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đŸȘ” The Threshold

Israeli-organized conferences shaped the racialized terrorism narrative

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tagsja-picks, share, causal_relationships, singleton, xref, category/factual-claims
aliases@kumar_islamophobia_2012, loc. 746

4 min read

Israeli-organized conferences shaped the racialized terrorism narrative

Evidence

The conference, held in Jerusalem, was organized by the Jonathan Institute, then headed by Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu founded the institute in 1977 and named it after his younger brother Jonathan, who in Netanyahu’s words “fell in the battle against terrorism.” In his opening remarks at the conference, Netanyahu’s father Benzion sought to project Israel’s enemies—Palestinians who had taken up armed struggle for self-determination—as “terrorists” and to rally the rest of the world around the struggle against “terrorism.” The terrorist, Benzion continued, “speaks of ‘humanitarian’ and national causes, he pretends to fight for ‘freedom’ against oppression, he keeps speaking of ‘legitimate rights.’” To counter this, he argued that this terrorist actually has “no moral restraints” and “respects no code of law.” Instead, he belongs in the same camp as Nazis; “in his genocidal attitude he takes toward the societies he assails, whether it is Ireland, Lebanon, or Israel, he is an offshoot of Nazi philosophy.” — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 395 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The conference, held in Jerusalem, was organized by the Jonathan Institute, then headed by Benjamin Netanyahu. In his opening remarks at the conference, Netanyahu’s father Benzion sought to project Israel’s enemies—Palestinians who had taken up armed struggle for self-determination—as “terrorists” and to rally the rest of the world around the struggle against “terrorism.” The terrorist, Benzion continued, “speaks of ‘humanitarian’ and national causes, he pretends to fight for ‘freedom’ against oppression, he keeps speaking of ‘legitimate rights.’” To counter this, he argued that this terrorist actually has “no moral restraints” and “respects no code of law.” Instead, he belongs in the same camp as the Nazis: “In his genocidal attitude he takes toward the societies he assails, whether it is Ireland, Lebanon, or Israel, he is an offshoot of Nazi philosophy.” This equation of Arabs and later Muslims with the Nazis has a long history in Israel. 
 This conference was a response to various resolutions that were passed by the UN General Assembly that legitimated the use of armed struggle in ending colonialism and that validated Palestinian self-determination. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 453 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

In the postwar era, a new process of racialization was born, tied to US imperial ambitions in the MENA region. Scholars in the field of Arab American studies have shown that starting in the late 1960s, Arab Americans were turned into a threatening race of people. Drawing on this work, I argue that terrorist racial formation is an evolving project that goes from a focus on Arabs to include Iranians and later South Asians. It was the crisis of empire and the use of counterinsurgency methods to handle threats abroad and at home that gave rise to the global “Arab terrorist,” produced in conjunction with Israel. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 215 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

  • XREF: connects to: Postwar empire-building and the Israel partnership produced the racialized Arab terrorist category — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of
, 91; Postwar modernization theory and the Israel partnership produced the Arab terrorist race — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of
, 103; The 1984 conference fused Israeli, neocon, and Orientalist voices into a terrorism ideology — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of
, 443 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

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