Reclaiming Palestinian Indigenous Sovereignty

Abstract

The 2021 Unity Intifada represented a vital moment in the history of Palestinian resistance. The unification of Palestinian struggle inherent to the uprising can be read as an expression of Palestinian Indigenous sovereignty. Drawing on the critical thought of Palestinians and other Indigenous peoples struggling against settler colonialism, I argue for a theorization of Palestinian indigeneity. Following from this indigeneity, I show that Palestinian Indigenous sovereignty is the embodied political claim to the land of Palestine. This theorization of sovereignty offers uniquely productive ways to account for and challenge Zionist/Israeli settler-colonial violence and, ultimately, to forge paths toward decolonial Palestinian futures.