Dehumanization: The First Weapon of Colonialism

Fatemeh Sadat Omrani
WANA

When Donald Trump, in response to a journalist’s question about the targeting of Iran’s power plants and whether such an act would constitute a war crime, refers to a nation as “animals,” this should not be understood merely as an expression of personal hostility or a careless choice of words.

Rather, it reflects one of the oldest and most fundamental mechanisms of domination: dehumanization and othering — processes that have historically been used by colonial and hegemonic systems to provide moral justification for violence and atrocities.

In his work “The West and the Rest,” Stuart Hall explains how the West, as a structure of power, has historically constructed itself as the “center” — the embodiment of reason, modernity, and progress — while defining the “others” (including Eastern peoples, Black communities, Muslims, and other groups) as objects, instruments, or societies portrayed as backward, irrational, and primitive. Within this framework, these communities are depicted as having failed to complete the process of becoming “civilized” and therefore as requiring control, guidance, or intervention; otherwise, they are portrayed as a potential threat to humanity.

The roots of this worldview can be traced back to the ideas of Aristotle, who argued that those outside the Greek world were fundamentally different from Greeks and possessed characteristics similar to slaves, and therefore should remain under the guidance of Greek civilization. Elements of this hierarchical perception of humanity have continued to influence later systems of thought.

Based on this logic, colonialism, by constructing itself as the center of history and knowledge, has sought to define the world through its own perspective. In this process, the “other” is excluded from the boundaries of full humanity and reduced to an object or a “subhuman” being whose death is considered insignificant. The anti-colonial thinker Frantz Fanon described this process as a necessary psychological condition that enables systems of domination to commit large-scale atrocities.

This mechanism can be observed in historical examples such as the justification surrounding the atomic bombings of Japan and, according to critics, in narratives used to justify the mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza. In 1945, American wartime propaganda and media narratives portrayed the Japanese enemy through imagery associated with dangerous and uncontrollable creatures, helping to construct the idea that their destruction was a necessary and rational act.

Following October 7, 2023, a similar discourse emerged when Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant described the conflict in terms of fighting “human animals” and compared Hamas to ISIS. Critics argue that such language contributed to a narrative in which civilian suffering and mass casualties in Gaza were presented as acceptable consequences of military action. This discourse has been cited by critics as part of attempts to justify the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians and the destruction of historical and cultural sites in the Gaza Strip.

It is within this broader framework of dehumanization and the objectification of human life that debates have emerged over the use of new weapons and methods of repression on Palestinians.

In published interviews and writings, scholars such as Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé have discussed claims that certain military technologies and security methods have been tested on Palestinians before being promoted elsewhere.

According to this argument, Palestinians have been treated not merely as a political population but as subjects upon whom systems of control and violence are experimented. In this interpretation, the human being is reduced to an instrument within a broader structure of domination.

A similar mechanism has also been applied in the case of Iran. On the first day of the “third imposed war against Iran,” a U.S. weapon was experimentally used against Iranian civilians, referring to the reported use of a U.S. PrSM precision missile in an attack on a sports hall in Lamerd, Fars Province, where children and other civilians were present. Senior U.S. military official Dan Caine described the missile’s performance as successful, following an attack that reportedly resulted in the deaths of 21 civilians and injuries to around 100 others.

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