The misuse and abuse of the word ‘terrorist’ in time of armed conflict:
Since October 7th, 2023 the world’s headlines used the term terrorist against Hamas or Israel depends on which side of the conflict they support.
Before diving into some issues of concerns in this article, let’s bring the accurate definition of terrorism in armed conflict: according to Antonio Cassese the first President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and recognized as the judicial expert of the war crimes law; Cassese indicates “in time of armed conflict, terrorism is criminalized when it consists of violent action (or even threat of such action) taken (i) against civilians or any other person not taking an active part in armed hostilities; and (ii) has as its primary purpose that of spreading terror among civilian population.”[1]
In the context of the war on Gaza, it is worth noting that this “T” word has been misused and abused to perpetuate and expand the none-state armed conflict in Palestine to become a regional international armed conflict.
First of all, in the world of conflict resolution theory and practice there are stages at which a conflict could be contained and eventually eclipsed. However, the stage of dehumanization of a party to the conflict, is the state of no return and no resolution, but rather it is a stage of zero-sum outcome. The Israeli government as it claimed its rights to ‘’self-defense’’ while ironically, has been on the aggression side of the conflict for decades; have dehumanized the Palestinian people too soon in the current explosion in Gaza, leaving no measures to restore appeased state.
By dehumanizing Palestinian people as animals and labeling their resistance as a terrorist group by comparing them to ISIS; such comparison between Hamas and ISIS terrorist appears to have no basis to begin with. These two groups have extremely different ideologies, agendas, and purposes.
Simply put, ISIS ideology was to create a mythical Islamic State in Iraq and Syria based on their own religious interpretation of alleged Islamic writings, mobilizing mislead Muslims from all over the world, using armed force and acts of terror to oppress people in their towns and villages, bombarded and killed civilians including women and children indiscriminately, dehumanized and forced out indigenous people and committed massacre of civilians, enslaved the Yazidis, raped girls and women, and had ambitions to expand their claimed territories as far as they could get in the region.
Most importantly, considering the rightful peoples at their lands as infidels and enemies of their holly[sic] Islamic State, and therefore, they must defend their existence at the land at all costs.
The international community was appalled to such phenomena that violates every essence of international human rights, international law and precisely falling fair and square inside the definition of terrorism in times of armed conflict mentioned above.
The war on ISIS was indeed a war on terror and the terrorist organization. Their war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide were proven by rigorous investigations conducted by a UN mandated mission in Iraq (UNITAD) under international law and international criminal law, international human rights law and international humanitarian law at time of armed conflict.
Conversely, the armed conflict between the Palestinian people and Israel seems to have parallel lines with ISIS except it is the other way around.
The Palestinian people are the ones who lived on their lands for centuries with all components of Palestinians including Muslims, Christians, Jewish and other minorities.
In the recent history, they all faced the same challenges of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th and 20th century, and the English occupation after WWI and WWII. Until the ‘’Great’’ Britain and the U.S decided to play Chess in the Middle East and to start the Oil World War-which is still undergoing- that this region is rich with, let alone its strategic geopolitical position during the Cold War and beyond.
Therefore, a state of Israel must be established to save the European Jews from the genocide committed by the Germans and West was complicit about it, not the Middle Eastern peoples. A new Jewish only state requires, ethnic cleansing to none jews, mass forced displacement of people (Nakbah 1948), extrajudicial arrests and forced disappearance, massacres and genocides even at refugee camps outside Palestine. Under such circumstances, the Palestinian people were expected not to defend their lands, their very exitance against the foreign powers and occupiers.
if they do, they would be labeled as terrorists, savages and animals right away. The right to self-defense under international law, becomes a right or a tool to one party to the conflict only which is the side of the West, not to the rest of the world.
The narrative of the mainstream media is another one-sided tool to serve a hegemonic western power rather than being truth seekers and neutral to the conflict as it is not the job of journalist to make conclusions on behalf of the audience; but the old days of principles and moral values are gone long time ago.
Even worse, the media itself became a weapon of mass destruction in the age of cancel culture, censorship and no free-speech to a large extent. Several media personalities cared about the number of viewers rather than the truth in their content as they failed to separate their personal views from the elements of the unfolding events. For example, a media personality associated the massive protests on the streets in the Middle East and North Africa region against the acts of collective punishment of Israel against the majority of women and children under the heavy bombardment; the haters of America and therefore eliminating them all together will make Americans safe.
Such a despicable one-sided narrative is more than just an opinion, it is a stealth killer of the whole truth and incitement of hate crimes at home, which has already happened to a Palestinian-American 6-year-old child who was brutally killed for nothing but being a descendant of a Palestinian heritage.
It is with absolute importance to differentiate between condemning the genocide and war crimes committed by the government of Israel against the civilians in Gaza and the Anti-Sematic narrative.
These are two separate issues and do not equate each other. Therefore, such propagandas and the abuse of labeling groups people as “terrorists” just because they choose to resist an occupation power of their land who do not adhere to international law and treaties; should be of a critical concern to all who believed or still believe in liberty, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness anywhere in the world.
[1] Antonio Cassese. International Criminal Law, 2nd edn. (Oxford University Press, 2008). P. 177
Raghad Al Saadi
Is an expert on human rights law, counterterrorism, international humanitarian law, international refugee law, women, peace and security, humanitarian assistance, peace negotiations, conflict related GBV and the rule of law. In her professional capacity, Raghad has worked with the UNOCHA-Turkey as a humanitarian access consultant on the Syrian conflict; developed strategic planning for the Ministry of Justice in Libya; a former Congressional Fellow in Washington, DC; a Board Member at Schar School of Policy and Government Alumni Leadership Chapter; a Delegate at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum (NPPF) in 2017; and a speaker at the Initiatives of Change (IofC) in Caux, Switzerland. Raghad was also a panelist at the Global Policy Dialogue on WPS in Doha, Qatar and a selected expert on climate conflict and security at the Paris Peace Forum. Ms. Al Saadi holds a Master of Laws (LLM) in Human Rights Law from Oxford Brookes University, School of Law, Oxford, UK, and a M.S. in Peace Operations Policy—Schar School of Policy and Government, GMU. A member of the American Society of International Law. Ms. Al Saadi is a publisher at IEEE-Global Humanitarian Technology Conference, and International Policy Digest.
Raghad Al Saadi
Principal
Polar Lights Prime, LLC.
raghad@polarlightsprimellc.com