Reclaiming a Lost Imagination

For the longest time, I believed liberation was not possible. They seemed too powerful, armed with technology, infrastructure, and institutional control. As a child, I used to daydream about the day Palestine would be free. I pictured people returning to their homes and villages, and borders removed. But as I grew older, these images began to fade. Reality hit me with the endless oppression, and the idea of a free Palestine started to feel distant and unrealistic. I began to view the phrase “Free Palestine” as a romantic dream, unable to see beyond the boundaries the occupation had imposed on my world. My imagination had become limited and occupied.

As Palestinian photographer Steve Sabella wrote in his book, The Parachute Paradox: “Palestinians reached a point where they could no longer imagine they could live in freedom. The colonization of Palestinian land was clear, but what was hidden was the colonization of the imagination.”

The Psychology of Occupation

A cornerstone of this mental colonization is narrative control. Oppressive systems weaponize stories to convince us we are powerless, that our efforts are meaningless, and that nothing will ever change. Constant exposure to such narratives can paralyze us psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually.

In Palestine, occupation isn’t just territorial, it’s psychological. While checkpoints, walls, and territorial control are tangible realities, they evolve into mental barriers that shape how Palestinians perceive themselves and their world. This manufactured sense of powerlessness creates profound stress and erodes our capacity to create, dream, and imagine alternatives.

Oppressive systems, such as colonization and occupation, are deliberately designed to feel unbeatable, conditioning us to stop envisioning different possibilities. Joycelyn Longdon writes in her book Natural Connection: “Colonialism and capitalism are holding our imagination captive. Our loss of imagination, though it may feel like a subconscious act, has in many ways been intentional, resulting from the influence of colonization, industrialization, and capitalism.”

She invites us to reflect on the ways we speak the language of limitation. How might we be unconsciously reinforcing the very systems we hope to transform?

Parallels in the Climate Crisis

The same patterns are also evident in the environmental movement. The narratives are constructed by “doom and gloom.” We’re constantly told the world is heading “in the wrong direction” and that “we only have X years left.” While the urgency is real, it frequently breeds eco-anxiety and paralysis, a sense that nothing we do will be sufficient. It becomes difficult to envision alternative paths or believe our actions can meaningfully shape outcomes. The discourse overwhelms us with statistics and worst-case scenarios.

In his book The Nightingale, Sam Lee writes about how the environmental crisis is fundamentally a crisis of imagination, a failure to visualize what a flourishing world could look like. He contends that to transform behavior, we must first reach the hearts of people.

Imagination as Resistance

What role does imagination play in liberation? Without imagination, there would be no innovation, no dreams, no creation, no evolution. Imagination serves as a gateway, enabling us to envision realities beyond the systems that confine us. To be clear, I’m not referring to naive optimism that overlooks the depth of our struggles. I’m speaking of the imagination that empowers us to reject internalized inferiority, the kind that helps us unlearn what systems of oppression have implanted within us.

We must ask ourselves: Which beliefs are authentically mine, and which were imposed? Which limits my ability to imagine different realities?

This questioning becomes the first step toward mental liberation, a way to reclaim our inner landscape. It represents a refusal to let the occupier colonize our souls and a rejection of the belief that our efforts are ultimately futile. This form of imagination is not effortless, it demands confronting aspects of ourselves shaped by inherited beliefs. It means shedding limiting parts of our identity and undertaking the difficult work of re-rooting in truth. It requires radical honesty.

To paraphrase Longdon, imagination represents one of our most vital capacities as sensing, feeling, and purposeful beings. Imagination is an act of resistance. Colonialism has systematically suppressed indigenous knowledge and way of life. And, yet, enslaved peoples, indigenous communities, and colonized societies have turned to imagination as a survival strategy throughout history. Enslavement ended not only through physical revolt but also through internal narrative transformation, a decolonization of the imagination. What once represented limitation gave way to visions of liberation.

Palestine Today

I write this as we witness genocide in Gaza. In the West Bank, settler violence, settlement expansion, and forced displacement intensify daily. Hope seems impossible. Speaking of imagination here might seem like a luxury. I don’t dismiss the pressing nature of our current moment.

I’ve come to realize that a mindset of limitation, the belief that we’re doomed no matter what, is what oppressive systems count on.

As Sabella suggests, liberating Palestine requires not only ending land occupation but also freeing it from ideological confinement. In other words, imagination forms a crucial component of our collective resistance.

A Closing Invitation

Physically, the system may appear stronger. But spiritually, we possess immense power. While we may feel disempowered, the collective spiritual journey of decolonization can inspire us and reawaken our strength. When, from a place of empowerment, we reimagine a free Palestine or a thriving, just planet, we gather strength to build the reality we dream of.

When we choose to rise above internal despair, when we actively cultivate beauty, hope, and imagination, we resist the system’s grip because occupiers control not only land but also colonize our very being. Liberation is a long and challenging path, but the first step is daring to see it. Imagination can guide us away from systems that exploit and seek power over others. This becomes a radical act of rebuilding and remaking our world, creating space for new ways of living to emerge, starting with our minds.