Excellent piece on the British roots of the conflict in #Palestine and the impact of colonial “divide and rule” strategies here and elsewhere:
“In British India, they pushed the Hindu-Muslim divide, sometimes favoring one population, sometimes the other. In Cyprus, they pitted the Greeks against the Turks. In Sri Lanka, it was the Tamils against the Sinhalese. In Ireland, it was the Catholics against the Protestants. The list goes on.“
@pvonhellermannn I'm sure I don't understand fully what's happening, but I have the impression that Israel was founded (also) on the idea of conflict. People came from a war and holocaust, wanted to fight against everyone to get what they wanted (a land for them). And maybe now they cannot exist without this idea. Would an angel come on earth with peace, would they catch that possibility?
(Obviously I may be totally wrong)
@pvonhellermannn Just finished listening to audiobook of "Legacy of Violence, A History of the British Empire" by Caroline Elkins. She makes (in much more detail with much more supporting evidence) the same point.
@pvonhellermannn And for each one a genocide. We shouldn't forget the Belgians and Rwanda while we are talking about the genocidal legacy of colonialism and colonial divisions.
@pvonhellermannn Britain sowed division around the world & much closer to home. North v south, London v everywhere else, England's ruling class still uses division as a means of control, causing human misery on a massive scale. #UKCorruption
@pvonhellermannn very much this. As a part Caribbean and part arab, I've the divide strategy was also used in the Caribbean (bringing Indians, then Cantonese - that's how I look like me!).
People like to frame this conflict as "middle eastern people can't self govern", but the fact is it took a tremendous amount of work to destabilise us exactly because the Ottoman Empire self-governed so well it was a security worry to European powers.
The lesson here is not to allow someone to pull your strings. They count on the gut reactions as a form of control.
@pvonhellermannn To be honest, this is sort of a blame game which is part of the past. We can‘t change that. We only can learn from it. We can solve problems at the present or trying to achieve something in the future. We should concentrate on that and do our most to achieve it.
@pvonhellermannn It's normal divide and conquer approach to colonisation. The Romans used it, The French used it, the British were experts in it, and the US has repeatedly used it.
@haiku_shelf ah - sorry. I didn’t check out the author at all, I have to confess. My point here was about the impact of British colonialism. But i agree, i have not shared any posts sticking to original hospital story. Not sure what to do about this one! I think i will leave it for now, as i do think that paragraph is pretty good/important, but will mull it over. Thank you for pointing this out.
@pvonhellermannn@haiku_shelf The British imperial war machine was and still remains a powerful force for evil. It decimated Africa, Asia, Caribbean countries and America's. They still supply software and weapons to tyrants all over the world. Britain is a problem, a root cause for many genocides
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