Dismantling the Violent Discourse of the State of Israel: On Zionism, Palestinian Liberation, and the Power of Language

Authors

  • Ramzy Baroud Independent scholar
  • Romana Rubeo Independent Scholar

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2021/ju.v1i1.2325

Abstract

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).

Author Biographies

Ramzy Baroud, Independent scholar

Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons (Clarity Press, 2020). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA) and also at the Afro-Middle East Center (AMEC). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net.

Romana Rubeo, Independent Scholar

Romana Rubeo is an Italian writer and the managing editor of The Palestine Chronicle. Her articles appear in many online newspapers and academic journals. She holds a Master’s Degree in Foreign Languages and Literature and specializes in audio-visual and journalism translation.

References

English. 14 September 2017. https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2017/9/14/the-2014-war-through-the-eyes-of-gazas-youth.

Bennett, Naftali. 2013. “I’ve Killed Lots of Arabs in My life and There’s No Problem with That.” Huffington Post, 29 July 2013. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/naftalibennett-kill-arabs n 3670767.

Carter, J. 2020. “Camp David Accords.” Encyclopedia Britannica. https://

www.britannica.com/event/Camp-David-Accords.

Chomsky, Noam. (1983) 1999. The Fateful Triangle: the United States, Israel, and the Palestinians. London: Pluto Press.

Cole, Nicki Lisa. 2020. “What Is Cultural Hegemony?” 6 January 2020. https://www.thoughtco.com/cultural-hegemony-3026121.

Encarnación, Omar G. 2005. “The Follies of Democratic Imperialism.” World Policy Journal 22 (1): 47-60.

Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor. 2021. “Inescapable Hell. The Israeli Attack on the Gaza Strip.” May 2021. https://euromedmonitor.org/uploads/reports /gazareporteng.pdf.

France 24. 2017. “A disputed capital: Why the status of Jerusalem is so contentious.” 6 December 2017. https://www.france24.com/en/20171206-explainer-statusjerusalem-capital-israel-palestinians-trump.

General Act of the Berlin Conference on West Africa. 1885. https://loveman.sdsu.edu/docs/1885GeneralActBerlinConference.pdf.

Meir, Golda. 1969. Interview with Frank Giles. London Sunday Times. 15 June. Rpt. “Golda Meir Scorns Soviets: Israeli Premier Explains Stand on Big-4 Talks, Security.” Washington Post, 16 June.

Govinfo.gov. 2006. “Palestinian Legislative Council Elections.” One Hundred Ninth Congress, Second Session, January 2006. https://www.govinfo.gov /content/pkg/CPRT-109SPRT26018/html/CPRT-109SPRT26018.htm.

Handlin, Daniel A. and Joseph Mandelbaum. 2010. “An Oasis of Freedom.” The Harvard Crimson 13 April 2010. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/4/13.

Harmon, Mark and Robert Muenchen. 1999. “Semantic Framing in the Build-Up to the Iraq War: FOX V. CNN and Other U.S. Broadcast News Programs.” ETC: A Review of General Semantics 66 (1): 2-26.

Hatuqa, Dalia. 2018. “For Palestinians, America Was Never an Honest Peace Broker.” Foreign Policy. https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/09/13/for-palestinians-america-wasnever-an-honest-broker-israel-abbas-netanyahu-middle-east-peace-process/.

Hazkani, Shai. 2013. “Catastrophic Thinking: Did Ben-Gurion Try to Rewrite History?”Haaretz. 16 May 2013. https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-ben-gurion-grasped-the-nakba-s-importance-1.5243033.

Human Rights Watch. 2019. “No Letup in Arbitrary Arrests, Torture.” 29 May 2019. https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/05/29/palestine-no-letup-arbitrary-arreststorture.

---. 2021. “A Threshold Crossed.”

https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authoritiesand-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution.

I24 News. 2020. “Palestinian Authority says it's resuming security coordination with Israel.” 17 Nov. 2020. https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/diplomacy-defense/1605630989-palestinian-authority-says-it-s-resuming-security-coordination-with-israel.

