{"id":187137,"date":"2021-06-21T12:00:03","date_gmt":"2021-06-21T11:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=187137"},"modified":"2021-06-16T06:29:04","modified_gmt":"2021-06-16T05:29:04","slug":"say-this-dont-say-that-time-to-confront-the-misleading-language-on-palestine-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/06\/say-this-dont-say-that-time-to-confront-the-misleading-language-on-palestine-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Say This, Don\u2019t Say That: Time to Confront the Misleading Language on Palestine, Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Famous American actor, Mark Ruffalo.
(Photo: via Ruffalo Facebook Page)<\/p><\/div>\n

14 Jun 2021 – <\/em>On May 25, famous American actor, Mark Ruffalo, tweeted<\/a> an apology for suggesting that Israel is committing \u2018genocide\u2019 in Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have reflected & wanted to apologize for posts during the recent Israel\/Hamas fighting that suggested Israel is committing \u2018genocide\u2019,\u201d Ruffalo wrote, adding, \u201cIt\u2019s not accurate, it\u2019s inflammatory, disrespectful & is being used to justify antisemitism here & abroad. Now is the time to avoid hyperbole.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But were Ruffalo\u2019s earlier assessments, indeed, \u201cnot accurate, inflammatory and disrespectful\u201d? And does equating Israel\u2019s war on besieged, impoverished Gaza with genocide fit into the classification of \u2018hyperbole\u2019?<\/p>\n

To avoid pointless social media spats, one only needs to reference the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. According to Article 2 of the 1948 Convention, the legal definition<\/a> of genocide is:<\/p>\n

\u201cAny of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, such as (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part ..\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In its depiction of Israel\u2019s latest war on Gaza, the Geneva-based human rights group Euro-Med Monitor reported<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Israeli forces directly targeted 31 extended families. In 21 cases, the homes of these families were bombed while their residents were inside. These raids resulted in the killing of 98 civilians, including 44 children and 28 women. Among the victims were a man and his wife and children, mothers and their children, or child siblings. There were seven mothers who were killed along with four or three of their children. The bombing of these homes and buildings came without any warning despite the Israeli forces\u2019 knowledge that civilians were inside.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Palestinian first responders search through the rubble of a family’s home in Beit Lahia, Gaza following Israeli bombing on May 13, 2021. The body of a child\u2014one of at least 27 killed by Israeli bombing\u2014was recovered from the home’s ruins. (Photo: Mustafa Hassona\/Andalou Agency via Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

As of May 28, 254 Palestinians in Gaza were killed and 1,948 were wounded in the latest 11-day Israeli onslaught, according to <\/a>the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Though tragic, this number is relatively small compared to the casualties of previous wars. For example, in the 51-day Israeli war on Gaza in the summer of 2014, over 2,200 Palestinians were killed<\/a> and over 17,000 were wounded. Similarly, whole families, like the 25-member Abu Jame family in Khan Younis, <\/strong>also perished<\/a>. Is this not genocide? The same logic can be applied to the killing of over 300 unarmed protesters at the fence separating besieged Gaza from Israel between March 2018 and December 2019. Moreover, the besiegement and utter isolation of over 2 million Palestinians in Gaza since 2006-07, which has resulted in numerous tragedies, is an act of collective punishment that also deserves the designation of genocide.<\/p>\n

But one doesn\u2019t need to be a legal expert to locate the many elements of genocide in Israel\u2019s violent behavior, let alone language, against Palestinians. There is a clear, undeniable relationship between Israel\u2019s violent political discourse and equally violent action on the ground. One of the rising stars of Israeli politics, Naftali Bennett, who has served<\/a> the role of the defense minister, had, in July 2013, stated<\/a>: \u201cI\u2019ve killed lots of Arabs in my life \u2013 and there\u2019s no problem with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

That context in mind, and regardless of why Ruffalo found it necessary to backtrack on his moral position, Israel is an unrepented human rights violator that continues to carry out an active policy of genocide<\/a> and ethnic cleansing<\/a> against the native, indigenous inhabitants of Palestine.<\/p>\n

Language matters, and in this particular \u2018conflict\u2019, it matters most, because Israel has for long managed to escape<\/a> any accountability for its actions, due to its success to misrepresent facts, and the overall truth about itself. Thanks to its many allies and supporters in mainstream media and academia, Tel Aviv has rebranded itself from being a military occupier and an apartheid regime to an \u2018oasis of democracy<\/a>\u2019, in fact, \u2018the only democracy<\/a> in the Middle East\u2019.<\/p>\n

