The Masks of Empire

The power of Palestine in revealing everything the Empire seeks to hide.

Poster by Venezuelan artist-activist Kael Abello | Artists Against Apartheid

The West congratulates itself for recognising Palestine even as it arms, funds, and shields the slaughter in Gaza. This is the latest insult in a long sequence of dystopian gestures, each exposing the utter inadequacy of our systems of governance. To any rational observer, this is absurd. But for those in power, it is perfectly on point for an order untethered from reality, guided only by the narratives it must invent to survive.

This is, of course, by design.

“Every empire tells itself and the world that it is unlike all other empires.”

— Edward Said

Fascism and Liberalism — The Empire’s Two Faces

It can feel like you’re going insane watching the interplay between the hollow gestures of liberalism and the brutal actions of fascism come from the same ruling order. Take Britain today, recognising Palestine while supplying the F-35 parts used to erase it from the very map they just claimed to recognise.

To the untrained eye, this can appear contradictory — but it’s not.

Empire relies on both brute force and perceived legitimacy. Without the former, those under its boot heels will eventually reclaim their righteous place at the table. Without the latter, the burden of discontent will collapse the Empire from within, which is the more common fate of empires. Yet these two pillars are naturally at odds: you cannot legitimately take what was never yours.

And so, the Empire has two faces — fascism and liberalism.

Fascism is the brutality of Empire manifest. Fascism declares: “One way or another, we will take Gaza.” It is the state arming settlers to take West Bank homes, and the militarised police that brutalise citizens who oppose it back home. There are no limits to the actions of fascism but those that are hard, violent, and immovable. Fascism speaks only the language of violence. It seeks to take whatever it needs to assert dominion. Fascism does not care about the contradictions, only the end result.

Liberalism offers platitudes, concessions, and recognition to placate the horror fascism foments. It grants ‘humanitarian pauses’ to punctuate the slaughter with aid drops for the victims to dodge. It publishes polished statements of vacuous rhetoric from high office that make less impact than a raindrop in an ocean of blood. In short, it is the fluff that makes fascism bearable enough, to enough people, for it to continue.

Liberalism exists to paper over the contradictions.

These are not opposites but complementary tactics — one softens the image, the other enforces reality. And, crucially, both emerge from the same imperial strategy: preserve hegemony.

“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction… no longer exists.”

— Hannah Arendt

Cracks in the Veneer

Activists have long uttered the words Palestine reveals everything. This applies to the flawed value systems of individuals, all the way up to the gargantuan contradictions of Empire. By refusing to just lie down and die, Palestinians force what is often the more hidden mechanisms of this dual face of Empire into the light for all to see.

For nearly two years, Gaza has sparked global outrage and sustained mass mobilisation on a scale unseen in decades. The Global South, long told that the West has reformed, now sees this lie in glaring detail. Younger generations are now fully exposed to, and overwhelmingly reject, the narratives of the Empire.

And while this is happening, those under the spotlight — the supposed arbiters of justice, the rules-based international order — are shown to be the same rabid and depraved tyrants they always were. They have failed in the most profound and colossal way to meet the moment, instead often doubling down on their criminal actions while plastering more of the liberal veneer over the top. But the curtain is up, and we all see what’s going on.

Palestine has ruptured Western legitimacy irreversibly.

“The Palestinian cause is not a cause for Palestinians only, but a cause for every revolutionary.”

— Ghassan Kanafani

The Empire’s Search for a New Shape

It is tempting to think the architects of this order are fools. They are not. They are calculating, deceptive, strategic — and they have some of the world’s most brilliant minds working for them, carrying out their nefarious designs.

And, crucially, they know just how hard their narrative is failing.

The recognition of Palestine — without action to end the impunity they themselves granted — is a concession designed to legitimise the illegitimate.

These kinds of meaningless concessions serve as a way for Western nations to plaster over the massive cracks exposed by Palestine with a liberal veneer of decency that is paper-thin. This allows them to delude themselves into thinking they’re the good guys and avoid confronting their imperialism.

But Empire adapts: brutal fascism and liberal concessions are experiments in survival. This should be seen as nothing more than the Empire recalibrating for its next iteration.

The real conversation is not whether recognition is progress, but what form the Empire will take to maintain control, and how to overcome this for genuine liberation.

“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.”

— Antonio Gramsci

Liberation is Non-Negotiable

Ultimately, the Empire will not willingly concede its power. Recognition is not liberation. Liberation is not granted, it’s won. And concessions from the Empire that do nothing to change the material conditions within its colonies are nothing but means by which it defends its legitimacy — the same legitimacy it relies on to oppress those it pretends to honour.

Palestine is not the edge case — it is the mirror. It reveals the true nature of power, and it is essential we prevent the Empire from regaining legitimacy.