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On October 22, Israel issued a military order designating six Palestinian human rights groups: Addameer, Al-Haq, Defense for Children International-Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Labor Committees, the Bisan Center for Research and Development, and the Palestinian Union. Women’s Commission – as a “terrorist organization”.
The Israeli Defense Ministry said the decision was made in accordance with the “ties” established between these groups and the Palestinian People’s Liberation Front (PFLP) – a left-wing movement with a political party, as well as an armed one. A wing that has carried out deadly attacks on Israel.
The Palestinian Authority, many international rights groups and the United Nations quickly condemned the move. In interviews, comments and statements, officials, analysts and experts expressed the belief that Israel has “gone too far this time”. The most prominent line of argument against the nomination was that these six groups are clearly human rights organizations and cannot be placed in the “terror” category of groups like the PFLP who see violence as a legitimate means of achieving political goals. “The Israeli government’s misuse of counter-terrorism measures in this way undermines everyone’s security,” the UN human rights expert said in a statement.
For its part, Israel defended its decision, saying that these groups were “controlled by the PFLP’s top leaders” and employed by its members, including “some who were involved in terrorist activity.” The Israeli Defense Ministry has accused the groups of acting as a “central source” of PFLP funding.
In response to these claims, Michael Sfard, a prominent Israeli lawyer who often represents Palestinians, said Israel’s argument is “absolutely nothing” and that the entire lawsuit against these organizations is based on “association fault”. “While it is true that people working in certain organizations are PFLP agents, it is not concluded that the organization itself is part of the PFLP,” he told the AP news agency.
Sfard’s view, which is shared by many others, helped to raise some important questions: So what if the people who work in these organizations are also members of the PFLP? Does this mean that Israel considers the PFLP a “terrorist organization”? What, after all, is “Palestinian terror”?
Why can’t the PFLP be reduced to a headless terrorist group
The PFLP lost its prominence in Palestinian politics some time ago, but it still has strong support among Palestinian leftists, and especially among Marxists and Socialists.
It is a well-established political organization that provides Palestinians with social services, community support and a worldview that helps them make sense of their reality and find ways to change it.
The PFLP says it is a valid way to liberate the armed resistance from Israeli colonialism, but not all members of the group participate in, support, or agree with the armed resistance.
The majority of the group’s activities are unarmed: it organizes strikes, demonstrations and educational activities, provides social services, collects donations, provides financial support to those in need, and so on.
Thus, the complex history and contemporary dynamics of the PFLP, its constant evolution and position, and its role in Palestinian life cannot be reduced to “terror”. Israel is nothing more than a political movement aimed at calling the group a “terrorist organization” and labeling all its members, supporters, and members as mindless terrorists for maintaining Israeli power and dominance in Palestinian life.
What is “Palestinian terror”?
The PFLP carried out violent operations against the state of Israel and society. And some of his attacks killed and killed Israeli civilians.
The Palestinians do not deny that. In fact, many Palestinian activists, journalists, politicians, academics, and artists, myself included, have criticized the group’s path of armed resistance. I find it horrible to attack civilians in the name of resistance and I am completely against it. And I’m not alone. There has always been, and continues to be, intense debate within and outside Palestinian Palestinian society about the use of violence as a means to liberation.
But does the PFLP’s armed resistance give Israel – and its allies – the right to suspend the group as a “terrorist organization”? Who is Israel to determine the nature and label of Palestinian violence?
Israel and its Euro-American supporters have unleashed levels of violence and destruction around the world that a Palestinian armed group cannot hold by candlelight. How can states established in stolen lands, ethnic cleansing states, and states that bombed millions of civilians claim moral authority to label the violence of the colonized and oppressed against them as “terrorism”?
Why isn’t Israeli, American or European violence considered “terror” and Palestinian violence?
Aren’t the drone attacks that wipe out the whole family a panic? Aren’t the Israeli military attacks on Palestine, which have left thousands of civilians dead, many children injured or killed, a panic? Isn’t the savage siege of Gaza, which was inhabited by two million people in an open-air prison, a significant act of terror? Aren’t ethnic cleansing, arbitrary arrests, illegal homelessness terrifying people?
For any objective observer, it should be clear that the violence of the state of Israel is far more destructive in scale and scope and therefore more “horrific” than Palestinian violence.
In this context, it is easy to see that “terrorism” is just a political concept for Israel. He arbitrarily calls Palestinian groups terrorist organizations to give weight to the false narrative that Palestinian violence is somehow more frightening, destructive, and reprehensible than Israeli violence. Israel considers Palestinians to be terrorists in order to hide its violence. It uses the legal designation of terror to continue to inflict violence on the masses of the oppressed and colonized with impunity.
The power of Israel
So what is the value of Israel’s words? The answer is short: everything and nothing.
All that counts is the fact that six major Palestinian rights groups have been officially designated as “terrorist organizations” because Israel has made it easier for itself to control and destroy the lives of Palestinians. Now, these six groups, which are providing important services to the Palestinian population, will be fighting to carry out their work. By simply labeling these groups as “terrorists,” the state of Israel increased its great ability to violate Palestinian rights without hindrance and responsibility, and with few political, legal, economic, or diplomatic consequences.
But at the same time, the word of Israel is useless. Israel’s “terror” designation is useless because it shows nothing about the complex reality of violence.
Israel’s word about violence, as in the case of Euro-American imperial hegemony, is utterly empty and empty, far removed from the reality on earth. It is a word driven only by the political drive to hide Israeli violence – the indescribable savagery of their violence.
This is exactly what the term “Palestinian terror” means to Israel. It teaches us nothing about reality, and instead actively hides it. And so I repeat the critical question that is being buried beneath this latest Palestinian story: So what if the members of the PFLP are also members of these six organizations? The reason for Palestinians joining any group is simple: they are doing everything they can to resist the desperate and determined efforts of the Israeli state settlement project.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial attitude of Al Jazeera.
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