When I look at Israel and Sudan side by side, I see a comparison that many people refuse to acknowledge.

In Sudan, large-scale Arab colonialism reshaped the demographic and cultural landscape over centuries, often at the expense of indigenous African populations. In Israel and the Palestinian territories, I see a similar historical dynamic of Arab expansion into a region with an older, deeply rooted Jewish history. Yet in much of the West and in many Muslim-majority societies, Arab political presence is rarely framed in colonial terms. Instead, the language of “indigeneity” is used by Muslim conquest propaganda to confuse westerners about the Middle East.

I want to be clear: when I say that Arabs are not indigenous to Gaza or the West Bank, I am not saying they have no human rights. My criticism is about historical narrative and honesty. Too often, Palestinian political discourse presents Arabs as if they are the original, uninterrupted inhabitants of lands they historically conquered. That claim ignores centuries of Muslim conquest, migration, and demographic change.

What bothers me is the lack of self-criticism. In the West, European nations can openly examine their colonial past, acknowledge wrongdoing, and debate reparations or reconciliation. In much of the Arab world, however, there is little equivalent reflection about historical expansions, slavery, or cultural imposition. For me, the issue is not denying modern rights, but insisting on intellectual honesty: if we value truth and historical consistency,........

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