Israel is a Western colony in the Middle East created after 1945 through genocide, extermination, and forcible displacement of the indigenous population of Palestine—the Palestinians—and their neighbors. Israel’s defenders deploy the standard repertoire of colonial pretexts to justify Israel’s existence, from the defense of civilization and the fulfillment of religious prophecy to the need to provide a refuge for a group that has suffered oppression in the West. In the context of Israel, these pretexts are called “Zionism.”

Israel was founded by American and European colonists at the same time as dozens of other Western colonies, from India to Indochina, were being dismantled after World War II. The existence of Israel therefore presents a fundamental challenge to the norm against Western colonization. As such, Israel also presents a fundamental challenge to international peace and human freedom.

Decolonization is the normal response to colonization. In the 20th century, decolonization was carried out dozens of times around the world, often through military action. The resulting states make up a large part of the United Nations today. Nearly every country in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia would not exist without decolonization.

Decolonization liberates peoples; it does not destroy them. The history of decolonization teaches that, in practice, settler communities either move to the West in a process of "white flight" or remain and generally continue to occupy the upper levels of the income scale in decolonized countries. The harm of decolonization to these communities is dwarfed by the harm they would continue to inflict on the colonized population in the absence of decolonization.

It is impossible to maintain a rule against colonization without rejecting the right of the colonizer population as a group to self-determination in the colonized country and without insisting upon the exclusive right of the colonized population to decide the constitution of the decolonized state, including the legal status of the colonizer population. Absent this, colonization becomes an irreversible process. Once the colony is created, it cannot be undone.

Accordingly, there can be no two-state solution, one-state solution, or any other externally imposed solution in Palestine. The Palestinians have a right to govern the land between the river and the sea however they see fit. The decolonization of Palestine entails affirmation of the exclusive right of the Palestinian people to self-determination in Palestine and opposition to any right of self-determination for Jewish people as a group in Palestine. Jewish Palestinians—the tiny minority of Jewish people whose ancestors lived in Palestine immediately prior to the arrival of the first Zionist colonizers in Palestine in 1882—share in the right of Palestinians to self-determination in Palestine.

That said, Palestinians have consistently offered equal rights to the Zionist colonizer population in a unitary decolonized state. This is an extraordinary concession and signal of goodwill in light of Zionist attempts to exterminate Palestinians for more than 80 years.

The history of decolonization in the 20th century reveals that decolonization often requires military assistance from nations that are friends to the colonized population. This is especially true for Palestine, whose indigenous resistance forces have been unable to overcome colonial forces despite more than 80 years of struggle.

The Hague Group of nations, which includes South Africa, Colombia, Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, and Senegal, formed at the beginning of 2025 to coordinate their actions in solidarity with the people of Palestine. Given their declared commitment to protect Palestine, these countries are in a position to take the lead in organizing international military intervention to end Israel and liberate Palestine. Israel is currently intentionally starving 2 million Palestinians to death in Gaza; the need for the nations of the world to go to war to end Israel could not be more urgent today.

Sign this position to send a message to the member nations of the Hague Group---and the nations of the world more generally---that they must start organizing military intervention to end Israel and liberate Palestine today.