AFTER Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, it was Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa who became the target of United States President Donald Trump. The world watched with bated breath as Trump publicly mocked his South African counterpart, alleging that some sort of a ‘white genocide’ was being perpetrated in South Africa. He also presented what he claimed were ‘proofs’ — some random pictures and selected portions of some videos — that even Ramaphosa admitted he had never seen before.

They had been possibly, if not surely, provided by none other than the proudly white South African, Elon Musk, who at the time was a member of Trump’s White House administration.

Trump has arguably been one of the most eccentric global leaders in recent times. He has described the Kashmir issue as something ‘a thousand years old’ even though it began after the partition of British India on Aug 14, 1947. In contrast, the ongoing Palestinian genocide, according to Trump, started on Oct 7, 2023, when in reality, its roots trace back to the Balfour Declaration.

Moreover, while Trump condones the atrocities being committed by Israeli Zionists against the Palestinians, he accuses South Africa of perpetrating a so-called ‘white genocide’ — an allegation for which there is hardly any credible evidence. The irony is glaring, and the behaviour deeply idiosyncratic for a world leader.

Trump uses history selectively based on his political convenience. In his various books, renowned scholar Edward Said explained how the West creates a ‘simplified narrative’ about the East, thus diminishing Muslims’ sufferings and exaggerating the West’s moral authority.

What Trump does is not isolated; it is part of a larger system of selective morality and ideologically aligned geopolitics. By dismissing genuine anti-colonial struggles, like the ones in Palestine and Kashmir, and hyping up invented fears, like white genocide, Trump reinforces racist and imperialist frameworks. Thucydides, in The History of the Peloponnesian War, argues that the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must. When Trump calls the situation in South Africa a ‘white genocide’, he only echoes far-right conspiracy theories, often tweeted and voiced by none other than Musk. At the same time, he ignores real genocide in Gaza because the victims are brown and Muslim, a community often dehumanised in Western media. This is simply white ethno-nationalist rhetoric.

Parts of Western media that had hitherto seemed impervious to criticism for open support of Israel have now turned against the latter. Until recently, they, including the talkative Piers Morgan, framed the Gaza conflagration as a conflict, not a colonial occupation or genocide. In his book, The Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon explains how colonial powers justify their violence by dehumanising the colonised. Benjamin Netanyahu has done just that, even earning the label of ‘baby killer’ by former Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) deputy chief of staff Yair Golan.

Palestine and Kashmir are colonial legacies. Their populations are at the mercy of their oppressors — Israel and India. The world would do well to remember that the US has a knack for going after the countries that oppose Israel, such as South Africa, which initiated a genocidal case against Israel.

It is high time orientalist biases were shunned against the Muslims and non- Europeans by the West, especially the US, so that a peaceful world order could finally emerge, and the downtrodden people could get some semblance of relief.

Taha Muneer
Nawabshah

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2025