This article will not attempt to challenge the entirety of the misconstrued mainstream media\u2019s depiction of Israel. Volumes are required for that, and Israeli Professor Ilan Papp\u00e9\u2019s \u2018Ten Myths about Israel<\/a>\u2019 is an important starting point. However, the article will attempt to present some basic definitions that must enter the Palestine-Israel lexicon, as a prerequisite to developing a fairer understanding of what is happening on the ground.<\/p>\n

A Military Occupation \u2013 Not a \u2018Conflict\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Quite often, mainstream Western media refers to the situation in Palestine and Israel as a\u00a0 \u2018conflict<\/a>\u2019, and to the various specific elements of this so-called conflict as a \u2018dispute<\/a>\u2019. For example, the \u2018Palestinian-Israeli conflict\u2019 and the \u2018disputed city of East Jerusalem\u2019.<\/p>\n

What should be an obvious truth is that besieged, occupied people do not engage in a \u2018conflict\u2019 with their occupiers. Moreover, a \u2018dispute\u2019 happens when two parties have equally compelling claims to any issue. When Palestinan families of East Jerusalem are being forced out<\/a> of their homes, which are, in turn, handed over to Jewish extremists, there is no \u2018dispute\u2019 involved. The extremists are thieves and the Palestinians are victims. This is not a matter of opinion. The international community itself says<\/a> so.<\/p>\n

\u2018Conflict\u2019 is a generic term. Aside from absolving the aggressor, in this case Israel, it leaves all matters open for interpretation. And since American audiences are indoctrinated<\/a> to love Israel and hate Arabs and Muslims, siding with Israel in its \u2018conflict\u2019 with the latter becomes the only rational option.<\/p>\n

Israel has sustained<\/a> a military occupation of 22% of the total size of historic Palestine since June 1967. The remainder of the Palestinian homeland was already usurped, using extreme violence, state-sanctioned apartheid, and, as Papp\u00e9 puts it, \u2018incremental genocide<\/a>\u2019 decades earlier.<\/p>\n

From an international law perspective<\/a>,<\/strong> the term \u2018military occupation\u2019, \u2018occupied East Jerusalem\u2019, \u2018illegal Jewish settlements\u2019, and so forth, have never been \u2018disputed\u2019. They are simply facts, even if Washington has decided to ignore<\/a> international law, and even if mainstream US media has chosen to manipulate the terminology, to present Israel as a victim, not the aggressor.<\/p>\n

\u2018Process\u2019 without \u2018Peace\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

The term \u2018peace process\u2019 has been coined by American diplomats decades ago. It was put to use throughout the mid and late 1970s when, then-US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger labored<\/a> to broker a deal between Egypt and Israel with the hope of fragmenting the Arab political front and, eventually, sidelining Cairo entirely from the \u2018Arab-Israeli conflict\u2019.<\/p>\n

Kissinger\u2019s logic proved vital for Israel as the \u2018process\u2019 did not aim at achieving justice according to fixed criteria that have been delineated by the United Nations for years. There was no frame of reference anymore. If any existed, it was Washington\u2019s political priorities, which historically almost entirely overlapped with Israel\u2019s priorities. Despite the obvious American bias, the US bestowed upon itself the undeserved title of \u2018the honest peace broker<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n

This approach was used successfully in the write-up to the Camp David Accords<\/a> in 1978. One of the Accords\u2019 greatest achievements is that the so-called \u2018Arab-Israeli conflict\u2019 was replaced with the so-called \u2018Palestinian-Israeli conflict\u2019.<\/p>\n

Now, tried and true, the \u2018peace process\u2019 was used again in 1993, resulting in the Oslo Accords<\/a>. For nearly three decades, the US continued to tout its self-proclaimed credentials as a peacemaker despite the fact that it pumped<\/a> \u2013 and continues to do so \u2013 $3-4 billion of annual, mostly military, aid to Israel.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the Palestinians have little to show for. No peace was achieved; no justice was obtained; not an inch of Palestinian land was returned; and not a single Palestinian refugee was allowed to come home. However, American and European officials and a massive media apparatus continued to talk of a \u2018peace process\u2019 with little regard to the fact that the \u2018peace process\u2019 has brought nothing but war and destruction for Palestine, and allowed Israel to continue its illegal appropriation and colonization of Palestinian land.<\/p>\n

