Europe grants its own distant sovereignties history, constitutional complexity and democratic nuance. The Jewish state receives one word: colonial.

On 5 August 2026, Mqondisi Moyo, President of the Mthwakazi Republic Party, published Africa’s Decolonization Ended Where European Convenience Began.

His argument is historical and devastatingly simple: Europe withdrew its colonial administrations from Africa but left behind the territorial structures those administrations had created. The colonial flag disappeared. The colonial map became sacred.

Moyo’s article prompted me to examine the other side of that arrangement.

European states did not apply the same territorial rigidity to themselves. They preserved distant sovereignties, integrated some territories, granted autonomy to others, created constituent countries, established special municipalities and developed an entire constitutional thesaurus through which relationships inherited from empire could continue.

Europe kept the territories. Israel got the label.

Spain’s African geography

Spain is not confined to Europe.

Ceuta and Melilla are Spanish cities on the African mainland. The Canary Islands are a Spanish autonomous community geographically located off the African coast. Spain also maintains sovereignty and permanent military positions at the Chafarinas Islands, the Alhucemas Islands, the Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera and Alborán Island. Spain officially describes its geography as extending into Africa.

Counted as territorial groupings rather than as every individual rock and island, Spain possesses seven identifiable territories in or immediately adjoining Africa:

Spain’s government describes Ceuta and Melilla as autonomous cities and treats them as parts of its national territory. The Spanish Navy calls the smaller North African positions plazas de soberanía nacional and supplies the personnel permanently stationed there. The Navy records these sovereign positions in its own operational reporting.

Are they all classified as “colonies”?

Not under Spain’s constitutional order or the United Nations’ formal list of Non-Self-Governing Territories. But they have different histories, populations and legal arrangements. The Canary Islands are not governed like Chafarinas. Ceuta is not administered like Alborán. Some have substantial civilian populations and representative institutions; others are tiny military positions.

That distinction matters.

It is also the beginning of the hypocrisy.

When discussing Spain, we are expected to understand history, constitutional evolution, local identity, integration, autonomy and competing territorial claims. We are instructed not to use crude terminology that erases these distinctions.

Then the conversation reaches Israel, and every distinction vanishes.

Europe’s constitutional thesaurus

The United Kingdom officially retains 14 Overseas Territories. Each has its own constitutional arrangements, local institutions and relationship with London. The British Government lists and describes all 14.

France possesses an immense overseas system extending through the Atlantic, Caribbean, South America, Indian Ocean, Pacific and Antarctic regions. Its overseas ministry describes 12 overseas territories and separately identifies Clipperton as France’s thirteenth overseas territory. France’s Ministry for Overseas Territories sets out the system.

The Kingdom of the Netherlands encompasses six Caribbean islands. Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten are constituent countries within the Kingdom. Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba are public bodies forming part of the Netherlands itself. The Dutch Government explains these constitutional distinctions.

The Kingdom of Denmark includes Greenland and the Faroe Islands, both operating under extensive systems of self-government. Denmark describes their position within the Realm.

These arrangements are not identical, and I am not claiming that every resident of every territory is living under colonial oppression. Some populations have repeatedly chosen continued........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)