Malm unearths the shared roots of colonial adventurism in Palestine and fossil fuelled warfare.

Israel's pulverization of Gaza since October 7, 2023 is not only a humanitarian crisis, but an environmental catastrophe. Far from the first event of its kind, the devastation Israel has inflicted on Palestine since October 2023 has merely ushered in a new phase in a long history of colonization and extraction that reaches back to the nineteenth century. In this book, Andreas Malm argues that a true understanding of the present crisis requires a longue durée analysis of Palestine's subjugation to fossil empire. Returning to the British empire's first use of steam-power in war, in which it destroyed the Palestinian city of Akka, Malm traces the development of Britain's fossil empire and shows how this enduring commitment to fossil energy continues to drive Western support for the destruction of Palestine today.

"Malm's analysis, which concludes with the current genocide in Gaza and Palestinian resistance against colonialism, offers a new approach towards understanding the role imperialism plays in maintaining the Zionist colonial project and one that may be overlooked due to the more immediate focus on the depletion of Palestinian territory and the Palestinian people themselves." - Middle East Monitor