Any discussion of Indigeneity regarding a group of people must delve into colonialism, particularly settler colonialism.

1. What Is Indigeneity?

In a broader scientific context, the term "Indigeneity" or "Indigenous" refers to the origin of a species or organism from a specific location.

However, when referring to a people in the context of human rights and international law, "Indigenous" refers to the original inhabitants of a particular region who have lived there for generations before the arrival of colonial settlers from another country.

The immigrants view the natives as detrimental to the colony; therefore, they dispossess them of their lands, resources, and cultural heritage and marginalise or suppress their rights and identities.In 2007, The UN formally recognised the rights of indigenous peoples by adopting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

The working definition of "Indigenous Peoples":

"…those communities, peoples and nations who, having a 1.historical continuity with pre-colonial and/or pre-settler societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves 2.distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing in those territories, or parts of them. They 3.form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are 4.determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples...”

Example of indigenous people:

First Nations, Inuit and Métis in Canada

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia

A group is not referred to as indigenous if they are not within or experienced a colonial power structure, even if they practically originate from their current locality, for example:

Frankish People in France

Anglo-Saxon Englishmen in the British Isles

Dutch, Italians, Germans.

In face, Indigenous groups may cease to be referred to as indigenous if their colonial relation is dismantled. Thus, to Identify the Indigenous we must identify the coloniser as the two are often closely intertwined.

2. Israel, A Proud Colonial State.

Historically, colonial expansion was a source of European pride, with no understanding of Indigeneity as a right to land but as a negative status indicating savagery and backwardness.

Political Zionism, a movement that emerged in late 19th century Europe, was heavily influenced by colonial ideologies of the time, a fact that is well-documented in the writings of Zionist thinkers and politicians, including Theodor Herzl, regarded as the "Father of Modern Zionism." In his quest for support and recognition, Herzl sought alliances with colonial powers such as France and the United Kingdom and other settler colonial states like the United States and Canada.

In 1902, Herzl famously wrote to Cecil Rhodes, one of the most significant British colonial figures in Africa, seeking support for his Zionist endeavour:

“You are being invited to help make history. That cannot frighten you, nor will you laugh at it. It is not in your accustomed line; it doesn't involve Africa, but a piece of Asia Minor, not Englishmen but Jews. But had this been on your path, you would have done it by now. How, then, do I happen to turn to you, since this is an out-of-the-way matter for you? How indeed? Because it is something colonial.!”

In his address to the first Zionist Congress, Herzl rationalises his colonial mission in Palestine:

"It is more and more to the interest of the civilised nations and of civilisation in general that a cultural station be established on the shortest road to Asia. Palestine is this station and we Jews are the bearers of culture who are ready to give our property and our lives to bring about its creation."

Jabotinsky, a Russian Jewish Zionist leader and founder of the Zionist terrorist organisation Irgun which helped establish Isreal. Wrote in his book The Iron Wall:

“Zionist colonisation must either be terminated or carried out against the wishes of the native population. This colonisation can, therefore, be continued and make progress only under the protection of a power independent of the native population – an iron wall, which will be in a position to resist the pressure to the native population. This is, in toto, our policy towards the Arabs…”

“If you wish to colonise a land in which people are already living, you must find a garrison for the land, or find a benefactor who will provide a garrison on your behalf.… Zionism is a colonising venture and, therefore, it stands or falls on the question of armed forces.”

This colonial history is not limited to the past, as we can see it vividly today in Isreal's colonial practice of daily oppression against the Palestinian natives. Some methods used by settler colonies to oppress indigenous peoples:

a. Land Theft and Dispossession: 1948, upon the establishment of Isreal, around 700,000 Palestinians were forced to flee or were expelled from their homes by Israeli forces – 1950, Isreal established the "Absentee Property Law", which allows the Israeli government to seize control of land belonging to Palestinians who fled or were forced to leave during the 1948 war.

b. Forced Assimilation: The "Judaization" of Palestinian neighbourhoods by promoting Jewish settlement and adopting Hebrew as the official language in education and public life while restricting Palestinian cultural expression, including banning books, films, and other media that are critical of Israeli policies. E.g. The ban of the Palestinian flag in the occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank in 1967 and the prohibition of artworks containing the flag's four colours in 1980.

c. Economical Exploitation: Israel controls the majority of the water resources in the region as well as exploits Palestinian natural resources, including minerals, quarries, and agricultural land. Palestinian farmers have reported that Israeli settlers have uprooted their olive trees, destroyed their crops, and polluted their farmland.

3. Israeli Exploitation Of Indigeneity.

The international community's significant shift towards acknowledging indigenous people's struggles against colonisation, and the broad negative sentiment towards colonialism, forced Israel to rethink its history and create a new narrative to legitimise its presence in the region and strip Palestinians from their indigenous status.

By reframing its colonial mission as one of indigenous people's decolonisation of their rightful territory, Isreal appropriates the rhetoric of indigenous empowerment while in contradiction continuing to seek funding and legitimisation from other settler colonial states, who continue to suppress other indigenous groups, as well as openly and publicly practices settler colonial oppression against the Palestinians.

Isreal bases its argument on a supremacist ethno-nationalist and misleading definition of Indigeneity, claiming it to be an innate Jewish characteristic and not one imposed by colonialism. Such a claim severely harms indigenous groups on their mission to decolonisation by providing a legitimising framework for colonial tactics like ethnic cleansing, land theft and genocide to any group that claims ancestral ties to the land.

Yet, even if one was to entertain the Zionist claim of Indigeneity through lineage, multiple genetic studies have already shown that many Jews and Palestinians share ancestry, rendering such claim unjustifiable, as the ethnically cleansed Palestinian are population shares the same ancestral history.