29 March 2025

The Fall of Colonial Settler Regimes: Lessons from History and the Struggle for Palestine

History shows that colonial settler regimes do not last. They may dominate for decades with military force and repression, but eventually they collapse under the weight of internal resistance, international solidarity movements, and shifting global opinion.

SOUTH AFRICA 

South Africa’s apartheid state lasted 50 years. Built on white minority rule and racial segregation, it controlled the lives of the Black majority through laws, police brutality, and economic exclusion.

Yet resistance was constant. From township uprisings to trade unions and liberation movements, South Africans refused to accept their oppression. International solidarity grew through sanctions, boycotts, and global condemnation. By the early 1990s, the regime collapsed, and in 1994, South Africa held its first democratic elections.

ALGERIA

French rule in Algeria followed a similar path. France encouraged European settlers to occupy Algerian land while denying basic rights to the indigenous population.

In 1954, Algerians launched an eight-year war of liberation. France responded with repression, torture, and mass killings, but the Algerian people’s determination could not be crushed. In 1962, Algeria won independence and the colonial project was defeated.

ZIMBABWE 

Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, was no different. In 1965, a white minority government declared independence from Britain to block Black majority rule. Backed by force and international alliances, the regime held on for years. But resistance movements and armed struggle, combined with sanctions and diplomacy, eventually brought it down. In 1980, Zimbabwe held democratic elections and majority rule was established.

These histories share a clear truth: regimes built on land theft, racial domination, and inequality are unsustainable. Settler colonialism and apartheid are unstable because they rely on dispossession, exclusion, and systemic violence—conditions that generate resistance and moral outrage. Over time, the cost becomes too high.

PALESTINE

Britain facilitated the Zionist project in Palestine—most notably through the Balfour Declaration of 1917. The declaration was issued without consulting the indigenous Palestinian people and while Britain was still fighting the Ottoman Empire, which then controlled Palestine. 

After World War I, Britain was given control of Palestine under a League of Nations Mandate. It suppressed Palestinian uprisings—especially during the Arab Revolt (1936–1939), which protested Zionist colonisation and British rule. Thousands of Palestinians were killed, imprisoned, or exiled, weakening their ability to resist what was coming.

By the end of World War II, Britain’s position in Palestine had become untenable due to growing conflict. In 1947, it referred the issue to the United Nations, which passed a partition plan to divide Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. Palestinians and surrounding Arab nations rejected the plan, as it awarded 55% of the land to the Jewish minority, despite Palestinians making up two-thirds of the population and owning most of the land.

Britain withdrew in 1948. Zionist militias declared the State of Israel and, through force and expulsion, took over 78% of historic Palestine, displacing over 750,000 Palestinians in the Nakba (catastrophe). This laid the groundwork for decades of conflict and subjugation.

Today, Israel controls about 85–90% of historic Palestine—expanded through occupation, siege, and illegal settlements, and maintained by military force, apartheid, and US backing. Palestinians face walls, checkpoints, sieges, and blockades. Netanyahu referred to the wars on Gaza as “mowing the lawn”—a euphemism for keeping the population numbers down by killing civilians.

“Putting Gaza on a diet” refers to an Israeli policy after the 2007 blockade aimed at limiting food and supplies to Gaza without causing outright starvation. Israel calculated minimum caloric needs and restricted imports accordingly, as a form of pressure on the civilian population.

Despite unimaginable suffering, Palestinians have resisted—through protest, organising, art, literature, and steadfastness. 

Israel’s brutal war on Gaza and the West Bank has brought global condemnation. Netanyahu is now wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

The US and much of the Western diaspora stand shamed before the world for their complicity. western legacy press have manufactured consent for genocide. In 17 months, Israel has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians though it is widely believed that the true figure is exponentially much higher. They have killed 18,000 children.

The growing movement of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions echo those that helped end apartheid in South Africa.

The arc of history bends toward justice—but only when people pull it in that direction. Change is inevitable.

This too will pass.