This week, Hamza Hamouchene returns to the podcast to talk about Towards Palestinian Liberation: Global Perspectives on Anti-Colonial Resistance and Solidarity, the new collection he co-edited with Abi Bae. Palestine, he argues, cannot be understood simply as a “conflict” or humanitarian crisis, but as a national liberation struggle against settler colonialism embedded in a larger system of Western imperialism and global capitalism.
Hamza traces Israel’s role within the imperial order, the class interests of Arab ruling elites, and the political economy of occupation and dispossession. Drawing connections to Algeria, Vietnam, South Africa, and other anti-colonial struggles, he emphasizes the revolutionary potential of international solidarity and the necessity of connecting struggles against colonialism, capitalism, and imperialism.
Steve brings MMT into the discussion, arguing that an analysis of real resources is incomplete without confronting the imperial power and violence through which those resources are controlled. The conversation ultimately points beyond solidarity with Palestine toward a larger project of liberation. As Hamza wraps it up:
“We need to be in solidarity with movements that are fighting for their rights, fighting against land grabs, against extractivism, against neocolonial plunder. Be with the Palestinians in their struggle for liberation. Because what we want, Steve, is not just a liberated Palestine. We want a liberated Palestine in a liberated world.”
Too often, mainstream narratives on Palestine are narrowly focused on Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. Solidarity is reduced to a matter of human rights and international law violations. Hamza stands firm in his refusal to treat Palestine as an exception to the global struggle against imperialism.
I'm impressed by the depth and breadth of this analysis of the occupation. Hamza ties Zionism to 19th century capitalist expansion and he connects the Palestian liberation struggle to the history of anti-colonial warfare.
It's also rare to call out the reactionary role of the Arab comprador ruling classes and the Palestinian Authority.
Bringing MMT into the conversation connects monetary sovereignty and real resources to imperialism.
Hamza Hamouchene explains why Palestine is so central to the global anti-colonial struggle. From its very beginnings, the ethnofascist state of Israel has been settler colonialism in its most brutal form, upheld by US imperialism to control global oil supply and trade routes.
Anti-imperialist movements in the Global South see the parallels to their own histories of violence, dispossession and subjugation, and understand that weakening this imperial pillar weakens the entire structure. Solidarity is strategic, not just symbolic - it's a common front against empire. Defeating imperialism anywhere creates space for victories everywhere. That's why the Global South stands with Gaza - liberation is indivisible.