Resistance, National Liberation \u2013 Not \u2018Terrorism\u2019 and \u2018State-Building\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

The \u2018peace process\u2019 introduced more than death, mayhem, and normalization of land theft in Palestine. It also wrought its own language, which remains in effect until this day. According to the new lexicon, Palestinians are divided into \u2018moderate\u2019 and \u2018extremists\u2019. The \u2018moderates\u2019 believe in the American-led \u2018peace process\u2019, \u2018peace negotiations\u2019 and are ready to make \u2018painful compromises\u2019 in order to obtain the coveted \u2018peace\u2019. On the other hand, the \u2018extremists\u2019 are \u2018Iran-backed<\/a>\u2019, politically \u2018radical\u2019 bunch that use \u2018terrorism\u2019 to satisfy their \u2018dark\u2019 political agendas.<\/p>\n

But is this the case? Since the signing of the Oslo Accords, many sectors of Palestinian society, including Muslims and Christians, Islamists and secularists, and notably socialists, resisted the unwarranted political \u2018compromises\u2019 undertaken by their leadership, which they perceived to be a betrayal of Palestinians\u2019 basic rights. Meanwhile, the \u2018moderates\u2019 have largely ruled over Palestinians with no democratic mandate. This small but powerful group introduced a culture of political and financial corruption<\/a>, unprecedented in Palestine. They applied torture<\/a> against Palestinian political dissidents whenever it suited them. Not only did Washington say little to criticize the \u2018moderate\u2019 Palestinian Authority\u2019s dismal human rights record, but it also applauded it for its crackdown on those who \u2018incite violence\u2019 and their \u2018terrorist infrastructure\u2019.<\/p>\n

Such term as \u2018resistance\u2019 \u2013 muqawama \u2013 was slowly but carefully extricated from the Palestinian national discourse. The term \u2018liberation\u2019 too was perceived to be confrontational and hostile. Instead, such concepts as \u2018state-building<\/a>\u2019 \u2013 championed by former Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and others \u2013 began taking hold. The fact that Palestine was still an occupied country and that \u2018state-building\u2019 can only be achieved once \u2018liberation\u2019 was first secured, did not seem to matter to the \u2018donor countries\u2019. The priorities of these countries \u2013 mainly US allies who adhered to the American political agenda in the Middle East \u2013 was to maintain the illusion of the \u2018peace process\u2019 and to ensure that \u2018security coordination<\/a>\u2019 between PA police and the Israeli army carried on unabated.<\/p>\n

The so-called \u2018security coordination\u2019, of course, refers to the US-funded joint Israeli-PA efforts at cracking down on Palestinian resistance, apprehending Palestinian political dissidents and ensuring the safety of the illegal Jewish settlements, or colonies, in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

War and, Yes, Genocide in Gaza \u2013 Not \u2018Israel-Hamas Conflict\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

The word \u2018democracy\u2019 was constantly featured in the new Oslo language. Of course, it was not intended to serve its actual meaning. Instead, it was the icing on the cake of making the illusion of the \u2018peace process\u2019 perfect. This was obvious, at least to most Palestinians. But it also became obvious to the whole world in January 2006, when the Palestinian faction Fatah, which has monopolized the PA since its inception in 1994, lost<\/a> the popular vote to the Islamic faction Hamas.<\/p>\n

Hamas, and other Palestinian factions have rejected, and continue to reject, the Oslo Accords. Their participation in the legislative elections in 2006 took many by surprise, as the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) was itself a product of Oslo. Their victory in the elections, which was classified<\/a> as democratic and transparent by international monitoring groups, threw a wrench in the US-Israeli-PA political calculations.<\/p>\n

