Using Orwellian language to attack Israel
George Orwell introduced 'Newspeak' - a fictional language designed to limit critical thinking.
In his novel, ‘1984’, George Orwell introduced ‘Newspeak’ – a fictional language which was designed to limit critical thinking by changing the meaning of words and phrases.
75 years later, this practice is used extensively to shape our understanding of everything from gender (where language now overrules biology) to freedom of expression (where ‘free speech’ is now portrayed as ‘hate speech’) – so it’s hardly surprising that it’s also prevalent in matters relating to Israel and the Jewish people and that Govts, pro-Hamas activists, the UN, and the media all routinely used it to contort language to mean exactly the opposite of what you would expect it to mean.
Here are some examples that would be humorous if they weren’t also true:
1: UN DEFINITIONS
Palestinian Refugee: A descendant of Palestinian refugees.
Refugee camps: Modern towns and cities where the descendants of Palestinian refugees live.
Jewish refugees: Occupiers.
Human rights violations: anything done by Israel.
Self-determination: The right of all peoples to self-government except Jews, Kurds, the Taiwanese and Tibetans.
US veto: The Jewish lobby.
Genocide: What Israel is committing when it eliminates terrorists.
2. HISTORY
Canaanites and Philistines: The ancestors of the Palestinians.
Jesus: A Palestinian
Adam and Eve: The first Palestinians.
Colonialism: The re-establishment of a Jewish state in 1948, by descendants of the original Jewish inhabitants.
Paradise: The land prior to the re-establishment of Israel.
3: HUMANITARIAN CATASTROPHIES
619,000 deaths in the Syrian Civil War: A detail.
220,000 deaths in the Yemen War: Irrelevant.
600,000 deaths in the Ethiopian Civil War: A statistic.
176,000 deaths in the Afghan War: Unfortunate.
Up to 30,000 deaths in Gaza (40 to 60% of them Hamas terrorists): THE. WORST. HUMANITARIAN. CRISIS. EVER.
4: TERRORISM
Hamas Terrorists: Freedom fighters.
Freedom Fighters: Victims.
Victims: People for whom no act, however barbaric, can be condemned as evil.
Rape by Hamas: Resistance.
Kidnapping by Hamas: Resistance.
Microwaving of babies by Hamas: Resistance.
Slaughtering of old people by Hamas: Resistance.
Any response by Israel: War crimes.
5. ISRAEL AND THE JEWS
Jews: People who are not indigenous to any country.
Antisemitism: Imaginary.
Zionism: a Jewish plan to control the world.
Intimidation and attacks on Jews in the west: it depends on the context.
A security fence between Egypt and Gaza: Border control.
A security fence between Israel and Gaza: Apartheid.
“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil”. Isaiah 5:20
