More examples of Unspeak today over the killing of a soldier in occupied territory.
'Israeli soldier in terrorist attack'
This neatly and typically eschews the fact that the soldier was on occupied territory and a member of an occupying army. That does not necessarily mean that he deserved to die but he most certainly was not killed in a 'terrorist' attack by a 'terrorist'.
The portrayal of all Palestinian acts of violence as 'terrorism' (whereas Israeli acts of violence - far more violent and numerous - are 'self defence') is intended to obscure the facts and dehumanise the occupied.
Let's just hypothesize. This man who allegedly killed the soldier may be a victim of a bulldozing, his mother may have been beaten, his son shot, his brother held in administrative detention, his cousin killed by an air to ground missile in Gaza. He most certainly will have spent his entire life trapped under the suffocating terror of occupation, been made to wait for hours at checkpoints and humiliated by occupying soldiers. He will have watched as illegal and apartheid settlements encroached on his olive groves and his land stolen dunam by dunam. What he is doing is resisting occupation.
This is his right. Until Israel recognises the Palestinian narrative and accepts responsibily for the occupation and the terror that occupation inflicts, then Israel is no more than a brutal and indifferent state, a state in denial.
The Palestinians, who have lived under occupation for sixty years, have the right to resist the occupation.
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