Lo and behold, the group that has long been perceived by Israel and its allies as \u2018extremist\u2019 and \u2018terrorist\u2019, became the potential leaders of Palestine. The Oslo spin doctors had to go to work and quickly so in order for them to thwart Palestinian democracy and ensure a successful return to the status quo, even if this means that Palestine is represented by unelected, undemocratic leaders. Sadly, this has been the case for nearly 15 years.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Hamas\u2019s stronghold, the Gaza Strip, had to be taught a lesson, thus the siege<\/a> imposed on the impoverished region for nearly 15 years. The siege on Gaza has little to do with Hamas\u2019s rockets or Israel\u2019s \u2018security\u2019 needs, the right to \u2018defend itself\u2019, and its supposedly \u2018justifiable\u2019 desire to destroy Gaza\u2019s \u2018terrorist infrastructure\u2019. While, indeed, Hamas\u2019s popularity in Gaza is unmatched anywhere else in Palestine, Fatah too has a powerful constituency there. Moreover, the Palestinian resistance in the Strip is not championed by Hamas alone, but also by other ideological and political groups, for example, the Islamic Jihad, the socialist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and other socialist and secular groups.<\/p>\n

Misrepresenting the \u2018conflict\u2019 as a \u2018war\u2019 between Israel and Hamas is crucial to Israeli propaganda, which has succeeded in equating between Hamas and militant groups throughout the Middle East and even Afghanistan. But Hamas is not ISIS, Al-Qaeda or Taliban. In fact, none of these groups are similar anyway. Hamas is a Palestinian Islamic nationalist movement that operates within a largely Palestinian political context. An excellent book on Hamas is the recently published volume by Daud Abdullah, Engaging the World<\/a>. Abdullah\u2019s book rightly presents Hamas as a rational political actor, rooted in its ideological convictions yet flexible and pragmatic in its ability to adapt to national, regional and international geopolitical changes.<\/p>\n

But what does Israel have to gain from mischaracterizing the Palestinian resistance in Gaza? Aside from satisfying its propaganda campaign of erroneously linking Hamas to other anti-American groups, it also dehumanizes the Palestinian people entirely and presents Israel as a partner in the American global so-called \u2018war on terror\u2019. Israel neofascist and ultranationalist politicians then become the saviors of humanity, their violent racist language<\/a> is forgiven and their active \u2018genocide\u2019 is seen as an act of \u2018self-defense\u2019 or, at best, a mere state of \u2018conflict\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Victimizer as the Victim<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to the strange logic of mainstream media, Palestinians are rarely \u2018killed\u2019 by Israeli soldiers, but rather \u2018die\u2019 in \u2018clashes\u2019 resulting from various \u2018disputes\u2019. Israel doesn\u2019t \u2018colonize\u2019 Palestinian land, it merely \u2018annexes\u2019, \u2018appropriates\u2019, and so on. What has been taking place in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in the occupied East Jerusalem, for example, is not outright property theft, leading to ethnic cleansing, but rather a \u2018property dispute\u2019.<\/p>\n

The list goes on and on.<\/p>\n

In truth, language has always been part of Zionist colonialism, long before the state of Israel was itself constructed from the ruins of Palestinian homes and villages in 1948. Palestine, according to the Zionists, was \u2018a land with no people<\/a>\u2019 for \u2018a people with no land\u2019. These colonists were never \u2018illegal settlers\u2019 but \u2018Jewish returnees\u2019 to their \u2018ancestral homeland\u2019, who, through hard work and perseverance, managed to \u2018make the desert bloom\u2019, and, in order to defend themselves against the \u2018hordes of Arabs\u2019, they needed to build an \u2018invincible army\u2019.<\/p>\n

But there can be no alternative to this feat, because, without proper, accurate and courageous understanding and depiction of Israeli settler colonialism and Palestinian resistance to it, Israel will continue to victimize Palestinians while presenting itself as the victim.<\/p>\n

____________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of <\/em>The Palestine Chronicle. His last book is <\/em>The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story (Pluto Press, London) and his forthcoming book is <\/em>These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons (Clarity Press, Atlanta). Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). His website is <\/em>www.ramzybaroud.net<\/a><\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 ramzybaroud.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On May 25, famous American actor, Mark Ruffalo, tweeted an apology for suggesting that Israel is committing \u2018genocide\u2019 in Gaza. To avoid pointless social media spats, one only needs to reference the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. According to Article 2 of the 1948 Convention, the legal definition of genocide is:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":187138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[1668,87,865,1643,88,2416,427,124],"class_list":["post-187137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide","tag-antisemitism","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-genocide-convention","tag-israel","tag-israeli-occupation","tag-palestine","tag-united-nations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}