Dismantling the Violent Discourse of the State of Israel: On Zionism, Palestinian Liberation, and the Power of Language
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.2021/ju.v1i1.2325Abstract
When European powers held their infamous Berlin Conference in 1885, during which they agreed to divide the African continent among themselves, they did not employ such terms as enslavement, illegal seizure, exploitation, or genocide. Instead, they made references to “instructing the natives,” “bringing home to them the blessings of civilization,” and encouraging “the maintenance of peace (and) the development of civilization” (General Act 1885). Similarly, when Britain and France received Mandates from the League of Nations in the 1920s to serve as the supposed caretakers of their colonies in Africa and the Middle East, there was hardly any reference in the language of these Mandates to British and French geopolitical interests in serving this role; instead, many positive references asserted the need for allowing colonized countries access to their “own schools for the education of (their) own members in (their) own language,” among many other misleading claims (League of Nations 1922).
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