Battle of Parramatta: 21 to 22 March 1797", Jonathan Lim argues the settlers killed were a soldier and his common-law wife (pp.20-21). These murders occurred during raids by Aboriginals to destroy the economic basis for settler encroachment on Aboriginal lands by destroying the grains just before harvest (p.17). These raids have been going for a couple of years. The increasing levels of reprisals by settlers, and the presence of a military garrison on the frontier points to the success of economic warfare.