NICK ESTES, nicholas.w.estes@gmail.com, @nickwestes
Estes recently wrote the piece “Settler ‘Self-Defense’ and Native Liberation” at Indigenous Solidarity with Palestine which states: “The genocidal assault on Palestinian life is also ideological, with firm roots in Turtle Island. The United States supplies more than bombs. It also supplies the media narrative justifying the slaughter of Palestinians and the colonization of their lands. The Atlantic Magazine has become the veritable mouthpiece for what can be called anti-anti-Zionism. This pro-genocide position, standard across corporate media outlets, has only hardened since the intensification of the Zionist-led genocide against Palestinians one year ago. …
“Dehumanization is the first step in genocidal incitement. However, counter-annihilation is also a key feature of settler colonialism. It is the belief and practice that colonial society must annihilate Native people; otherwise, the colonizers, in turn, will be annihilated in a zero-sum calculus. It is a pre-emptive ‘self-defense’ against any real or imagined anti-colonial attack. It makes invasion look like ‘self-defense.’ It is why the chorus of Western media outlets repeat the mantra: ‘Israel has the right to defend itself.’ But the colonized are never granted the authority of self-defense or the right not to be annihilated.
“After one year of genocide, we have plenty of gruesome evidence of what settler ‘self-defense’ looks like. Leaked video surveillance shows that occupation prisons are also sites of extreme sexual violence and rape. ‘Everything is legitimate,’ responded the Zionist ruling party to condemnations of prison guards raping Palestinians. Such brutality is not solely a nineteenth-century phenomenon. This is modern, twenty-first-century settler colonialism.” Estes is an enrolled member of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe. He is an assistant professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota. His books include Our History is the Future.
Estes is also co-host of The Red Nation Podcast — see the just-posted most recent edition: “Indigenous Peoples’ Day vs. Empire,” which includes Vivi Camacho, Mohammed El-Kurd and Monaeka Flores discussing the connections between various indigenous struggles from Bolivia to Guam to Palestine.
Also see his piece from 2018, “Indigenous Peoples Day, Challenging Colonialism in Albuquerque and Beyond,” which noted: “Nationwide Abolish Columbus Day campaigns have projected the powerful voices of urban Natives. … Indigenous Peoples Day celebrations, however, are not parochial, but part of a long history of resistance and collaboration with other oppressed peoples. In 1977, the International Indian Treaty Council called for the end of the celebration of Columbus Day, to declare instead the International Day of Solidarity and Mourning with Indigenous Peoples. The UN Committee on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Apartheid, and Colonialism passed the resolution, with the support of many organizations, such as the African National Congress and the Palestine Liberation Organization, who recognized the devastating effects of colonialism.”