Like many people, I was shocked and sickened by the recent slaughter in Gaza. The sight of Hamas terrorists streaming across the border and killing more than 1300 unarmed Israeli men, women and children was beyond understanding. Almost as shocking was the response on some American university and college campuses. The sight of student protesters supporting the Hamas murderers while condemning their victims was almost unbelievable.

The events now unfolding in Gaza are a part of the world-wide and millennia old wars for geographic control. A new term has been introduced recently to justify the killing of civilians. It is called “settler colonialism.”

Settler colonialists are identified as outsiders who have invaded foreign lands, forced the indigenous people from their homes and stolen their land. The settler colonialists are viewed as having no right to the land they occupy, regardless of how long they have been there.

Are the student protesters using this term saying Hamas is justified in murdering Israelis in order to free Palestine from the settler colonialists?

History is replete with examples of mass migration and warfare with one group defeating and expelling or subjugating another. In the modern era the settler colonialists have principally been identified as people from Western Europe, although this has occurred on all continents and among all ethnic groups. People who are current residents of a particular locale previously may have been the settler colonialists who displaced prior occupants. It is impossible to establish the original claim.

Hamas and its supporters view the Jews as the invading settler colonialists and the Palestinians as the rightful owners of the land. But does history support this position? Were the Palestinians, as represented by Hamas, really the original inhabitants of the land? More than 2000 years ago the area that is now Israel was a Jewish state. Many Jews were driven from their homes, largely by the Romans, but many others remained in the area that is now Israel and have continued to live there since.

The people now identified as Palestinians moved in and occupied the land after the Jews had been driven out. Perhaps it’s the Palestinians who are the settler colonialists and the Jews are the ones who are merely reclaiming their homeland. It’s certainly something to think about in a very confusing situation.

To make it even more confusing, what about the Canaanites who probably have the original claim to the land?

But regardless of who was there first, does anything justify the murder of unarmed civilians?