Exploring Solidarity: Connections Between the Palestinian and Tamil Eelam Struggles
The countless protests and organised resistance that have recently been documented on social media have informed people about the Israeli occupation of Palestine in a way like never before in the 70 year conflict. This has empowered everyday people (and mostly young people) who are witnessing the unfiltered violence on their screens, to become critical of the narrative that is perpetuated by mainstream media organisations and politicians, as well as the political objectives that may be underpinning them.
However, for Palestinians, like many Eelam Tamils before them, the residue of colonisation, paired with the false promises of liberal ideologies and covert western political interests is all they have ever known. As a result, Palestinians and Eelam Tamils have shared a solidarity from displacement, conflict, and marginalisation.
Protest against the Palestinian genocide in Sydney
Protest against Eelam Tamil genocide in Sydney
Both groups have historical narratives rooted in claims to ancestral lands challenging settler-based colonialism, cultural identities, and have had aspirations for self-governance and national sovereignty. Similarly, the governments of Sri Lanka and Israel also understood that their respective political challenges were aligned and sought to learn from each other. By way of example, Israeli officials shared intelligence with Sri Lanka on the efficacy of building Sinhala-only settlements, like the Israeli-settlements in Palestine with the aim to destroy the local population’s claim to sovereignty by way of occupation, and to diminish the hope for politically tenable solutions. The resulting wars waged on civilian populations have had significant external influences - Israel’s, which was financially and politically and supported by the United States amongst other western interests, and Sri Lanka’s, which was politically supported by Israel, and financially and politically supported by the United States and its dependants (aka Australia and others).
The United States has had a long standing interest in the middle east and so the success of the zionist project is a win for the United States. There is limited political appetite for Australia and others to challenge the United States, and never enough tax dollars for military spending. Western democracies will espouse liberal ideologies in service of the American dream. The 30,000+ Palestinians are paying for this ‘ American dream’ with their lives.
The Nadesalingams and other displaced Eelam Tamils around the world who were able to flee the violence in Sri Lanka witnessed a slow genocide of Eelam Tamils from the middle of the 20th century onwards, all culminating in the deaths of thousands of Eelam Tamils trapped in a thin strip of land known as Mullivaikkal in 2009. The history of Eelam Tamils, and the world’s response, is instructive for us in our assessment of Palestine and our inaction in an analogous tragedy in 2024 - Palestinians trapped in the Gaza strip.
Understanding our history, the reverberations of colonialism and current geopolitical dynamics will help us be more honest with ourselves. What we are seeing is not new. and it is incumbent on us to recognise this.