{"id":7960,"date":"2023-05-11T07:32:21","date_gmt":"2023-05-10T19:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/?p=7960"},"modified":"2023-05-11T14:44:38","modified_gmt":"2023-05-11T02:44:38","slug":"terrorism-in-the-war-of-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/2023\/05\/terrorism-in-the-war-of-words\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cTerrorism\u201d in the war of words"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a recent tweet, Neil Scott, secretary of the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa made the astonishing and libellous statement that \u2018NZ Zionists are committing \u201cdomestic terrorism\u201d against anti-Zionist people who identify as Jewish\u2019 and named Jewish leaders, David Cumin, Juliet Moses and Rob Berg, as somehow bearing responsibility.<\/p>\n

Evidently, an Alternative Jewish Voices survey claimed that death threats had been made against an anonymous respondent for speaking up on Palestinian Human Rights. Such unsubstantiated absurdities are probably best ignored. However, it is very concerning that politicians like Duncan Webb and Golriz Grahaman are willing to meet with Scott and AJV despite their wild allegations and history of antisemitism.<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s ironic that the domestic terrorism accusation is levelled against those who seek to stand against actual terrorism. It\u2019s a common feature of the West\u2019s political war of words over Israel, that the terms employed are stripped of real meaning. Social justice warriors\u2019 favoured buzzwords \u2013 like apartheid, genocide, ethnic cleansing, dispossession, colonialism \u2013 are used, evacuated of meaning and devoid of historical or political context. Such terms are redefined in post-modern fashion and divorced from realities.<\/p>\n

\"\"The importance of guarding the meaning of such words was brought home in a recent conversation with Israeli Arab Yoseph Haddad<\/a>. In discussing terrorism, real terrorism, the kind that severs limbs, maims and kills, Haddad explained with great passion that terrorism kills Jews and<\/strong> Arabs in Israel without discrimination<\/a>, as well as Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.<\/p>\n

The reality of terrorism was brought home to Haddad in 2003 when a female terrorist blew up a restaurant in his birth city of Haifa, a restaurant that his Arab parents dined at four days prior to the bombing. Sixteen civilians were murdered, both Arabs and Jews. This event was key in his decision to become an IDF soldier. His role, he was at pains to point out, was to defend<\/strong> people, Arabs and Jews. He became a commander and was treated with great respect by the Jews under his command \u2013 another example that undermines allegations of \u2018Israeli apartheid\u2019.<\/p>\n