‘It’s terrorism, not war,’ judge tells PLO
U.S. District Judge George Daniels reaffirmed that terrorism is one thing, acts of war another. In doing so, he rejected a claim by the Palestinian Liberation Organization that attacking civilians was legitimate “military” activity.
According to an Associated Press report (“NY judge: PLO can’t disguise terror as war,” washingtonpost.com, Sept. 30, 2008), Daniels ruled that a 2004 lawsuit seeking up to $3 billion on behalf of victims and their families can go to trial. The judge “rejected the PLO’s argument that two machine-gun attacks and five bombings” in Israel between January 2001 and February 2004 were not terrorism but acts of war. The Jerusalem-area assaults “killed 33 people and wounded hundreds, including scores of U.S. citizens,” AP reported.
Daniels stressed that the definition of terrorism, a crime under international law, encompassed attacks targeting “public places — not military or government personnel or interests.” He noted that the PLO’s use of bombs on city streets, at a crowded bus stop, in a passenger-filled civilian bus and a cafeteria at Hebrew University were intended “to cause far-reaching devastation upon the masses,” revealing a “merciless capability of indiscriminately killing and maiming untold numbers in heavily populated civilians areas.”
Rejecting the Palestinian claim, the judge asserted that such actions “upon non-combative civilians, who were allegedly simply going about their everyday lives, do not constitute acts of war.” Rather, they meet the legal definition of “international terrorism.”
The suit, AP reported, was brought under the Antiterrorism Act of 1991, “which provides U.S. residents, their survivors and heirs civil remedies in U.S. courts if they are injured by international terrorism.” Judge Daniels also rejected the PLO claim it was entitled to sovereign immunity as if it were a national entity.
The court’s legal clarity should help reinforce the journalistic principle of describing actors and actions by their proper names. Terrorists are not soldiers, and terrorism is neither warfare nor legitimate “resistance.” It’s a violent crime. And terrorist are not to be camouflaged or excused by their self-descriptions or apologias — militants, fighters, martyrs and so on — but accurately labeled as criminals. That the AP dispatch appeared on washingtonpost.com may be ironic, The Post commonly avoiding both the legal and journalistic definition of terrorism in reporting such acts by Arabs against Israelis, but it is regardless a valuable reminder. — RS
More from SNAPSHOTS
Reuters Falsely Links Jerusalem Embassy, Two-State Solution
January 9, 2019
The Jerusalem office park which houses Guatemala's embassy Multiple recent Reuters articles incorrectly report that moving the Brazilian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is a dramatic move away from the two-state solution. For instance, [...]
American Lutheran In Jerusalem Affirms that IDF Soldiers Are “Stormtroopers,” Backtracks
December 19, 2018
Rev. Carrie Ballenger Smith is a pastor at the Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem. She ministers to the English-speaking congregation that meets at the Lutheran church, which is located in the Old City of [...]
The Washington Post Ignores Antisemitic Attack in Los Angeles
November 29, 2018
The Washington Post has warned about a “rising tide of antisemitism.” But as CAMERA has highlighted, The Post’s coverage of antisemitism has frequently been selective and is often politicized. More recently, the newspaper even ignored [...]
Think Tank: Iran Was Closer to Building a Bomb Than Previously Thought
November 23, 2018
A Nov. 20, 2018 report by a Washington D.C.-based think tank, the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) argues that Iran’s illegal nuclear weapons program was “more advanced than Western intelligence agencies and the [...]
AFP Headline Casts Palestinian Assailant as Victim
November 21, 2018
Agence France Presse yesterday published a throwback headline, bringing us back to the period almost two years ago in which media outlets serially produced headlines which depicted Palestinian attackers as the victims. The wire agency's [...]
More Hypocrisy and Anti-Semitism From Linda Sarsour
November 19, 2018
In an earlier CAMERA exposé, we pointed out the self-serving allegiances and disgraceful hypocrisy of Linda Sarsour (of Women's March fame). We demonstrated how she poses as a universal activist who embraces all marginalized people [...]
Small Steps: Improved NY Times Language on Target of Hamas Rockets
November 15, 2018
Earlier this week, we pointed out how a New York Times article about fighting between Israel and Hamas neglected to inform readers that Palestinian rockets were fired indiscriminately toward civilians in Israeli towns and cities. [...]