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A Guide to the Palestinian Lexicon

(Gatestone Institute) Khaled Abu Toameh - More than two decades after the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction and the Palestinian Authority (PA) still find it difficult to mention the name Israel. Since its creation in 1994, the PA's official policy (in Arabic) has been to refer to Israel as "the Other Side." Palestinian officials who maintain daily contact with their Israeli counterparts regularly refrain from uttering the names Israel or IDF, while the Palestinian media and representatives of the PA, in their statements (in Arabic), refer to Israel as the "Government of Occupation." The prime minister of Israel, regardless of his identity or political affiliation, is often called the "Prime Minister of Occupation," while the Israeli defense minister is often referred to as the "Minister of War" and the IDF is the "Occupation Forces." Palestinian officials and media outlets regularly refer to the Arab citizens of Israel as "the Arabs of the Inside" - implying that the "inside" is actually an internal part of "Palestine." Palestinian leaders have failed to prepare their people for peace with Israel. The terminology adopted by these leaders and a growing number of Palestinians is a clear sign that they continue to delegitimize Israel, depict it as an evil state, and deny its right to exist. What non-Arabic speakers hear and read from Palestinian representatives in English does not reflect the messages being relayed to Palestinians in Arabic.
2016-08-05 00:00:00
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