Said and Fanon: Orientalism and the Anti-Colonial Resistance

Abstract

In 2023, the Palestinian resistance challenged the philosophical, legal, and political architecture of Western democracies, revealing their hidden colonial and genocidal core. From 1948 onward, Western political discourse was explicitly structured around the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the creation of Genocide as a criminal offense. The imperative to prevent future genocides and punish racism coincided with the execution and cover-up of the Nakba. This is not a contradiction, but a structural paradox. The memory of the Shoah and the defense of Human Rights have been articulated in the West as a political machine that delegitimizes all resistance from the oppressed, who are expelled from the political community and labeled as terrorists. From this perspective, Said and Fanon contribute to dismantling this metaphysical machine that produces simultaneously the citizen and homo sacer.