The Destruction of Palestine Is the Destruction of the Earth

By Andreas Malm, 2024

This an interesting book – really more of a lengthy pamphlet than a book – that I came across while reading Rashid Khalidi’s The Hundred Years War on Palestine. It draws a parallel between the unlimited capacity for destruction and killing in Palestine with the equally unlimited capacity for destruction of the environment by fossil fuels. I was, and remain, sceptical that the parallel has much depth, but Malm does make many historical and rhetorical points that I found valuable.

Malm starts with a historical point that Khalidi does not raise: the links between Britain’s early development of steam ships and industrial power and its occupation of the Palestinian territories in the mid-18^th century. This establishes its control of transportation and coal in the eastern Mediterranean and later the Suez Canal, and of the oil industry in Iraq and Arabia. This control shifts to the United States after Britain is weakened in its wars against Germany. The USA and Britain support the establishment of Israel in the Palestinian lands in order to counter the rising Arab nationalism and control of oil. Negotiations over Israel, according to Malm, are designed to develop and control oil in the Middle East (and in the North Sea).

Malm argues that this self-interest in protecting supplies of both coal and oil, rather than any submission to a Zionist lobby, explains British and US policy in the Middle East. Thus, Anglo-American imperialist control of fossil fuels is destroying Palestine in the same way that it is destroying the environment. And seeing the Israeli state in this way as a creation and a tool of Western imperialism, to call for an end of the colonialist State of Israel is essential for ending imperialism in the Middle East and for establishing a Palestinian state. Malm perhaps leaves open the possibility of a non-imperialist Israeli state in Palestine, although only alongside an independent Palestinian state. It’s not at all clear, however, what such an Israeli state could be – certainly not an exclusively Jewish state, and what would be the need of a parallel multi-national state in Palestine?

Malm calls for support for the Palestinian resistance, even in their armed wings, arguing that the death of civilians is tragic, but justified when there is no other alternative. This makes a parallel with other historical liberation struggles, such as the violent revolutions in Haiti, Kenya, South Africa, and even the French and American Revolutions, which were characterized as bloodthirsty terrorism in their times. In the face of violent repression, violent resistance is inevitable. We do not criticize slaves for excesses of violence against their owners, we look at it as the direct outcome of the act of repression.

Malm also discusses the Palestinian parties and says that Hamas has moved from a religious to a nationalist political position, and is more open to collaboration than other factions in Palestine and neighbouring countries. In looking at the current policies of the State of Israel in Gaza and the West Bank, one could easily conclude that the government is led by religious fanatics and opportunists more than the Palestinians are.

Malm says that it is an error to view a Zionist lobby as controlling Anglo-American policies in the Middle East – these are a direct result of national self-interest. This often coincides with Zionist interests, but when it does not, the national interests always prevail, as they have done when the US pushed for regional stability over Israel’s military objectives in Egypt, Syria and Iran. This is a compelling argument, and more persuasive than Malm’s parallels with the destruction of the environment. Fossil fuels are certainly destroying the Earth, but so are most capitalist economic policy. I’m not sure that tying that to the Palestinian liberation struggle adds much clarity.