The Palestinians' battle against problematic vocabulary
A protester waves a Palestinian flag during a demonstration marking the 73rd anniversary of the "Naqba" in Madrid on May 15, 2021. AFP - GABRIEL BOUYS
Text by: Alice Froussard Follow
4 min
In the conflict which shakes today Israel and the Palestinian Territories, there is not only the war on the ground, that which takes place in Gaza, in Jerusalem, in Sheikh Jarrah or on the esplanade of the Mosques.
For the Palestinians, there is also a semantic war, that of a vocabulary that they say is misused.
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With our correspondent in Ramallah,
When talking about their cause,
Palestinians
pay close attention to one thing: the language used.
This is what many Palestinian activists point out, especially the vocabulary used by politicians or by the mainstream media to present what is happening at the moment, in
Israel
and in Palestine.
On social networks, voices have been raised to wage this battle of language.
There are obvious examples like the use of the word “
terrorist
” all the time.
It is used by politicians and the Israeli media to talk about the Palestinians they kill at checkpoints, referring to "
a terrorist who has been neutralized
".
And obviously, it is a connoted, political word, and above all very problematic.
But there are also less obvious words, which do not pass in Palestine.
Thus, the term "
conflict
", according to activists, embellishes a permanent colonization process and sums it - awkwardly - in one word.
There is also the term
“
clashes
”, which we saw in all the international media
since the start of the violence, which is translated as “
clashes
” in English. This term, which means that two parties are opposed, does not pass either. Because for the Palestinians, using it indicates a degree of equality of power, which was absolutely not the case when it all started. This Friday of Ramadan, when the Israeli police landed on
the Mosques esplanade
by throwing grenades and tear gas at the faithful, among them, some threw stones and bottles. But the police were overarmed and overprotected.
"
Palestinian citizens of Israel
" or "
Palestinians with Israeli nationality
"
Another expression that does not pass: "Israeli Arabs".
It is used everywhere, because it is, among other things, easier to pronounce or write.
But again, this term is part of the Israeli discourse.
Because all these famous “
Israeli Arabs
” are none other than Palestinians.
We should prefer the term "
Palestinian citizen of Israel
" or "
Palestinians having Israeli nationality
".
Because the Arabic term is first of all loaded with connotations.
Although there are many differences in terms of rights and living conditions, they define themselves above all as Palestinians.
It is their identity, their culture, their history.
To privilege the term "
Arab
" is to imply that this Palestinian identity does not exist.
And as we have seen in recent days, the question of going beyond borders, bringing together Palestinians from each territory has never been so much in the foreground, at a time when the anger of the Palestinians of Jerusalem, Gaza, The occupied West Bank, those living within Israel's borders, and that of the Palestinians in Lebanon or Jordan have come together.
This is proof that they have the same identity.
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