In Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein creates a monster by assembling parts from cadavers. The monster initially sought to fit into society, yet it later transformed into an evil being. In the novel, the creator, Frankenstein, feels immensely guilty for the death and terror that his monster inflicts upon others.

Shelley’s novel was written in 1857. Yet, decades later, Western imperialism would help create a much more sinister, diabolic monster, called "Israel".

The imperial West’s creation would be considerably different from Shelley’s. While Frankenstein began by not harming anyone, "Israel" was founded on killing, oppressing, and displacing hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Near the end of the 20th century, its founding fathers unapologetically launched Zionism, a genocidal supremacist ideology, leading to the creation of this abomination upon humanity in 1948. This is what the Palestinians call the Nakba, or ‘catastrophe’ when approximately 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their homes, with over 400 Palestinian villages deliberately destroyed and wiped off the map. The Nakba itself was preceded by the Balfour Declaration in 1917, in which the British foreign secretary basically promised Palestine, the land of the Palestinians, to the Jews of Europe. For decades following this, British forces in Palestine oppressed, imprisoned, and killed the Palestinians who sought to preserve and maintain their homeland up to the Nakba.

Moreover, unlike the original monster by Frankenstein, "Israel" never even sought to fit into the global community of civilized nations, since that would’ve contradicted the ideology it was premised upon. And so, the massacres against the Palestinians continued, with dozens more -in 1948 alone- perpetrated by the newly-founded entity, including those in Tantura and Deir Yassin (1948), Gaza (1956), and Al-Aqsa (1990) to name a few. ("Israel" has been committing new massacres almost every day since October 7, 2023, till the time of this writing). Over the decades, these slaughters were coupled with land thefts, more than 130,000 home demolitions (as of the year 2021 but prior to these war crimes in Gaza), hundreds of thousands of political prisoners, the displacement of another 350,000 Palestinians in 1967, an illegal and brutal military occupation that began in 1967, killing and wounding worshippers in Al-Aqsa Mosque... and the list goes on. Even the Palestinians who acquired citizenship from the 1948 areas of Palestine were not spared from this supremacist ideology, suffering from more than 65 discriminatory Israeli laws making them second-class citizens.

Fast forward to the latest onslaught against Palestinians in Gaza, who have been subjected to the worst forms of killing and oppression imaginable in the past couple of decades, too extensive to list here and including a 16-year blockade. Thus, history did not begin on October 7 with the attack by the Palestinian armed resistance against the Israeli occupation. As in the past, this Frankenstein-like monster has continued its genocidal path, bombing hospitals and homes and cutting off food, water, electricity, and medicine from 2 million civilians. Naturally, the majority of the thousands of Palestinians deliberately killed in the past few weeks are children - who constitute more than 50% of Gaza’s population - and women, and nearly all of them are civilians. These lives are not just numbers, but humans with families, loved ones, hopes, dreams, and aspirations, humans who are living through hell and bombardment every day before the world, and then dying.

So, when one hears the ridiculous and despicable claims of those who state that "Israel" has a right to “defend itself”, I say to them stay quiet until you pull your head out of that dark place. Israelis are now openly calling for the genocide of the Palestinian people, reminding us of those Israelis who were cheering the bombs as they were dropped on the heads of Palestinian children in 2014.

So, "Israel" has the right to “defend itself” as much as a pedophile rapist has the right to “defend himself” against his victim child who is trying to fight back. “Defending itself” has become nothing more than a euphemism for it to continue its barbaric acts of genocide. Those who do indeed have the right to defend themselves are the Palestinians.

In the original story, Frankenstein felt guilty for what he created. Yet, not only do the bloodthirsty imperialist demons not feel guilty for their concoction, but they have also encouraged it to continue with its crimes. They are joined by a chorus of propagandists masquerading as journalists and experts, creating a monstrous world in the process and a history that will never forgive them.