Our Words Make Our Worlds Blog Series - Part 4

- Marking 24 months and 78 years of Israel's genocide and occupation in Palestine -

Image source: https://lnkd.in/d_ypkMUB

In Palestine, language has been weaponized. Terms like war, conflict, clashes, or cycle of violence replace the reality of occupation. Phrases such as self-defense, security measures, targeted strikes and retaliation make attacks on civilians sound justified. Even words like casualties or civilian harm make the violence seem smaller than it is. The same bias appears in how people are described. Palestinians have long been dehumanized in media coverage, often labeled as militants or terrorists even when they are civilians. Thousands of Palestinians are held as security prisoners, while the far smaller number of Israelis captured in Gaza are called hostages. Politicians, media, humanitarian groups, and academics often call starvation, blockade, and displacement humanitarian needs, instability, or escalation, shifting focus from responsibility to aid. This has sustained injustice for decades by treating oppression as a problem to manage, rather than a policy to challenge.

This manipulation of language around Palestine has persisted since 1948. Narratives have blurred the facts, replaced the language of occupation with words of conflict, and turned a struggle for liberation into a question of security. Terms such as security threats, civilian risk and cycle of violence make harmful policies seem unavoidable. For generations, Israel and its allies have repeated and refined these wording patterns to maintain moral distance among the public.

Across generations, Palestinians have resisted dispossession and the erasure of their story. Today, that system of disinformation is being challenged. Over the past two years, the world has seen the ongoing reality in Gaza and across Palestine, a reality ignored for over 78 years. The recent sumud flotillas revealed to the world the cruelty of Israeli occupation hidden behind words.

Flotilla activists understood how important words are. In every statement or interview, they called out occupation, human rights violations and human dignity, refusing the misleading terms that had long shaped the story.

Awareness is growing, naming the truth is the first act of resistance and the beginning of justice.

#LanguageMatters #RightsBasedDevelopment #ImpactThatMatters #HumanRights #GlobalPublicPolicy #Palestine #Gaza #Occupation #Genocide #Disinformation #Justice