What Intifada Means

Quoting Bill Hewitt ’74: “PAW rightly explains that cries for ‘intifada’ are understood by many as ‘advocating the mass murder of Jewish people.’” Really?

PAW “rightly explains” based on what qualifications? Understood by many? Who are these many? The ill-informed who get their news from PAW? People who are unclear on the concept of an Arabic-English dictionary?

The literal meaning of intifada is not in dispute. It means “uprising.” Given that the multi-decade occupation of the West Bank has been designated illegal since 1967, periodic uprisings should not be a surprise.

The only support I see for mass murder of people comes from the editorial staff at PAW and Bill Hewitt.

You assign your own meaning to language so that you can paint the victims of an illegal occupation and now a full-fledged genocide as people advocating the mass murder of Jewish people. The tally as of now is 13,000 Palestinian children killed by IDF military operations, according to UNICEF. Meanwhile, Israeli politicians are calling for more killings. Some are honest enough to say they want everyone in Gaza eliminated.

Can you imagine John Knox Witherspoon jockeying rhetorically for the silencing of American citizens who object to their tax dollars being spent to support a foreign power in its efforts to slaughter an entire people living on land that legally belongs to them?