- The Guardian
- Issue #2075
Dear editor,
The attack on Israel, from what one observer has called “the largest open air prison in the world,” that is the virtually Israeli occupied Palestinian Gaza strip of land, has shocked us all, but for different reasons. The media response to the attack was quite surprising. In all the Western world’s media these heroic fighters have been labelled ‘TERRORISTS.’
I was struck by the striking unison of this response. It seemed to me that the text had been prepared and agreed to earlier in expectation of just such an attack. I see it as an increase in the cunning of the brainwashing people are being subjected to by a galaxy of Western nations which are in agreement on how to prepare their citizens to get their support for reactionary agendas.
And it raises questions about possible preparations to use the term more widely. Should we expect to have striking workers called terrorists?
The Greeks endured 400 years of bondage under the Ottoman Turks. They never ceased to resist. When they finally rose together to throw off the Ottoman yoke, England, France, and Russia organised support. At school we young Australians learnt that Lord Byron gave much aid to the Greek fighters. In every free country of the world the Greeks were considered heroes, not terrorists. I am of Greek heritage and have learned through song and story of their resistance and their final victory. I praise my forbears and carry that heritage through to this homeland where my mother bore me.
What a blatant disregard for human psychology and history to claim that the Palestinian people who have been living for 75 years under occupation are terrorists because they rise up in protest against the atrocious conditions forced upon them by Israel the occupying power. The evidence appears to support the charge that the aim of the overwhelming Israeli response is to force the Palestinians to leave their homeland; that is, an act of brutal, ruthless ethnic cleansing.
In my book the Palestinians are not terrorists; they are an heroic people rising up legitimately against tyranny.
