Terms of Servitude: Zionism, Silicon Valley, and Digital/Settler-Colonialism in the Palestinian Liberation Struggle by Omar Zahzah, published in 2025.
Key words: Palestine, settler colonialism; digital settler colonialism; social media; Big Tech; resistance
Discussion Questions
- How did Zionism originate?
- What were the early currents of Zionism, and were they fixated on Palestine?
- What was the relationship between Zionism and colonialism? Between Zionism and the Nazi regime?
- What is the nature of Zionism today, and how has its project unfolded?
- What are the repercussions of Zionism for Palestine, the Middle East, and the world?
Supplementary Materials and Resources
“These public and hyper-visible acts of digital settler colonial erasure are entwined with thousands of personal attacks, as Meta and X, by weaponizing their โterms of service,โ are constantly policing the platforms of Palestinians in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and the diaspora, as well surveilling their anti-Zionist allies around the world.”
Maura Finkelstein’s review of Terms of Servitude in The Markaz Review
“In other words, Big Tech is not only a site through which meaning is produced, shared, and negotiated, but is โincreasingly all-encompassing, exerting an outsized influence on our social and political lives as well as our imaginations.”
Robin Gabriel’s review of Terms of Servitude for ICSZ
From Trumpโs TikTok deal presents new challenge for Palestineโs defenders by Omar Zahzah for The Electronic Intifada
We have entered a troubling new phase in the fight against Zionist media hegemony.
In 2023 and 2024, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and AIPAC-funded politicians helped whip up a moral panic about the mobile video app TikTokโs alleged culpability in decreasing support for Israel, particularly among social media savvy young people.
This narrative seemed to breathe new life into campaigns against the app, which spanned as far back as Donald Trumpโs failed 2020 attempt to ban it amidst empty fearmongering about the threat of American user data falling into the hands of the Chinese Communist Party. With global indignation against Israelโs genocide following 7 October 2023 at an all-time high, an increasing number of activists and organizers have taken to digital platforms like TikTok to document their opposition to Israeli colonial atrocities.
Terms of Servitude: Zionism, Silicon Valley, & Digital Settler Colonialism with Omar Zahzah. Millennials are Killing Capitalism.
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