The author argues the contemporary 'settler‑colonialism' framework—used to stigmatize European‑descent Jews in Israel—was largely built by Australian academics, not simply inherited from 1960s Francophone or Arab writers. She also critiques the Australian habit of folding 40,000 years of Aboriginal prehistory into the nation’s story to support analogies that don’t fit cases like Algeria.
— If true, it shifts blame lines and strategy in Israel‑Palestine discourse by tracing influential rhetoric to a specific academic export rather than to long‑standing anti‑colonial theory.
Helen Dale
2025.03.21
100% relevant
Helen Dale’s claim that Adam Kirsch misses how Australian academics 'made up' the modern settler‑colonial arguments later applied to October 7 justifications, and her contrast between Aboriginal prehistory and Algeria’s recorded history.
Helen Dale
2025.02.11
90% relevant
Dale argues Australia is 'to settler‑colonial ideology as Sicily is to mafia,' claiming Australian academics originated and exported these concepts and that they now drive U.S. culture‑war frames and are weaponized against Israel; she names the 1990s genocide‑definition debates and figures like Robert Manne as sources.
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