IDF.il. 2014. “Operation ‘Protective Edge.’” https://www.idf.il/en/minisites/warsand-operations/operation-protective-edge/.

Jeffery, Simon. 2006. “Hamas Celebrates Election Victory.” The Guardian, 26 January 2006. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/jan/26/israel1.

Khan, Fazal Rahim, et al. 2012. “Global Media Image of Islam and Muslims and the Problematics of a Response Strategy.” Islamic Studies 51 (1): 5-25. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23643922.

League of Nations. 1922. Mandate for Palestine. https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/2FCA2C68106F11AB05256BCF007BF3CB.

Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. 1998. The German Ideology. New York: Prometheus Books.

Morris, Benny. 2019. “Israel’s Concealing of Nakba Documents is Totalitarian.”Haaretz. 15 July 2019. https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-israel-sconcealing-of-documents-on-the-nakba-is-totalitarian-1.7495203.

Nashef, Hania A.M. 2016. “Challenging the myth of ‘a land without a people’: Mahmoud Darwish’s Journal of an Ordinary Grief and in the Presence of Absence.” The Journal of Commonwealth Literature 53 (3): DOI: 10.1177/0021989416670203.

Benjamin Netanyahu Official Site. 2017. “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Speech at the ECOWAS Africa-Israel Summit in Liberia.” 5 June 2017. https://www.netanyahu.org.il/en/news/1264-prime-minister-benjaminnetanyahu%E2%80%99s-speech-at-the-ecowas-africa-israel-summit-in-liberia.

OCHA. 2020. “Gaza blockade: Restrictions eased but most people still ‘locked in.’” 12 February 2020. https://www.ochaopt.org/content/gazablockade-restrictions-eased-most-people-still-locked.

Pappé, Ilan, 2014. “Israel’s incremental genocide in the Gaza ghetto.” https://electronicintifada.net/content/israels-incremental-genocide-gaza-ghetto/13562.

—. 2006. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Oxford: Oneworld.

Quran. 105. Surah Al-Fil (The Elephant). https://quran.com/105.

Rahman, Omar H. 2021. “More Repressive and Less Legitimate: The Unaccountable Palestinian Authority.” DAWN. 14 July 2021. https://dawnmena.org/morerepressive-and-less-legitimate-the-unaccountable-palestinian-authority/.

Roberts, Ethan, Rhona Shwaid and Jacob Millner. 2021. “Don’t erase our history: The Jewish people are indigenous to the land of Israel.” https:// www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2021/06/dont-erase-our-history-the-jewish-people-areindigenous-to-the-land-of-israel/.

Ruffalo, Mark (@MarkRuffalo). 2021 “I have reflected.” Twitter, 25 May. https://twitter.com/MarkRuffalo /status/1397023731722113032.

Said, Edward. 1984. “Permission to Narrate.” Journal of Palestine Studies 13 (3): 27-48.

Satloff, Robert. 2018. “The Myth of ‘Failed’ Peace.” The Washington Institute. https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/media/1312.

Simons, Jake Wallis. 2021. “Corruption affects everything in Palestine – even vaccines.”The Spectator. 9 March 2021. https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/corruptionaffects-everything-in-Palestine-even-vaccines.

Times of Israel. 2021. “Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah coordinated Gaza fighting in joint war room — report.” 29 May 2021. https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-hamas-and-hezbollah-coordinated-gaza-fighting-in-joint-war-room-report/.

TRT. 2021. “Palestinian Resistance: How Diverse is It?” 19 May 2021. https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/palestinian-resistance-how-diverse-is-it-46835.

UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner. 2018. “Closure of Gaza commercial crossing: UN expert calls on Israel to reverse decision.”

https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23375&LangID=E#:~:text=%E2%80%9CIsrael's%2011%2Dyear%2Dold,under%20the%20Fourth%20Geneva%20Convention.%E2%80%9D.

United Nations. 1951. “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.” https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocitycrimes/

Doc.1_Convention%20on%20the%20Prevention%20and%20Punishment

Downloads

Published

2021-11-12