If you read the social media accounts of supposedly pro-Palestinian activists, you will often see the word “resistance” accompanied by photos of unarmed Palestinians, often with flags, standing alone against heavily armed Israeli soldiers or police.
But in Arabic, the same word nearly always means violence.
Here are the top Google Image results for the phrase “Palestinian resistance” in English:
And in Arabic:
This is reflected in rhetoric as well. To Western nations, “non-violent resistance” (which includes stone throwing and firebombs) is emphasized by Palestinian organizations to attract the :progressive: crowd, but in Arabic the expression is often “armed resistance,” which is promoted by every major Palestinian political party – from Hamas to Fatah to the PFLP and other socialist parties.
We’ve seen this kind of doubletalk before. Progressives shout “Intifada, Intifada!” and claim that it merely means a peaceful uprising; in Arabic Palestinians often threaten a “new Intifada” which invariably means one like the Second Intifada where a thousand Jews were murdered.
Similarly, the non-violent interpretation of “jihad” is emphasized to Westerners, while no one will find any objection to Palestinian Islamist terror groups using the term to exclusively mean killing Jews.
To be sure, there have been Westerners who have supported terrorism and violence as legal and legitimate, from Richard Falk to CJ Werleman. But on the public relations front, the anti-Israel crowd will mute their support for terror in English, hiding behind obfuscation to make it appear like they simply support freedom and justice.
The contradictions become apparent when they refer to Hamas and Islamic Jihad as “Palestinian resistance groups.”
The messaging is carefully massaged to give the impression of being against violence.
But their support for terror is not in doubt.
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